Apple Remote Desktop App Reviews

3.6 was a wesome. It worked great and it was incredibly useful in my lab. I work at a school so the ability to send files, mirror and manage computers was amazing. It worked greate for a year, totally worth the $80 investment. And then… 3.7 came out. Turned the program basically useless. As others have noted, iP addresses flickr and some type of code replaces DNS names. Computers are listed as “Authenticating" or “offline". I can still Obesrve them and in some cases take control of the client computers, but the names are all scrambled. Different computers show the same IP address. Note that I made absolutely no changes to the labs, the internet service, the router or the computers themselves. Just updated to ARD 3.7.1. Can’t find anythign in the support forums except multiple people with the same complaint.

This program was nice a few versions back, but recently it doesnt work AT ALL. I have been using it to control computers on my local network, but recently that isnt possible. The mouse does not work between screens, there is a 45 second delay even on a local gigabit wired network and the mouse alignment is always off by a couple hundred pixels making it impossible to control th other machine. Do not buy this, its worthless and doesnt work at all APPLE FIX THIS

ARD seems to work great for me. I manage around 50 computers on a single subnet over a gigabit connection. It even seems to work fine over wireless connections. I think the issues people are running into are with firewalls on the macs in question. I noticed similar problems on iMacs that had their local firewalls enabled. I do notice some bugs in IP address and DNS listing, but for me, I have multiple ways to identify each machine so it doesn’t bother me. Mind you, it should be fixed and thus I knocked a star off the rating. Overall this is a really useful tool and works on all Macs out of the box. No separate software installs, no set up other than flipping Remote Management on.

This application worked amazingly up until 3.7 entered my life. I work in an enterprise atmosphere, and this application is useless now. IP addresses flicker, and every single device on my network apparently has the same DNS name. Even when I search for a specific IP address, one that I know exists and hosts my Time Machine server (for example), ARD cannot find the IP address or shows me an IP address for a completely different and random device. Also, either one of my offices have about 20+ Mac computers in it at once, yet ARD hasn’t been able to show me more than 10 at a time (also seemingly randomized). Luckily I still have 3.6 on my home computer for when I aboslutely NEED to use the program. All I have to do is VPN into my network to VNC into my computer to open a virtual machine to VPN back into my office to use a version of ARD that isn’t broken. Good for Apple. Way to botch it up.

Ever since updating to 3.7 I have been unable to access any remote machines. If you will only be accessesing machines on your local subnet, and not across vlans or vpns, then it may work for you. This is not the first time this application has been broken and then fixed several months after the fact. Still waiting on the the fix this time.

The app doesn’t work anymore and Apple doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to fix it. I don’t have any firewalls on whatsoever….

2 years ago when i was using ARD 3.6.2, it worked pretty amazingly. I had 60 macs deployed and ARD helped ALOT with management and support for my colleagues. Now, i have 130 macs deployed and im on ARD 3.7.1. This is the worst ever. Since ARD 3.7 really. Macs have a hard time staying on my client list! sometimes i see 130 computers, sometimes i see 102 computers. It’s so horrible now that i’m loosing effective IT support for my colleagues, without the main ability to “screen control (works half the time)”, “software deployment (never works anymore)” and some macs even renames itself (intermittently). So much confusion. So much incoherency that i can’t plan upgrades, deployments or anything! Only thing i can do now is “copy files” which works the best. Other things, such as app crashing atleast once a week, inability to run reports, and inability to detect macs on network is greatly annoying. I know this is a pretty cheap tool for mac management compared to alot of others. I’m hesitant to move over to others as i prefer getting support from Apple native apps. But with other’s offering PC/Mac/Mobile management, i’m likely to move over once we hit 200 employees if Apple does not finally set more focus on Enteprise support. IMO, trendlines are seeing greater adoption of macs in enterprises, Apple. Please buckle up your game in this vertical and you will be the top dog in both Consumer and Enterprise. If that’s where your business is heading. Otherwise, don’t bother coming up with ARD, Mac Pros, OSX Server. I chose you because i thought you were reliable (and you are, only in consumer markets). If you don’t want to support Enterprise better, don’t build anything for it until you do. On a side note, if Enterprise is your next step up. Please include management for IOS devices as well. I’ve got more iDevices here than macs, none of them being managed. Then i’ll probably move back over to ARD. Thanks for hearing me our, and hope this gets to the right ears and eyes.

I bought this about 3 years ago, and it’s been so-so at best over the years. There’s nearly always that last little problem that prevents controlling the screen of another Mac. On the other hand, regular screen sharing from the finder using Back to My Mac is rock solid in comparison. What also doesn’t help are the non-specific error messages that are phrased like “an error has occurred”. That would be okay in a 1.0 version, but not in 3.7.2. Two not-so-great “goodies” of this version: On one machine running OS X 10.9.2, I can’t make a custom installer because “an unknown error has occurred”. Gee, thanks! On another, it worked, but when I install it and then connect to it from my 3.7.2 app, it says that the other machine is running ARD version 3.7.1. I’m not getting the feeling that this software is seriously supported and tested. It’s extremely fragile. Overall, after many years of very mixed experiences with it, I wouldn’t consider this viable in a professional environment. Apple is capable of making great hardware and software. This needs to be made way more robust, like Back to My Mac.

Apple. I have downloaded the newest verison and the App is totally in-operable. I have 350 remote machines I monitor but I have no control over the app. I tried to re-install the app, and it works with 150 computers, but as soon as I boost it to 350 it totally fails. STOPS RESPONDING. Have to force quit. This is a major bug. Needs to be fixed immediately. This is a severe issue.

I run a headless mini as a media / time machine server. Prior to Mavericks I had no problems controlling the mini from my 2012 retina macbook pro. When running video on the remote mini ARD (and screen sharing) control of the cursor on the remote device becomes unresponsive. This has now been a problem for many months - even with the latest update to 3.7.2 of ARD and Mavericks 10.9.2 running on both machines. Has severely limited the usefulness of the application.

We have been using Apple Remote Desktop for Years to Monitor, and Administer over 50 Apple Computers. It is the only program available that does the Job. J JAK, CTO

Waste of money. I can’t believe they created this application for local network Apple/Mac-ONLY. THIS IS USELESS FOR REMOTE & AWAY FROM OFFICE CAREERS! This software is, version 3.7.2 ($80.00 purchase) is the worst purchase I’ve made since moving to Apple’s product line-up in 2005. Remote Desktop from all other vendors out-perform this product out-of-the-box. I feel so sorry for Apple with this product, it has so much potential, however, for true network administration and true technical/software administration and management, this product does not assist, it henders all work by wasting time, not having compatibility with RDP-enabled systems- truly a sad product priced higher than every Remote Desktop Management tool in the market today. I read reviews for previous versions of ARD and came to the conclusion that I must give it a try, the remote desktop I’ve been using, actually 4 versions that are excellent, are not allowing me to do one thing that I wanted. Well, Apple Remote Desktop not only doesn’t do what I want, it is only available, partially works for LOCAL LAN/WAN - APPLE MAC-ONLY (barely), whereas, every single remote management system I use allows me to access any computer from anywhere in the world, which I truly thought was default with REMOTE DESKTOP applications! Unbelievable that this product is hailed as the top product for Apple Macintosh and it only / barely allows local management. This is the most appauling app for that one “manage another Apple Mac on your LAN IF configuration is absolutely precise” reason. I was told by Apple that a new fix was being launched that will fix the above issues, that was on the day I purchased this app, 3.5 months ago from today- 1APRIL2014. I waited months for new releases and also was given advise from Apple that an engineer would assist me in making this software work, the software doesn’t work and Apple’s engineers never contacted me. This is the worst application purchase to date. I have to use Microsoft for every task-oriented and business-oriented product/service that Apple should work flawlessly and seamless. Such a pity. Here is the person who made promises to swoop in and review then enlighten me with Genius instructions, Apple seems to not follow through as of 2012-today; November 13, 2013 “Hello, My name is Jackie. I am with iTunes Customer Experience and I noticed you posted a recent review on the Mac App Store. We would like to gather more information about the issue you described in your post for Apple Remote Desktop. A member of the engineering team will be contacting you within 3 business days. Regards, Jackie iTunes Customer Experience No one ever assisted, after 3.5 months of updates to ARD, ARD also crashed a hard drive under apple care warranty then crashed the OSX on another HD. It’s buggy, when closed it hangs the system, causes errors within system files, drains the battery regardless of being open or closed. Once installed, there is no totally removing the intrusive files. Buyer beware !

I am using it to monitor our kids activity on the computer. It does the job perfectly! I only wish it would also let us see what they are doing on their iPads! Maybe next version?

When viewing X amount of computers >6 it doesn’t let you actually view more than 6 at once even though you change the computers per page to higher. Also, occassionally if you are viewing a total of 5 computers and have it set to viewing 6, it only shows you 4 at a time and you can’t fully scroll to the next page. Whoops! Otherwise pretty good.

What a waist. I spent way too much money on this app. It will not make a Client Installer Package. Receiving the "An unexpected error occurred trying to access required components” error. After spending hours researching this known issue, I have attempted to contact support. Only to be sent through a maze on the Apple website with no help. Definately the most disappointing Apple experience that I have had. Don’t buy.

Apple Remote Desktop is a fantastic product, however, new updates seem to frequently break features. Additionally, the process to fix the glitches is slow. For example, in the latest version of Apple Remote Desktop does not allow me to observe more than one computer at a time. I depend on this product for work, and the glitches seriously negatively affect productiivity.

We have over 200 macs in our organization. I was really hoping ARD would be able to help. Not much… In our experience, ARD really doesn’t play nice after adding about 50-60 computers to the list. Computers start disappearing from the My Computers list, computers are shown to be offline when they’re really on, sometimes I can’t add a computer to the My Computers list (the drop down literally drops down and goes back up in 1 second), and other stupid bugs. I have to quit and reopen ARD often to fix these things until it happens again. At one point, I decided to completely erase and rebuild our ARD database (adding computers again from scratch and manually enter the DNS name myself.). It was great, until after hitting about 50 macs to the My Computers list. Several bugs need to be worked out. Example: when I deploy a package to more than 1 mac (even from the app, not just the task server), it copies the .PKG unreasonably slow; but do so with 1 (one) single computer, and it’s fast. Why? This didn’t happen for me until after an update to ARD. I promise you, it’s not our network; this never happened before. Example: Macs in the My Computers list get mismatched DNS names after a while. Even after manually entering them in myself, ARD will a few days later decide it doesn’t want to save my manually entered DNS names for computers. Huge missing feature for us: ARD does NOT sync the My Computers list between our admins ARD. We’d have to get the ARD data file off the user Library folder and then give it to our admins if we want to “sync” our My Computers list. So each time we add, delete, or make a change to a Mac in our org, we gotta manually add it to each computer that’s using ARD, or share the data file from our Library folder. That’s just not gonna happen for us, so we decided to use 1 computer that has ARD and VNC into it when we needed to mess with ARD. I suppose I could get creative, create 4-5 user accounts on our 1 Mac, that’s also running OS X Server app, make an spreadsheet of what computer is on which user account, and flip between the users, since ARD is only stable with about 50 macs, but I’m not wasting my time anymore on this. Overall, ARD seems to be reasonable (3-4 stars) for something like a single classroom, or a small group of computers, but after 50, forget it. I suppose after Lion and MDM was born, the door has been opened for other venders to make reliable tools to manage Macs. That’s the direction we’re looking...

This has been a useful tool for managing mac computers. It was extremely buggy in Mavericks, and never really saw an update. Now that Yosemite is out, it’s completely broken. Viewing multiple machines at once no longer works. Copying files to or from computers is not reliable or practically doesn’t work. using the install package is no longer working for us. Machines that are on DHCP have been getting replaced in the lists we have setu pwith other machines when the DHCP is renewed differently. IT’s just frustrating to see the lack of support for enterprise/education from Apple over the last few years, and this is just another reminder of the lack of polish in an education environment.

Just installed ARD on Mac OS X Yosemite. Was hoping to be able to manage all the household computers and provide support to family. ARD 3.7.2 has a function to “Create Client Installer” that doesn’t work under Yosemite 10.10.1. Would have been nice to use this since it can setup the client computers for remote management with a simple installation. I dont like finding obvious bugs like this in retail software so Im dinging the product a lot for that. Currently testing on Mac OS X Lion laptop. The UI is a bit dated looking but functional. Remote control works well (observe, control, curtain modes). Drag and drop copy from ARD to target computer. Reporting is very slow for me. Overall, useable.

Used to be great, then came Yosemite. Now this app constantly crashes, wont connect to remote machine, or even worse, locks up my remote computer! Not entirely sure where the issue lies, but one things for sure, it dont work very well.