**Question:** how can one re-create Apple’s defunct ‘Back To My Mac’ service with specific open-source tools or, if necessary, with limited custom (non-commercial) software? *(Ideally, this would be done in a way that would preserve integration with Apple applications such as Finder or Terminal; that might, however, happen automatically as soon as a VPN allowing network discovery is enabled on a particular computer.)* - - - **Background:** Apple discontinued the '[Back to My Mac](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_My_Mac) ' service in (https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208922) after twelve years of operation. As I understand it, this used a combination of Wide-Area Bonjour, a VPN, and probably some sort of iCloud database/directory to automatically keep all of the Macs signed in under a particular AppleID on a VPN so that they could communicate and use built-in services such as file sharing (AFP/SMB), screen sharing, and SSH through NATs and with dynamic IP addresses. No network configuration was required, once one had signed into a computer with their AppleID and enabling the checkbox for 'Back to My Mac' in Settings. The other computers appeared in the Finder (and in other applications, such as Terminal) just as they currently do if they were on the same network. I believe the AppleTV (and possibly other devices) were also used to provide Wake-on-LAN functionality. --- **Conjecture:** It is possible that Apple discontinued this for any number of these (or other) reasons: 1. to minimize their engineering / maintenance costs 2. to drive iCloud Drive storage revenue 3. they had been licensing some of the underlying technology since the beginning, and wanted to avoid those costs 4. a key component was found to be covered by someone else's patent, patent(s) they were unwilling or unable to license It is of note, however, that they disabled the feature for all existing installations of older operating systems, instead of just making it an unsupported / depreciated feature. - - - **Possible starting points:** - if either of the last two reasons are true, does anyone know the patent numbers (or patent holders) and technologies that were licensed? - are there any open-source replacements for this functionality (beyond what Apple mentions in the above link)? - what technical references are available documenting Apple's implementation and what is still missing to create an open-source replacement? - do you know of any other online discussions of this topic that can be linked to this question? - - - **Technologies used by some iteration of BTMM:** - DNS-based Service Discovery (DNS-SD; RFC 6763 , RFC 8553 , RFC 8552 ) to announce host reachability information - Dynamic DNS update (RFC 2136 ) to refresh the DNS resource records (RRs) when a host detects network changes - DNS Long-lived Queries (LLQ / DNS-LLQ) to notify hosts immediately when the answers to their earlier DNS queries have changed (Wikipedia and IETF ) - IPv6 Unique Local Address (ULA; RFC 4193 ) as the host identifier - NAT Port Mapping Protocol (PMP / NAT-PMP; RFC 6886 ) to assist NAT traversal - Kerberos (RFC 4120 ) for end-to-end authentication - IPsec (RFC 4301 ) to secure data communications between two end hosts - - - **References:** - Understanding Apple's Back to My Mac (BTMM) Service - RFC 6281 *(June 2011)* - Take Control of Back To My Mac - Publishing Network Services - *Apple Developer Library Archive* - Authentication and Identification in Depth - *Apple Developer Library Archive* - Is it possible to use Back To My Mac DNS or routing information from the command line? - *AskDifferent* - Looking for information about the inner workings of Back To My Mac - *AskDifferent* - Did You Realize Apple’s “Back To My Mac” MobileMe Service Uses IPv6? - How does Back To My Mac work without UPnP or NAT-PMP? - *AskDifferent* - - - Thank you!! *(and thanks to jksoegaard for comments to the previous question)* *Note to moderator(s): this is a edited restatement of a previous question, “What technical and/or patent information exists for Apple's discontinued 'Back to My Mac' (BTMM) service, and/or what are possible replacements ”, that was recently auto-deleted; if you close this current question in the future, please consider doing so in a way that allows it to remain as a searchable reference for future users.*

I have been trying to backup WhatsApp with the app functionality but it seems impossible; it will throw a problem every time. I have tried backing it up using the iCloud "Back Up Now" inside *General → My Account → iCloud*, but I do not have enough space on iCloud; my WhatsApp messages sum up to more than 10GB. I have searched for other ways to back up and I have found I can do this using my Mac mini and iTunes. The thing is, there's no more iTunes to download, but you can still make a backup of your phone when you access it through "Finder". The problem with this is I'm not sure the back up was successful, because it was quite fast and I don't know what type of information has been backed up. So, my question is: if I back up using *Finder*, will all my WhatsApp data, including media of all sorts, be stored on my computer and will I be able to restore them if needed? Note: I am trying a back up because I need to login with a different account on the iPhone and as far as I've read I can lose some data when I log back in.

