How to Screen Share on a Mac

This article teaches you how to share your Mac's screen with other users and how to mirror your Mac to your TV.

How Do I Enable Screen Sharing?

If you want to share your Mac screen so you can access it while you're away or so others can see what you're doing, you'll need first to enable the feature. Here's how to turn Mac screen sharing on.

1. Click the Apple logo on the top left of the screen.

2. Click System Preferences.

3. Click Sharing.

4. Tick the Screen Sharing box.

5. Click either All Users or Only these Users to limit which Mac users can share their screen. For many systems, you'll only need to activate the administrator account. 

   You may also wish to click Computer Settings to change whether permission is required to do so.

How to Start a Screen Sharing Session 

If you want to start viewing the screen of another Mac on the same network, the process is pretty straightforward. Here's what to do.

1. On the Mac you want to share, look up the address of the Mac. It's typically something like vnc://[IPAddress] or vnc://[Name.Domain]

2. On the Mac you wish to use to view, click Finder. 

3. Click Go > Connect to Server and enter the address of the Mac you wish to view.

4. Click Connect. 

   You may need to enter a username and password to sign in.

Does Mac Screen Sharing Work Over the Internet?

You don't need to be on the same local network to share your screen. You can also do so remotely via the internet. Here's how to do it.

1. Open Spotlight by tapping Command + Space on your keyboard.

2. Type Screen Sharing.

3. Type the Apple ID of the user's computer you wish to access.

4. Click Connect.

5. Click Connect again.

6. Once the other user allows you access, you can view or control what happens on their screen.

How to Change View Options While Sharing a Screen

Once you've set up Mac screen sharing, you can change quite a lot of the options associated with it. To do so, click the View menu. Here's a breakdown of what the options change.

• Show Tab Bar. This option either hides or displays the tab bar.
• Turn Scaling On/Off. With scaling switched on, the entire screen of the shared Mac displays on your screen. Switch it off, and the shared screen is shown full size, so you may need to scroll to see everything.
• Switch to Observe Mode/Switch to Control Mode. This alternates between solely watching what unfolds or controlling the action.
• Adaptive Quality. If your Mac runs on a slow network, this can adapt the quality to match the network speed.
• Full Quality. On a fast network, this ensures you see everything at full resolution.
• Show/Hide Toolbar. This option shows or hides the toolbar used to adjust the scale and shares the clipboard.
• Enter Full Screen. This option makes the screen sharing window switch to Full-Screen view.
• Displays. If the Mac you're viewing has multiple displays, you can switch between them this way.

How to Share Your Mac's Screen in FaceTime

Computers running macOS Monterey (12.1) and later can also share their screen during FaceTime calls. While you're on a call, click the Share Content button and then Share My Screen. While you're sharing, people on the call will only see windows and apps you navigate to; they won't see any notifications you receive. You won't be able to share apps or media that requires a subscription (for example, Netflix), but you can watch movies and listen to music together using SharePlay, which is also available in Facetime.

Other members of the call can take over sharing their screen using the same directions as above, and whoever is doing so can select Share Content again to stop.

How Do I Mirror My Mac to My TV?

The best way to mirror your Mac to your TV is by using AirPlay to do so. It only takes a few steps to mirror a laptop to a TV, providing you know where to look.