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.

Apple Remote Desktop High Performance Screen Sharing Type Issues

I seem to have run into an artificially created fork in the road for Apple Remote Desktop on MacOS Sonoma.


The players:


M2 Pro Mac Mini (connecting Mac) running Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) w/ a 38" ultra-wide LG monitor

M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14" (remoted into Mac) w/ AirPods Max connected via Bluetooth


The problem:


Prior to Sonoma, I was able to connect to my remote Mac (the M1 Pro MacBook) and use the native resolution of the monitor on my connecting Mac (the M2 Pro Mac Mini) in the ARD window. Now it seems that I can no longer do that without setting the screen sharing type to High Performance in Apple Remote Desktop on the connecting Mac.


The problem is that when the high performance type is selected, the audio stream is lost on my Airpods Max. They show as connected to the remote Mac still, but they produce no sound. This kills my workflow, as meetings are hosted from the remote Mac that utilize the headset.


If I change high performance type to standard type in ARD, the sounds works again. However, I am limited to just 1080p resolution again, so I can't fill out my monitor.


It seem to me as if ARD in high performance mode is capturing the audio, so it's not being sent to the headset correctly. I can't find a way to get both functional audio and a high resolution screen output.


Am I really meant to have to choose between functional accessories and proper screen resolution? If so, I definitely regret upgrading to Sonoma and am considering a wipe & reinstall to MacOS Ventura to restore my workflow.


Any help avoiding a reinstall would be greatly appreciated!

Posted on Feb 13, 2024 2:49 PM

Reply

Similar questions

2 replies

Feb 21, 2024 2:16 PM in response to tprimen

This has been affecting me too since this feature was added to ARD in macOS Sonoma.


I have just observed in my audio routing setup (I use a mixer to hear multiple devices on the same speakers) having my "remote" Mac connected to the 3.5mm headphone jack causes noise and audio glitches when the connection is set to the "High Performance" mode and the connection is started.


(I did also notice that changing the display resolutions did cause some change, some very bad, some less bad but still bad. So I have a suspicion that this is somehow related to the video signal getting mixed up with audio.)


I notice that unplugging the headphone cable during the established connection makes no change to the noise, but if I disconnect and reconnect while the cable is unplugged, the noise does not return, and audio plays clear. I can reconnect the 3.5mm cable and the audio remains clear (although, due to the nature of the remote Mac's audio being routed via ARD High Performance, it does not show on the mixer channel I use for my work computer).


Now, to the point of audio calls. macOS Sonoma added a feature called "Voice Isolation" to the OS whenever the microphone and/or camera are enabled. An orange or green item will appear in the menubar to enable features of the microphone and camera (including gesture based effects also available in iOS 17's control center). While the built-in microphone on the MacBook Pro is inferior to the noise canceling mic in my AirPods Max, my work colleagues cannot hear room noise (AC, fans, my clicky mechanical keyboard) when I have "Voice Isolation" enabled.


This feature might need to be enabled per call-type (voice, camera), and perhaps per application (teams, slack, zoom, etc), so do check from time to time that your settings appear correct occasionally.


In this way, I can make a call from the work MacBook Pro in High Performance mode, where the microphone is set to the built-in mic with "voice isolation" enabled on the work computer, my AirPods Max are connected to my personal laptop (the one running ARD and is the "client" of the screen sharing session), and I can hear and speak clearly with my team.


(Also from my side note above, I discovered the Settings > Display option "Dynamic Resolution" allowed the remote computer (16:10 ratio) to fill my 4k Dell display (16:9 ratio) without black bars on the side for once. Although the setting is unset on the next connection, sigh. Would be nice to have that set from the "client" connection.)

Apple Remote Desktop High Performance Screen Sharing Type Issues

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