I'm looking for a source of information on the inner workings of Back to My Mac. I'd like to know things such as: - Each protocol used (Bonjour, UPnP, mDNS, etc., IPSEC, TLS, etc.) - The sequence of each transaction (i.e. sequence diagrams for connection setup) - What router information is stored on Apple's servers - Which servers are used for which purposes (members.btmm.icloud.com, p34-btmmdns.icloud.com., etc.) Take Control of Back to My Mac had some of this information, but it's no longer available. The replacement book, Take Control of iCloud has very little information on this topic. While most users just give up in frustration when BTMM doesn't work, if one wishes to troubleshoot connections and see exactly where the problem is occurring (akin to looking under the hood when your car won't start), the information above is critical.

I am currently in Norway. My Mac mini is in my apartment in Australia. I can access screen sharing via Back To My Mac. It connects fine, but the screen has only linen - no menu bar, no dock, no anything else. I am fairly sure that is what is actually on the screen and that it isn't a problem with the connection or anything like that (it's happened once before while I was sitting in the same room...) I know the system is responsive because the one other thing that can poke through my router is the Transmission web interface, and that works just fine. (Unfortunately I seem to have neglected to forward a port for ssh...) Is there any way I can reboot or otherwise regain full use of the system via the limited screen sharing access that I have?

Since upgrading to High Sierra the 'Shared' menu (back to my mac, connected servers, bonjour computers) has disappeared from my Finder sidebar. Selecting/de-selecting in preferences makes no difference. Favorites, Devices and Tags all work as expected. Thanks. osx 10.13.3 (17D47)

I'm in Japan, and I have a Time Machine backup on a disk that's hooked up to my AirPort Extreme in New York. I can connect to the disk using Back To My Mac. The disk is quite old, and I have no backup of that backup, so I'd like to at least backup the Documents folder that's on it. While I can dig into the folder structure of the backup when accessing it from Japan, I can't get to the Documents folder itself. There are several Time Machine backup instances, and from what I gather about how Time Machine works, the folders within these instances are aliased to their corresponding folders in previous instances when data hasn't changed between backups. My problem is that when I click on one of these aliased folders, I get a message about the alias being broken. I can't find the actual Documents folder itself. I know it has to be there because the drive size is given as 25 GB. Unfortunately, I have nobody in New York who is competent enough to help me. The disk was previously used to backup an iMac that died. Does anybody here have any advice?

I've got an interesting problem happening. From iMac ➔ MacBookPro Back To My Mac works fine. From MacBookPro ➔ iMac… not so much. Sometimes I can't even get past the connection piece. It just does that shaky thing that it likes to do when it doesn't accept a password. When/if I do I get an error message that says the viewer and server are incompatible. Same network (just to rule out firewall craziness), all items are checked in iCloud etc. I can SSH back and forth. It's only when I try to use file or screen sharing that I see the issue. Any ideas where I should start? I’m flying blind on this one - no idea why it would work one way and not the other.

I have 2 5th Gen Airport Extreme's and a 4th Gen Time Capsule. The 1st is connected directly to the modem. It is set to emit 2.4GHz, and a 5GHz connection. I have an ethernet cable running from the 1st to the 2nd in another room. The ethernet is connected to one of the router ports on the 1st and to the WAN port on the 2nd. Now, I have the Time Capsule, and 2 computers connected to the 2nd Airport's router ports. The 2nd Airport ( Airport Link ) is set to bridge mode, but also set to extend a wireless network. It extends the 1st Airport's 2.4GHz connection and the 5GHz connection. I am having issues with the computers connected to the 2nd Airport ( Airport Link ). My goal is to have the 2nd Airport act as essentially a switch, use the ethernet connection of the 1st Airport for computers connected to the 2nd Airport ( Airport Link ), via ethernet. Also have the 2nd Airport extend or amplify the WiFi connections for the 2nd half of the house where the 2nd Airport ( Airport Link ) is located, BUT I need to make sure that it's not extending the WiFi by connecting to the Wifi connection of the 1st Airport, but rather still using that original ethernet connection. Do I need to set the wireless on the 2nd Airport ( Airport Link ) in the options to "Extend Wireless Network", or to "Create Wireless Network" and name the WiFi the same names as what they have on the first Airport with the same passwords? I have Back To Mac enabled on the 1st Airport. Do I need to sign in and enable it on the 2nd Airport ( Airport Link ) since the computers are connected to this Airport base station via ethernet?

