Connect to and leave a remote desktop

This page covers opening a remote desktop, entering a password when one is needed, what the status messages mean, how to reconnect, giving a desktop window its own settings, and closing a session.

Connect#

1. Select the host in the library.
2. Choose Connect (play) on the Desktop service row.

On Apple Vision Pro, Mac and iPad, the desktop opens in a window of its own. Choosing Connect again for a desktop that is already open brings its window forward.

On Mac, a host with a Screen Sharing (VNC) desktop also lists Screen Sharing under Services: it opens the desktop in the Mac's own Screen Sharing app instead. That app signs in on its own; no user name or password is passed to it.

On iPhone: the desktop covers the library. Choose the back chevron (Connections) to close it and return to the library.

While the session starts, the window shows Connecting…, then Waiting for desktop… until the first image arrives, then Connected. If it has signed in but no image comes, Reconnect appears under the spinner. On Mac and iPad the bar at the bottom of the window shows the status and the size of the picture this window is sent, for example 1920 × 1080. On iPhone, and in a narrow iPad window, the bar is one line and leaves out the size.

Enter a password when asked#

If there is no saved password, or it cannot be used, a Connect to sheet opens with the service's name.

1. Check Username (RDP) or Mac user name (optional) (VNC). For a VNC server that uses only a password, leave the name blank; the password field is then labeled VNC password.
2. Enter Password.
3. Turn on Save in Keychain to keep the name and password for next time.
4. Choose Connect.

An RDP connection uses the Domain saved in the service. To change the domain, edit the service. See Add a remote desktop.

To enter a different account at any time the session is not connected, choose Enter Credentials in the middle of the window. If you cancel the Connect to sheet, the window shows Disconnected, with Reconnect and Enter Credentials.

When a connection fails#

If the desktop cannot be opened, the window shows Unable to Connect. If an open desktop fails, for example because the network stopped answering or the picture couldn't be read, it shows Connection Lost. Both offer:

• Reconnect — tries again with the saved password.
• Close — ends the session and closes the window.
• Enter Credentials — opens the Connect to sheet.
• Technical Details — the server's or the network's own message, which you can select and copy.

A problem that does not end the session, such as a key the server cannot accept, appears in a strip below the desktop. Choose Dismiss (the x) to hide it.

If a certificate needs checking first, you see Verify Remote Computer instead. See Sign in and trust a remote computer.

Give a desktop window its own settings#

Anything about how a desktop window looks and behaves can be set for that window alone: a see-through window for one computer and an opaque one for another, or a different Detail for each. Choose Settings (gear) in the desktop window to open Desktop Settings: it opens on This Window. All Desktops, beside it, is the same page as Settings > Desktops and changes every desktop window on this device. On iPad and iPhone, choose This Window or All Desktops from the list.

This Window has:

• Appearance (on Mac and Apple Vision Pro): Opacity and Glass. See Remote desktops on Apple Vision Pro.
• Background Removal: Presentation, with Background Color, Tolerance and Edge Softness, and Show Original, which shows this window's complete desktop image, opaque, in one step. See Remove the remote desktop's background.
• Remote Desktop: Detail (RDP), and Keep Display Proportions (on Mac and Apple Vision Pro). See Resolution, scaling and zoom and Keep a window in its display's shape.
• Touch (on iPad and iPhone): Pointer. See Keyboard, pointer, clipboard and audio.

For Screen Sharing (VNC), and for any computer with several displays, a third page sits between them: Connection, with Quality, Retina Displays, Mac Screen Sharing and what the network carries now, the desktop's Windows and what each is sent, and Display Windows. These belong to the desktop's connection rather than to one window, so every window of the desktop shows and changes the same ones. See Several displays, Quality and the network, Retina displays from a Mac and High Performance from a Mac.

Each setting follows All Desktops until you change it here. Once you do, a small ↺ appears beside its name; choose it to follow again. Its tooltip says what it returns to: hold the pointer over it, or on Vision Pro look at it. Reset This Window, at the end, returns every one. Only this window changes, at once.

A desktop's window keeps its own settings on this device. Desktop windows are not reopened when you quit the app, but the next time you connect to the same desktop here, its window has them again. A display's window keeps its own too, for that display. They are not synced to your other devices, and removing the desktop removes them all.

This Window also holds this session's own controls, which start over each time the desktop opens: Match Window Size, the display shown, Desktop Resolution and Local Scale. Remove Wallpaper and its image also last only for the session.

Some settings are only ever the desktop's, or this device's. The account, password, domain, authentication, certificate, Desktop size, Share clipboard and Remote audio belong to the service: edit it in the library, and the change applies the next time the desktop connects. Important Session Notices, in Settings > Desktops, is for every desktop on this device. It is off unless you turn it on; on, a desktop that fails posts a notification, Remote Desktop Interrupted, which names no host, account or server details.

Leave a session#

• On Apple Vision Pro, Mac and iPad: close the desktop's window. The session ends. If its displays are in windows of their own, it ends when the last of them closes; until then Connect brings the desktop's window back onto the same connection.
• On iPhone: choose the back chevron.
• When the connection closes after the desktop has appeared, because you signed out or because the remote computer or the network closed it, the window closes by itself. Connect again from the library.

You can also see and close every open desktop from the ⚡ Active list, where each desktop shows RDP or VNC, followed by its status when it is not connected. On iPhone, the ⚡ button is in the desktop's toolbar.

When the app moves to the background, the desktop window loses focus, a sheet or Settings opens over it, or a Mac goes to sleep, keys and mouse buttons you were holding are released on the remote computer, so nothing stays pressed.