Please note that Screens 4 is no longer available and has been replaced by Screens 5, a universal app for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro.
Keep your Mac Turned On
Make sure your Mac or MacBook is connected to a power source and turned on or it will not be able to wake up for incoming connections.
When plugged into a power source, your Apple laptop can be in clamshell mode and it will still respond to connection requests.
Enable Wake for Network Access
On the Mac you wish to connect to:
macOS 13 Ventura or later
- Click this link to open System Settings.
- Select Battery or Power Adapter, depending if your Mac is a laptop or a desktop
- Select Options…
- Under Wake for network access, select Always
macOS 12 Monterey or earlier
- Click this link to open System Preferences.
- Select Energy Saver
- Select Power Adapter if present
- Turn on Wake for network access
Possible Issues and Workarounds
Some factors can prevent incoming connections to get through:
FileVault and Screen Savers
Your Mac's FileVault feature could prevent you to connect to your Mac, especially if you find that a user must physically log into the Mac before Screens can connect:
“To ensure security when you turn on FileVault, other security features are also turned on. For example, when you turn on FileVault, you need a password to log in when your Mac is in sleep, or after leaving the screen saver.”
There are a couple of work-arounds available to you:
- Disable FileVault (not recommended)
- Restart the remote Mac with the following Terminal command to bypass the start-up authentication required by FileVault:
sudo fdesetup authrestart - Disable the screen saver or the password requirement
Reinstall ARD
It is also a known issue that ARD may cause connection issues in some circumstances. The solution for this is to re-install ARD, as mentioned in this thread:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8354421
The latest of Remote Desktop is available here.
Get Help from Apple
You can consult these articles from Apple in order to solve wake issues: