Overview
LiveDesktop is a service that relies on Apple's native Remote Management framework for macOS, which is what allows us to remotely establish screen sharing sessions with devices.
Connection to endpoints via Windows is supported with LiveDesktop, but this article will only focus on macOS-specific issues.
The issues faced with LiveDesktop can be quite ambiguous, and this article aims to address the most common issues as well as cover some general steps to help troubleshoot and diagnose further.
Problem: "Connection Failed. Screen Sharing is not permitted on 'tunnel.addigy.com'..." / Enabling Remote Management
This error typically means that the Remote Management setting is not currently accessible on the device you are connecting to. This could be due to it being disabled, but this error has been seen to occur even when it is enabled.
For the first remediation step, it's recommended that you simply disable and re-enable Remote Desktop (aka Remote Management), which can be done via Addigy (requires MDM). If it is not enabled, continue forward to the next paragraph for steps on how to enable it.
To enable and disable Remote Desktop, simply navigate to the Devices page, GoLive on the device with the issue, select Device Commands, and choose Disable/Enable Remote Desktop. The Disable/Enable text will vary depending on the current state of the Remote Management setting on the device. In the below case, it says "Disable" because it is currently enabled on the device.
Note: Disabling and Enabling Remote Desktop requires the device to have Addigy's MDM approved and enabled. If your device does not have MDM approved and enabled, Remote Management will not be enabled and will prevent you from connecting via LiveDesktop.
Problem: "Connection failed to 'tunnel.addigy.com'. The software on the remote computer appears to be incompatible with this version of Screen Sharing"
This is by and large the most ambiguous error that the Screen Sharing app will throw. There are quite a few things that can cause this error, so we will try to cover what we can.
Network interferences
Various things like VPNs, proxies, or firewalls can interfere with the connection process and potentially block the connection.
The first thing is that we recommend you whitelist our domains and ports for LiveDesktop. To note, you will want to whitelist our URLs and ports on both the endpoint and the admin device (the device you are connecting from).
In the case of a VPN, depending on how it is routing traffic, it may be interfering with our IP assignment workflow.
When a connection for LiveDesktop is initiated in Addigy, we capture the Public IP of the admin that began the session. Once you reach the Screen Sharing app, the IP is authenticated to ensure it is the same one that initiated the session. If the VPN is changing the IP when the Screen Sharing authentication process occurs, the connection will be refused.
For example, let's say you have a VPN enabled and it provides IP 12345 to Addigy. Once you get to the Screen Sharing authentication, the VPN gives IP 54321. Since the IPs differ, the connection will be refused.
Application Interferences
Similarly to the above, things like antiviruses and antimalware can also interfere. Be sure to verify what your specific security tool is capable of. For example, if it has Firewall capabilities or network filtering of any sort, it could potentially block LiveDesktop.
The easiest way to test if these are interfering is to temporarily disable them, if at all possible.
Local Settings
When this error occurs, we have sometimes seen the behavior improve when "Limit IP address tracking" is disabled on the admin device. This can be disabled in System Settings > WiFi > 3 dots > Network Settings > Limit IP address tracking.
If none of the steps covered in this section of the article help, continue on to the General Troubleshooting/Diagnostics Checklist section.
Problem: "Network Error"
This is an error that occurs within the Addigy web portal. When this error occurs, you will just need to log out of Addigy and log back in.
If this does not help, the next best thing to try would be testing from a separate web browser.
General Troubleshooting/Diagnostics Checklist
This section aims to provide some general steps that you can take to troubleshoot and diagnose your LiveDesktop issues further.
If you can connect but the session keeps dropping while connected:
If the connection is consistently dropping, something is likely disabling Remote Management while you are connected to the device. These are two things in Addigy that are known to disable Remote Management:
- Compliance (specifically the "Disable Remote Management" rule)
- Monitoring items (if configured to do so)
Outside of Remote Management, the session will automatically expire after 10 minutes only when requesting permission to connect. This is determined by Apple, which we are not able to control.
If the session never connects:
Is the connection hanging and then giving an error?
If the initial connection in the Screen Sharing app hangs and then errors out, that typically means the connection is failing to reach the endpoint (user's) device.
To troubleshoot this, it would be recommended to:
- Place the endpoint on a hotspot (or a different, neutral network)
- If no improvement, place your device on a hotspot
- See if the connection can be made to the endpoint from a different admin device
Is the connection immediately failing in Screen Sharing?
An immediate error typically means the connection is getting refused by something. View the above section for further information.
Conclusion
We hope that the steps outlined in this article helped troubleshoot the issues you are encountering with LiveDesktop.
If these steps did not help, please create a ticket with our support team and provide answers to the following questions:
- Where is the issue happening? In Addigy or the Screen Sharing app?
- If there is an error, please attach a screenshot of such.
- What is the exact behavior when connecting? Does the connection hang or does it immediately error out?
- Are other people outside of your network able to connect to this device?
- Are you able to connect to other devices, or are you unable to connect to every device?
- Is your device or the endpoint using anything that could block LiveDesktop? Things like a VPN, proxy, firewall, antimalware, antivirus, etc...