I've already done tons of experimentation with this and feel mostly confident I know the answer and I have done searches on here to make sure this is not a duplicate query. I recently replaced my Mac mini 2018 with the new Mac mini M4. My Plex server has been running on a Mac Pro Tower (2009) for years and it's not IF but when it gives up the ghost. So I figured I'd repurpose the 2018 Mac mini to be my new Plex server with an external 4 drive raid box. Since it will be pretty much just an always running server I see no need to have a display, keyboard, and mouse always attached after I get it all set up. I have several Macs in the house in different locations and they all work great with ARD but the are full systems with display, keyboards, and pointing devices. All of them give me pretty much full control including being able to reboot them remotely, and log back in remotely. But after several days of trying different ways of doing this including plugging in a HDMI dummy connector to simulate a display it appears the only way I can do this on this Mac mini is to keep a mouse, keyboard, and display plugged in all the time. I know I could keep all that stuff unplugged and nearby after getting it going but the pain of pulling them out and using them to reset the system would be such a pain and I really don't have the space for the display and keyboard and mouse to be sitting around. I've disabled much of the built-in security thinking that would be the issue -- but no. And by default every time a remote access attempt is made that does not work because everything is not plugged into it, the Mac goes into recovery and I have to plug all that stuff back in to get it up and running back to the login screen. **SO... is it the case I'm reduced to leaving a keyboard and mouse and display plugged into it all the time and just hide it away behind the rack we have everything supporting our home office in?** I just want to be sure I've not overlooked something. I've tried every variation and combination of setups I can and every time I'm having to reboot the Mac with all its accessories to get it to work again.

I have a Mac-Mini 2023 running MacOS Sonoma that runs without display accessed via VNC. In system settings there is no way to change the display resolution. At the moment it shows 1920x1080 but I want to set it to a slightly smaller resolution. There is an old identical question Force the resolution on a headless mac mini server and a related question How can I set a scaled display resolution from the command-line but all the mentioned free programs or tools do no longer work: Change resolution apps from App Store only show one resolution, nothing to change: * Any Screen resolution * Display Menu * EasyRes Other tools: * display_manager.py fails changing the display resolution and again fails to display the error message * cscreen has not been updated for more than 12 years and only exists of Intel CPUs (Bad CPU type in executable). * screen-resolution-switcher (scres) only shows one possible resolution

I have a Mac Mini server running Mavericks. It has no monitor connected. I use Remote Desktop on my laptop (also running Mavericks) for I/O to my server. When I use Remote Desktop and go Full Screen I get a 1280x1024 screen sitting in my 1680x1050 screen. Is there any way to force the client (Mac Mini) to use a setting of 1680x1050 so I get a real full screen? I tried holding down the option key while clicking on Scaled in Display -> System preferences. All I see is a new button in the bottom right that says detect displays. Clicking on it does nothing. The only resolution shown is 1280x1024. My Mac Mini Server is a late 2009 with an Nvidia GeForce 9400 graphics card.

I'm attempting to automate some tests of a GUI application on a headless Mac. I'm able to run theses tests from the terminal on a desktop Mac, and there's no issues and they run as expected (without popping up a window). However, when I attempt to run them on a headless server, I'm not able to get them to work. They error out with issues related to getting a display. (Specifically, CGLChoosePixelFormat() is returning an error.) For our Linux platform tests, we've had similar issues, and can solve that by using [xvfb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xvfb) to create a "virtual" display. Looking around, it does seems like it is possible to use xvfb itself on Mac ... if you install a whole X display subsystem first. This seems rather suboptimal to me. Ideally, I'd like to test on Mac using the same display system a regular Mac uses, not a different, testing-only display system. Is there an equivalent to xvfb for the native Mac display? That is, is there a way to launch a "virtual" display on a headless Mac server?

When I connect from my laptop to my server with Apple Screen Sharing, it is extremely laggy, even over gigabit ethernet. Files copy at expected speeds (~100MB/s) but Screen Sharing is terribly slow. Any way to speed this up?

Thank you for the hint about getting better resolution options by holding down the Option key in the Display Prefs on the Mac Mini. The hard drive on our network-only Mac died and it lost all of its settings and I couldn't get it back to nearly as large as it used to be. I also went ahead and upgraded from Sierra to Catalina in the process. We only use it for QuickBooks, which allows our CPA and Bookkeeper and my wife and I to log in remotely and we were lost when that HD failed. My only remaining question is **whether we still need to terminate the display port with Catalina, or perhaps they snuck a firmware update in there where the cursor doesn't slow down to a crawl?** I bought a couple of those from OWC after failing to create my own and still have one plugged in. Does it still need it? I haven't had time to extensively test, but just thought I'd ask since I didn't notice a huge difference with it out. Thanks again for the sharp minds here (Everett) who knew about this option trick. Saved me tons of eyestrain and annoyance!

