0

What I am trying to do

I have a Mac Mini in my office and am trying to remotely access it from home using my Macbook Air. When Mac Mini is always turned on and logged on, it is not a problem because I can use a VPN that uses my office network (Eduroam - if you are familiar with university wifi).

Problem 1

But when my Mac Mini restarts after a power failure, it requires a log-in before connecting to Wifi. At this log-in stage, because my Mac Mini and my VPN-connected Macbook Air are not on the same network, I cannot use the screen-sharing function. For screen sharing, I am referring to the YouTube video "Remotely Control Any  Mac With Screen Sharing!🔥Remote Mac Desktop with Remote Mac Access!" What are your thoughts on working around this problem?

Problem 2

Without using screen sharing, I tried to follow How to Access and Control Your Mac Remotely from Any Device using the network. However, my Mac Mini is not listed in the Network view. What do you think the problem is?

Improve this question
9
  • 1
    If your Mac is not connected to WiFi because it needs a password, you’re not going to get around that problem, especially remotely. Can you connect it to wired Ethernet instead? How about getting a UPS to mitigate power outages?
    – Allan
    Apr 5 at 14:53
  • 1
    Please note that this site works best with focus being on one issue per question. That said, “Problem 2” is directly related to not being authenticated to the network; same as problem 1
    – Allan
    Apr 5 at 14:55
  • 1
    Remote login is SSH (Remote Terminal)
    – Allan
    Apr 5 at 15:44
  • 1
    "requires a log-in before connecting to Wifi" You mean it requires credentials for the WiFi, or it requires a user to first physically login to the Mac itself?
    – Tetsujin
    Apr 5 at 16:15
  • 1
    Then you could set the Mac to auto-login, with a one minute drop to protected screen-saver.
    – Tetsujin
    Apr 6 at 17:02

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
0

… when my Mac mini restarts after a power failure, it requires a log-in before connecting to WiFi

If the device is not connected to a network, you won’t be able to connect to it regardless of the service. There are two things you can do to address this:

  • Connect to Ethernet. This is a more reliable connection and shouldn’t require password authentication. However, it may require your IT department to activate the port or install a certificate on your computer.
  • Get a UPS. You should have this anyway; protecting your computer from bad power is critical, but ensuring your computer doesn’t disconnect from WiFi during a power outage should mitigate the authentication issue
Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    Update: I ended up using VNC viewer from RealVNC! Using VNC viewer. I am not sure how it works exactly, but I could log in directly as long as my Mac mini was on. Plus, I set the Mac mini to restart automatically after power failure. I will still consider using UPS to protect my machine.
    – J.K.
    Apr 10 at 17:49
  • Glad you got it sorted! I definitely encourage the use of a UPS; it's super cheap insurance!
    – Allan
    Apr 10 at 18:21
0

One or more of your problems might be due to active FileVault on your Mac Mini.

When FileVault is active, a local login is required to decrypt the boot disk and start macOS. Before the local login, the computer won't be accessible via Remote Desktop.

So unless you have a reason why you need FileVault, I recommend disabling it. After that, you should be able to remotely login even after a reboot.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .