Audio, clipboard & peripherals

Shared clipboard (copy/paste)

• macOS Screen Sharing: enable Edit → Use Shared Clipboard. You can then copy on one Mac and paste on the other.
• Other VNC clients: clipboard sharing varies. RealVNC Viewer supports text clipboard sync; enable it in the client’s settings.

If paste stops working, reconnect the session — the clipboard agent can desync after sleep.

File drag-and-drop

Supported in macOS Screen Sharing (drag onto the remote desktop). For everything else, use file transfer over SFTP/scp.

Audio

Note

Standard VNC / Screen Sharing does not stream the remote Mac’s audio. If you need to hear audio from the remote machine (e.g. media testing), use a client/tool that supports audio forwarding, or run a remote audio solution. For most dev and CI workflows, audio isn’t required.

USB devices (iPhone, dongles)

USB isn’t forwarded by default. To attach a physical device for Xcode debugging, set up USB-over-IP — see Remote USB & device debugging.

Keyboard shortcuts feel off

When the remote desktop is in a VNC window, your local OS may intercept some shortcuts (e.g. ⌘Tab). Use your VNC client’s “send keys to remote” / fullscreen mode, or the menu bar inside the session, to direct shortcuts to macOS.