Which iOS app is able to connect to a Mac using its BTMM (Back to my Mac) address? The address looks like this: > your-imac.12345678.members.btmm.icloud.com On a **Mac** using Screen Sharing.app, Apple Remote Desktop and Screens for Mac I can easily establish a connection. With **iOS** using apps like iTeleport and Screens for iOS, however, I wasn't. All I get are connection errors. Any helpful comment is appreciated.

About a week ago iCloud's Back to My Mac service silently stopped working and will no longer start. I discovered an error icon in System Preference's iCloud panel reporting the error: **Back to My Mac isn't working because it couldn't start properly.** Following [the trouble shooting steps](https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT203907) provided by Apple has not fixed the problem. This includes restarting, and signing out & back into iCloud. An Apple support discussion thread, [I cannot start Back To My Mac Since Wed Last Week](https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7416793?start=0&tstart=0) , suggests this is not an isolated problem. The system.log messages at the time of attempted enabling suggests an error occurred: Jan 16 09:59:46 Mac-Pro com.apple.preferences.icloud.remoteservice: AOSKit ERROR: LH request failed, url=https://p33-btmm.icloud.com:443/v1/hello , requestHeaders= { "Accept-Language" = "en-us"; Authorization = "..."; "X-Mme-Client-Info" = " "; "X-Mme-Country" = GB; "X-Mme-Device-Id" = "[redacted]"; "X-Mme-Timezone" = CET; }, error=Error Domain=AOSErrorDomain Code=1000 "(null)" UserInfo={HttpStatusCode=503, DialogInfo={ DialogType = Unknown; }}, httpStatusCode=503 Jan 16 09:59:46 Mac-Pro com.apple.preferences.icloud.remoteservice: [AOSAccounts] : BTMM operation not successful Jan 16 09:59:46 Mac-Pro com.apple.preferences.icloud.remoteservice: [AOSAccounts] : BTMM kMMServiceFailureNotification dictionary {type = mutable dict, count = 2, entries => 0 : {contents = "ServiceFailureErrorKey"} = Error Domain=AOSErrorDomain Code=1000 "(null)" UserInfo={HttpStatusCode=503, DialogInfo={ DialogType = Unknown; }} 2 : {contents = "ServiceFailureTypeKey"} = {contents = "ServiceFailureTypeEnable"} } I have reported the bug to Apple as rdar://24219994 Is there any solution?

I'm trying to connect remotely to a family member's new MacBook Air from my own iMac. Both machines are running OS X Lion. I can connect to the files on the remote machine and I can see the screen of the remote machine. But I cannot interact (mouse or keyboard) with the remote machine. I can run LogMeIn (free version) with no issues. But I'd like to log in to the machine remotely with no input from the family member - it shaves at least 30 minutes off the support call. ;-) Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

I'm trying to figure out the best way to remotely get into my family's iMac from my MacBook Pro as needed while I'm away. An internet search taught me that Back to my Mac was the thing, but that only works when the computers are on the same Apple ID, and I've got a different Apple ID from my parents (I know their login information, for what it's worth). Short of creating a new account on my parents' Apple ID, is there a way to use Back to my Mac to get from my computer to my parents'?

On Lion and iCloud, the old MobileMe and Snow Leopard mDNS naming has changed and no longer works. I'm wondering how to use command line tools to find out the DNS name that Apple has assigned to my Mac. I want to use that dns name on other devices that are not OSX (like Prompt on my iPad/iPhone) to ssh back to my Mac when I'm out and about.

I am trying to establish a ssh session to my MacBook using "Back to my Mac". So I turned the "Back to my Mac" option **on** in iCloud and ticked the remote sign in box. But if I issue the command ssh user_name@computer_name.number.members.btmm.icloud.com the terminal just goes into the next line and stays black. Sorry for not providing more information, but I don't know much about this, so I don't know what else information to provide. Does anybody know what I did wrong? **Edit**: As suggested I used the -vvvv flag and got: OpenSSH_7.4p1, LibreSSL 2.5.0 debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config debug2: resolving "computer_name.number.members.btmm.icloud.com" port 22 debug2: ssh_connect_direct: needpriv 0 debug1: Connecting to computer_name.number.members.btmm.icloud.com [private_IPv6_address] port 22: Operation timed out ssh: Connecting to computer_name.number.members.btmm.icloud.com [private_IPv6_address] port 22: Operation timed out Also the command ssh localhost works without any troubles.

Is Back to my Mac an encrypted and secure connection? Is there a good technical explanation how it works? Would you recommend to use it to connect to a home server via VNC?

I have just setup "back to my mac" and the connection works fine. My only "complaint" so far is that I haven't found a convenient way to switch from one desktop to another on the remote computer (or to any other full-screen app). Clicking on the icon in the dock works. But I was wondering if I missed some other way.

On Mac OSX 10.11.3 (likely previous), the built-in Cisco IPsec VPN client will refuse to reconnect to the VPN server after a network failure (cable unplugged, wifi lost etc.) After about 30 seconds of 'Connecting...' in the menu bar, an error pops up about 'Failure to negotiate'. Deleting the service and creating a new one does not fix the issue, but a reboot does. How do I reconnect to the server without having to reboot?

According to Apple's product page , the Airport Extreme... > "...can turn your external USB hard drive into a secure drive you can share across your Wi‑Fi network and **access securely over the Internet**." My interpretation of the "access securely over the Internet" part is that if I plug in an external hard drive to an Airport Extreme on my home network, **I can get to it from anywhere via the internet**... including outside of my home network. Am I interpreting this correctly? If so, it sounds like a pretty awesome feature! I guess I'm skeptical though because when I Google around for this, I find nothing relevant... including any info from Apple. What gives?

I often want to ssh to a Mac and would love to make use of of iCloud to look up IP/DNS routing information. Can this be done without signing up for a dynamic DNS service and configuring it on each Mac in addition to iCloud? Let's assume of my on-all-the-time Mac at home's hostname is "maui" and it's running Snow Leopard. When I'm on my laptop connected to the home network, I can ssh maui.local. It sure would be nice to be able to ssh maui.whatever.icloud.com or whatever would work. I'm guessing I would need "maui" and my iCloud name to let it know which machine under my account needs reaching. Does anyone know if this is possible through API or command line? I've browsed the public developer information several times but don't see anything promising. Any pointers or code examples would be welcome. P.S. _Please don't suggest free DNS accounts as I'm really interested in MobileMe exclusively for this question. I know those will work but I'm looking to avoid installing anything else or another account/external dependency on these Macs._

I have an Airport Extreme with an attached USB drive that I've been accessing via Back to My Mac using these instructions (see the section with the text, "...access files on a hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme..."). Recently I extended (over Ethernet) my Airport network using an Airport Express upstairs. i.e. Airport Extreme with USB drive (downstairs) Airport Express (upstairs) I used these instructions (see the first post by Bob Timmons) to extend my network. I can tell that the network extension is over Ethernet because AirPort Utility shows both Airports connected to each other with a solid line (extension over WiFi uses a dashed line). However, this makes my downstairs Airport Extreme disappear from Back to My Mac. Using Bonjour Browser on a remote Mac, I can see only the upstairs Airport Express: #######.members.btmm.icloud.com - 4 Airport Base Station (_airport._tcp.) - 1 airport_upstairs Apple File Sharing (_afpovertcp.tcp.) - 2 home_mac_1 home_mac_2 Notice that only airport_upstairs is visible via Back to My Mac (even though airport_downstairs is the one configured for Back to My Mac). Has anyone else run into this problem--do you know how to fix it?