I've got an old 2010 Mackbook Pro, but the graphics card has died, so the display is useless. Can I repurpose this as a headless server by installing CentOS via target disk mode from my current MacBook Pro (over thunderbolt cable)? Once I've installed CentOS, how can I SSH into it without a display on the host machine to get credentials?

My setup is as follows: 1. Mac Mini 2012 with a dummy video adapter with latest OSX. 2. Retina Macbook Pro 13-inch, Early 2015 running the default OSX VNC client with the latest OSX. 3. Display Menu to switch resolutions. My problem is that I'm not able to get the right resolution such that it fills up the entire Retina Macbook Pro display. Ideally I would have liked 1280x800 or equivalent higher. This way it would fill up the entire screen (though it would be scaled since Retina has a higher resolution, which is fine). However the only resolution options I see are: My question is that do these options depend on the dummy video adapter? If so, is there a recommended video adapter to achieve such a setup?

It appears to me that BOTH Apple Menu>Lock Screen AND Fast User Switching Menu>Login Window halt user processes at some point. (AirServer eventually stops working for me) I would like to know if/why/how user processes are affected in these scenarios. I've read elsewhere that the Login Window halts processes, and the Lock Screen method shouldn't, but I've personally seen the opposite or inconsistent behavior. With a better understanding, perhaps a native solution can be found - if one exists, I'd like to know! I have zero interest in a screensaver, but if it can somehow lock the screen while allowing all background user processes to run, I'm listening. Yes I have Sleep set to NEVER I'm familiar with headless windows services automatically starting and running with zero user interaction, not even a need for an initial login. I wish to have similar behavior on my Mac mini serving as Plex and Airplay server. Unfortunately Plex and AirServer are user processes - so that means I have to log in initially... fine.

I have a mac mini that I'm using as a home server. I have two accounts on the computer which are both set to download full resolution photos and to download all iCloud (Desktop and Documents) contents. i.e., Optimize Storage is turned off. This same computer is backed up locally to a time machine volume, takes scheduled superduper! clones, and is uploaded to an offsite backup service. Yes, I am paranoid about backups. I keep both accounts logged in at all times so that both my and my wife's full photo libraries and Desktop and Documents folders will always be present to be backed up. The problem I'm having is that if the computer restarts, both accounts are logged out and I have to manually log in to them. This is a problem when I leave town for any length of time, because if the computer restarts for any reason (power outage, someone turns it off, etc) then the syncing that I want will no longer be happening. Is there any way to do this? I'd prefer it to be a local solution, because I don't want my local network accessible in any way. I am happy to write a complicated script/program and/or spend money on this problem in service of an elegant solution. Thanks!

I have a mini that's running headless and mouseless. I connect to it through TeamViewer. All is great - except... The mouse direction defaults to Natural and I'm old school. Since the machine has no physical mouse attached there's no mouse settings panel to change the direction on. So - anyone have a guess of how to change the setting? Thanks, Steve

My config: Mid 2012 Mac mini connected to a projector via HDMI. The projector is typically off and the Mac mostly works headless. This setup has worked for me for a couple of years now. Ever since I upgraded to Sierra (10.12.3), I get only a black screen with the mouse pointer being visible though. When I log out (cmd+shift+q), I sometimes get an image but it does not really update and is displaced. Once I turn the projector on, screen sharing will also start working – even if I turn the projector off again. SSH always works without issues. Any clues how I can fix that? What I tried (will update): - SMC reset - NVRAM reset - killing the Screen sharing service - Running "First aid" in disk utility (also from the Rescue partition) - Run maintenance scripts in Onyx **Update 1**: This seems to be a related Apple Discussions thread. **Update 2**: I added an answer that gives some hints. Can anyone help me find a better solution, please? My guess is the GPU has to be force enabled somehow, e.g. in bash...

I run El Capitan + Server on a mac mini that is plugged on a TV via HDMI and to which I access via Screen Sharing. Recently (since the El Capitan upgrade?), when the remote computer goes to sleep or quits Screen Sharing, the main screen also shuts off (which is of course undesired). Anyone has an idea where that may come from and/or how to correct it? *EDIT* Apparently this is an El Capitan bug; I have filed a bug report; anyone who encounters it is welcome to do the same. Here is a protocol to reproduce the bug: - Log into Headless Mac Mini from remote Mac via Screen Sharing (while no user is logged in), - Start some video player on Mac Mini (plays on TV/physical screen) and close the Screen Sharing app on remote - the Mini doesn’t go to sleep, as expected, - Connect back, stop video player, let Mac Mini go to sleep, - Connect back again, start video player again, close Screen Sharing from remote again >> now Mini goes to sleep immediately and TV goes black.

I'm trying to troubleshoot video issues on macbook laptop with no display or a dead? display but can't see what I'm doing. I need a Terminal command to run 'blind' after I boot into Single User mode & enable an external monitor. Hence- How do I enable an external display in Single User Mode via Terminal on a headless macbook?