Help: Troubleshooting
No picture, a black screen, permissions lost after an update, firewalls and relays, slow connections and diagnostics.
“This ID is not online”
ShareDesk isn't running on the other computer, or it has no internet connection. Ask the customer to open ShareDesk; for computers you reach unattended, let ShareDesk start at login and keep running in the menu bar. A sleeping computer can be woken with Wake Up in the address book when another computer of its network is online.
No picture
If the request is refused because the remote computer hasn't allowed screen recording, the customer turns on Screen Recording for ShareDesk. You don't need to reconnect: the picture appears as soon as it is allowed. If ShareDesk reports that the remote computer could not start screen sharing, ask the customer to quit and reopen ShareDesk, then connect again.
A black screen
- The customer hid the screen (Hide Screen in the banner, for example to type a password): you see a note, and mouse and keyboard pause until they show it again.
- Screen Recording was only just allowed: ShareDesk restarts the picture by itself. If it stays black, ShareDesk on the customer's Mac offers Restart in its permissions window.
- The Mac is at the login window: you need its unattended password and access at the login window.
- Privacy mode blacks out only the customer's monitor; you still see the screen.
Permissions lost after an update
After an update of macOS (and sometimes of ShareDesk), macOS can stop applying a permission even though its switch still looks on. ShareDesk notices: the shield in the main window turns orange and the box Permissions needed appears.
- Click Set Up… in ShareDesk and Allow… next to the missing permission.
- In System Settings, turn the switch for ShareDesk off and on again. If that doesn't help, select ShareDesk in the list, remove it with –, and click Allow… in ShareDesk again to add it back.
- Come back to ShareDesk; if it still shows the permission as missing, click Restart.
Firewalls and relays
ShareDesk only makes outgoing connections: no port forwarding and no incoming ports, on either side. Whenever possible, the two computers connect directly. When a network doesn't allow that, the session goes through a relay automatically; it only passes on encrypted data. To see which way a session takes, choose Display › Show Connection Statistics: the first line says Direct (LAN), Direct (peer-to-peer) or Relay via server.
If ShareDesk can't connect at all in a company network, ask the network administrator to allow outgoing connections to sharedesk.app and api.sharedesk.app, and, while older ShareDesk versions are still in use, to sharedesk.marketvision.ch.
A slow connection
ShareDesk adapts to the line by itself. On a very slow or busy connection, you can help it in the session's Display menu:
- Quality › Lowest latency keeps the picture moving.
- Colors: fewer colours or Grayscale need far less data.
- Resolution › Standard instead of Retina.
- Sharp Text (Mac to Mac) keeps text crisp, even on slow lines.
Wi-Fi far from the router, video calls and large uploads on the same line slow every session down.
The request is refused
- The remote user dismissed the request – or didn't answer within 60 seconds. Ask again.
- Wrong password: after five wrong passwords or codes, the ID is locked for ten minutes.
- Not accepted from you: the remote Mac only accepts IDs on its allow list, or has blocked yours (Settings… › Access on that Mac).
Send a diagnostics report
Choose Help › Send Diagnostics…. ShareDesk sends its log of the last 30 minutes, recent crash reports and basic facts about the Mac (model, macOS version, permissions) – no files, passwords or screen contents – and copies a reference to the clipboard. Send us the reference at support@sharedesk.ch. During a session, technicians can fetch the report of the remote Mac with Actions › Get Diagnostics from Remote Mac.