Device Action: Enable and Disable Remote Desktop
The Enable Remote Desktop and Disable Remote Desktop actions allow admins to remotely turn Apple Remote Desktop on or off on supervised Mac computers. This is useful for enabling remote management access to Mac devices without requiring physical access to the machine.
Note: This is specifically the Apple Remote Desktop service - it does not apply to other remote desktop services.
Apple documentation for the Remote Desktop commands can be found here:
- Apple Developer Documentation - EnableRemoteDesktop MDM Command
- Apple Developer Documentation - DisableRemoteDesktop MDM Command
- Apple Remote Desktop User Guide - Enable remote management for Remote Desktop
Supported platforms
These actions are available for supervised macOS devices running macOS 10.14.4 or later. The device must be enrolled via device enrollment (not User Enrollment). These actions are not available for iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, or visionOS.
How to enable or disable Remote Desktop
- In SimpleMDM, navigate to the device's Device Details page.
- Click the "Actions" menu.
- Select "Enable Remote Desktop" or "Disable Remote Desktop" (the option shown depends on the device's current state).
- Confirm the action when prompted.
These actions can also be used as bulk actions from the Devices list to enable or disable Remote Desktop on multiple devices at once.
What these actions do
Enable Remote Desktop
Enabling Remote Desktop turns on the following capabilities on the Mac:
- Remote Desktop with All Users access
- The ability to receive remote events
- The Observe, Control, and Show being Observed options
All other Remote Desktop options remain unchanged.
Disable Remote Desktop
Disabling Remote Desktop turns off Remote Desktop on the Mac and prevents any further remote event processing. It also removes any PostEvent Transparency Consent and Control (TCC) ability, unless the device already has an installed TCC configuration profile with that ability enabled.
Enabling Remote Desktop during enrollment
Remote Desktop can also be configured to enable automatically when a device enrolls. This option is available in the enrollment code settings, allowing newly enrolled Mac devices to have Remote Desktop turned on without any additional manual steps.
Notes
- This action requires the device to be supervised. The Remote Desktop options will not appear for unsupervised devices.
- If Remote Desktop is already in the desired state (e.g., already enabled when you select Enable), the command will not be sent.
