Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) does not pass credentials
My ARD connection to a local Mac running Tahoe (issue predated the upgrade) from Windows 11 connects fine but will not pass vault or connection specific credentials. Nothing happens. I must log in manually.
My work around is to use a typing macro to enter my password, but I cannot send an ENTER nor can I trigger automatically clicking on the continue arrow by the password field. I have to manually click the arrow.
How can I automate the authentication and connect directly to the Mac desktop?
RDM 2025.3.16.0
All Comments (2)
Hello
I'm afraid there's no way for us to automatically log you in to an Apple Remote Desktop session; it's a limitation of the protocol. It's designed to connect you to the remote "console" as though you were sitting at the physical machine (like VNC, which it is based on).
Using a typing macro would be the only workaround; but I will look into why simulating the "Enter" key doesn't work for you and get back to you on that.
In the meantime, please let me know if something isn't clear or you have further questions.
Kind regards,
Richard Markievicz
Hello
I've fixed the issue with the keyboard macro that prevented `{ENTER}` from working (this was a long-standing bug, I'm surprised it didn't come up before). I've tested it with the login screen on a Sequoia VM and it works well to simulate typing the password and pressing "Enter" to login. The only annoyance is if you have multiple user accounts on the machine, and potentially need to choose one from the list or change to a different account. Sadly, any more improvement would be impossible - while we can drive the mouse and keyboard, we cannot really know or understand the state of the login screen with Apple Remote Desktop.
This fix will be available with RDMW 2025.3.17. Once that's released, please let me know if you have further issues or questions.
Kind regards,
Richard Markievicz