Share the screen of another Mac

Make sure the Mac you want to access has Screen Sharing turned on in System Settings. See Turn Mac screen sharing on or off.

1. On your Mac, click in the Dock.

2. Type “Screen Sharing” in the search field.

3. Click the Screen Sharing icon .

The Screen Sharing app is located in the /Applications/Utilities folder.

1. Go to the Screen Sharing app on your Mac.

2. Do one of the following:

   • Click Network in the sidebar, move the pointer over the computer you want to access, then click Connect.

   • Click All Connections in the sidebar, move the pointer over the computer you want to access, then click Connect.

   • Click in the toolbar, enter a hostname or Apple Account, then click Connect.

3. If asked, enter a user name and password, then click Sign In.

4. If the Select Screen Sharing Type window is displayed, select Standard or High Performance (available on Mac computers with Apple silicon and macOS Sonoma 14 or later). If you selected High Performance, click the Display Type pop-up menu, choose one or two virtual displays, then click Continue.

After you successfully connect to another computer, the connection information is saved in All Connections to make it faster to connect to next time. See Change screen sharing connection settings.

To end a screen sharing session, choose Window > Connections, move the pointer over the active session, then click Disconnect.

You can adjust the arrangement, resolution, and color profile of each virtual display.

1. On your Mac, start a screen sharing session with another Mac on your network.

2. In the screen sharing window for the remote Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Settings, then click Displays in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)

3. If you have two virtual displays, do any of the following.

   • Click the “Use as” pop-up menu, then choose how you want to view the virtual display (main display, extended display, or mirror).

   • Click the Arrange button, then drag the virtual displays into the desired positions.

4. To set the screen resolution, do one of the following:

   • Turn on “Dynamic resolution.”

     Dynamic resolution automatically matches the size of the screen sharing window.

   • Select a display resolution.

5. To change the color profile, click the “Color profile” pop-up menu, then choose an option.

6. To automatically adjust the display to show HDR content, turn on High Dynamic Range.

You can also use the toolbar in the screen sharing window to turn Dynamic Resolution and HDR on or off.

When you’re sharing the screen of another Mac, you can set screen sharing settings to adjust the size and quality of the shared screen.

1. On your Mac, start a screen sharing session with another Mac on your network.

2. Choose Screen Sharing > Settings, then set the following options:

   • Below Display, select “Scale to fit available space” or “Show full size,” depending on how large your screen is and how much of it you want to use for the shared screen. This option changes the default behavior for when you share the screens of computers you’ve never connected to before. To change the current scale, choose View > Turn Scaling Off or View > Turn Scaling On.

   • Below Display, select a “Scroll the screen” option to determine how the screen sharing window behaves when you move the pointer. To decide which option you want, try each one by selecting it and then moving the pointer around in the window.

   • Below Quality, select “Adapt quality to network conditions” to view the shared screen more quickly, or “Show the screen at full quality” for a more detailed view of the shared screen when using Standard screen sharing. This option changes the default behavior for when you share the screens of computers you’ve never connected to before. To change the current quality, choose View > Adaptive Quality or View > Full Quality.

   • Below Blocked Users, click the “Allow screen sharing requests from” pop-up menu, then choose an option. You can allow everyone who tries to connect to your computer using an Apple Account or just your contacts.

     To block specific Apple Accounts from sending requests to share your screen or view their screen, click , enter the user’s Apple Account, then click Block. To unblock users, select them in the list and click .

When you’re sharing the screen of another Mac, your viewing options depend on your network connection and the size of the screen you’re sharing.

1. On your Mac, start a screen sharing session with another Mac on your network.

2. From the View menu, set the following options:

   • Show Tab Bar: Use this option to display or hide the tab bar.

   • Turn Scaling On or Off: With scaling on, the entire screen of the shared Mac is displayed on your screen. With scaling off, the shared screen is displayed full size, and might require you to scroll to see everything on the shared screen.

   • Turn Dynamic Resolution on or off: When dynamic resolution is on, the size of the virtual display on the Mac you are controlling matches the size of the screen sharing window. Dynamic resolution is available only when using 1 virtual display in a High Performance connection.

   • Turn High Dynamic Range on or off: High Dynamic Range (HDR) reference mode support is available only in a High Performance screen connection from a viewing Mac that has a display capable of displaying HDR content and the correct HDR preset is selected.

   • Switch to Observe Mode or Request Control Mode: In Observe mode, you can watch what’s happening on the shared screen, but you can’t control the pointer, move windows, open and close documents, or do other tasks. If you’re observing OS X 10.9 or later, you can click and hold to highlight the screen at your pointer. In Control Mode, you control the shared screen.

   • Zoom In or Zoom Out: Adjust the zoom level.

   • Adaptive Quality: Use this option if your Mac is connected to a slower network. Adaptive quality adjusts depending on network speed. Adaptive Quality is available only in a Standard connection.

   • Full Quality: Use this option if your Mac is connected to a fast network and you want full resolution. Full Quality is available only in a Standard connection.

   • Enter Full Screen: The screen sharing window expands to fill your screen. To see the toolbar and menus, move the pointer to the top of the screen.

   • Displays: If the Mac whose screen you’re sharing has more than one display, you can choose which display you want to view.

Most of the options described above are also available in the screen sharing window toolbar. To change the items shown in the toolbar, Choose View > Customize Toolbar, then drag buttons into or out of the toolbar.

When you’re sharing one computer’s screen with another computer, you can transfer information between the Clipboards of the two computers. For example, you can do any of the following:

• Copy text and images from documents on one Mac and paste them into documents on the other.

• Select and drag text and images from one Mac to the other.

• Copy a link from your web browser and paste it into a web browser on the other Mac.

• Copy text from a document on one Mac and drop it on the desktop of the other Mac to create a clipping.

1. On your Mac, start a screen sharing session with another Mac on your network.

2. Choose Edit > Use Shared Clipboard so that a checkmark appears next to the option.

When you’re sharing one computer’s screen with another computer, you can transfer files between the two computers.

1. On your Mac, start a screen sharing session with another Mac on your network.

2. Do any of the following:

   • Copy an item to the other Mac: Select a file or folder on your Mac, then drag it into the screen sharing window.

   • Copy an item to your Mac: Select a file or folder from the screen sharing window, then drag it into a folder on your Mac.