macOS

Remote Desktop onto iOS (Almost)

Nick Turner

• 1 min read

Intended Audience

Anybody attempting to remotely assist an iPhone or iPad user.

Resolution

Establish a remote desktop connection to a Mac

Plug the iDevice that requires remote assistance into the Mac via USB cable

Launch QuickTime Player on the MacGo to File > New Movie Recording

Click on the Drop-down arrow to the right of the record button
From here you may select your iDevice as a video source
Click on the Drop-down arrow to the right of the record button, from here you may select your iDevice as a video source
You can now see screen of the iDevice and offer assistance!

You can now see screen of the iDevice and offer assistance!

Things to be aware of

  • When you mirror an iDevice in this way:The "Carrier Name" will be hidden (if a cellular iDevice)
  • 5 of 5 cellular signal strength dots will be displayed (regardless if cellular or not)
  • Time will show as 09:41
  • Battery charge will show 100%

This totally threw me as I was writing this post. Apparently, this is intentional?

To reduce distraction when capturing iOS screencasts.

Back Story

For My sins, I often find myself remotely supporting family members with technical queries.

With MacBook Pros, I use Apple Screen Sharing whenever possible, when this refuses to function I switch to TeamViewer. Until recently I struggled when the assistance was required on an iOS device.

While researching how to take screenshots on an Apple TV I discovered that QuickTime on macOS provided a way to share the screen of a device running iOS!

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