Remote desktop on macOS becomes unstable or performs poorly when used by multiple users over time.
Remote desktop on macOS becomes unstable or performs poorly when used by multiple users over time.
You're encountering issues with macOS screen sharing that feels unstable. It seems multiple users are appearing as if they're still logged in, even when they shouldn't be. There may be limits on simultaneous connections to a Mac Pro, and you'll need to manage sessions carefully to avoid conflicts. To end a specific session without affecting others, you can use the appropriate tools or commands to terminate it safely.
You're using VNC and RDP, but I'm curious about the exact protocol in use. Also, does your destination Mac have a monitor or an HDMI dummy adapter connected? I rely on VNC through a VPN tunnel for smooth access from my laptop, and with more details or logs, we can identify any issues.
TBH, I’m not sure either. It looks like you’re using VNC/ARD with KRDC for remote access, and your coworkers are connecting through KDE VNC/RDP client. I’ll ask my teammate who’s on-site, but I think they might be using it too. You’re still getting used to macOS—do you know if there’s a similar command like `journalctl`?
Kind of. There's a nice GUI app called Console.app which gives you a nice look at all the logs you need. You can use grep and other unix tools to parse logs under /var/log/ in the standard UNIX way, but Console is very nice. Either way, if it's VNC related you should be able to see some errors in system.log with screensharingd or in /var/log/com.apple.xpc.launchd/launchd.log with com.apple.screensharing.agent as the process. These two logs should get you started since system.log should be full of errors if screen sharing is causing problems, and launchd should be full of normal messages if screen share is working well. My screen share usage is always just me on my own Mac, so I don't know if there's such a thing as "too many" sessions. But I would imagine that even if there is it'll have more to do with the apps your running that anything else. Screen shares are going to be low priority processes, so it would make sense for the kernel to kill them before killing any apps (since macOS assumes that you always have easy physical access to the machine). Look in system.log for "ERR_OUT_OF_MEMORY" or other memory errors.