You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Remote Management user keeps disappearing

In macOS Sonoma I activated Remote Management in System Settings/Sharing and added a user in 'Allow access for'. Selected the option 'Only these users' and gave this user all 'Options' available. Every time I close System Settings and open it again this user has disappeared. I cannot control the device from Apple Remote Desktop. It always tells me 'Access Denied'. If I try 'All users' it works. I tried deleting plist files from Library and user/Library but I cannot find a solution. Every time I add a user it disappears when I reopen the Remote Management settings. On 15 other devices I do not have this problem.

Posted on Apr 18, 2024 6:53 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 15, 2024 12:37 PM

[SOLVED! For me, anyway]

@Kaelonius is right, but I had to use more than one command to fix whatever may have been borked by the GUI.


This fixed the authentication failure (overkill with privs all, but I wanted my last remaining user to have all anyway, so continue and bear with me):

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -configure -access -on -allowAccessFor -allUsers -privs -all


After that worked and I could actually not just add the new Sonoma iMac but also connect and control it with all users, this then removed privs for each user to be removed (replace user1,user2... with a comma-separated, no-space list of relevant users):

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -configure -users user1,user2... -access -off -privs -none


Then, once privs were gone for all but the one user, this command allows access only for the one user left with privs (all in my case):

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -configure -allowAccessFor -specifiedUsers


Finally, and good grief! I can now control this one remotely and as intended.

NOTE: Can we please stop the unquestioned annual macOS releases and forced 3-year EOL and get back to responsible and less bug-prone development, even if a little slower, please?

Similar questions

20 replies

May 28, 2024 4:29 PM in response to alogs

I have a theory. I haven’t had a chance to test it yet. I was able to get it working using the all users selection.


I am guessing that a mac with either all admin accounts or just a single admin account locally on the computer won’t allow you bar another administrator account from ARD.


my theory is that the moment you add a standard local user it will allow you to select specific users and will retain that setting.


you can’t bar an admin from having full access to everything so having a setting that would restrict a root enabled user simply can’t happen.


but again this is just a theory. I would need to create a standard user and test this out.

Jun 6, 2024 5:07 PM in response to Kaelonius

Nope.

Same authentication failed as before, and, yes, even with the exact same user credentials that allowed it to be (re)added in the first place. This is hardcore broken! Apple needs to get back to eating its own dog food, b/c right now, it's more like Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co. and/or Suzhou Textiles, Silk, Light Industrial Products, Arts and Crafts I/E Co. and/or Chemnutra Inc...

Jul 15, 2024 7:28 AM in response to HarmonyFarmSupplyIT

This worked for me, thank you very much. I actually like this way better than using "Remote Management". We have around 100 Macs on our Windows domain, so using the Directory Utility I added our AD Tech Support group to the "Allow administration by" groups under the "Administrative" tab. We create a local "Administrator" account at first power on (or after a wipe and reload) that shows in the list "Allow access for" as "Administrator". After adding our AD group to the Administrators list in the Directory Utility there is a second in the list that shows as "Administrators". Using Administrators vs. Administrator allows my techs to share screens using their own credentials. I don't know if this makes sense to anyone else, but it worked for me.

Remote Management user keeps disappearing

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.