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Microsoft Remote Desktop App refuses to work on MacBook Air only

Anonymous
2025-06-03T16:14:15+00:00

Microsoft Remote Desktop App refuses to work on MacBook Air only.

It works on Mac mini, iPhone and nay other device, but refuses to work specifically on MacBook air M1.

I turned off hardware acceleration, proxy etc, tried different display settings.

When logging in it says that it is configuring the PC, however screen remains black and nothing shows up until after a while an error code shows up, and nothing works.

I am trying to connect to a machine that runs Windows 11, it worked absolutely fine on Windows 10, I even tried wiping the system and trying different macOS versions with the same effect.

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-06-03T20:07:53+00:00

    Hi,

    I'm Pau, and I'm your Independent Advisor. I can see why it's frustrating that Remote Desktop works on all of your other devices but not on your MacBook Air M1. Thanks for getting in touch. I'm here to help you solve this.

    Follow the steps below to find the answer. These are problems that have been seen with macOS and Remote Desktop on Apple Silicon devices:

    1. Clear the settings for Microsoft Remote Desktop

    Close the app > Head over to ~/Library/Containers > Get rid of the folders com.microsoft.rdc.mac and com.microsoft.rdc.macos > Start the app up again.

    1. Turn off hardware acceleration (if you haven't already)

    To uncheck, go to Microsoft Remote Desktop > Preferences > Open. When hardware acceleration is available, use it .

    1. If you can, use classic RDP instead of Azure Virtual Desktop.

    Make sure you're connecting to RDP as usual and not through a workspace feed.

    1. Change how the screen looks

    Change your connection > Show > Uncheck Optimize for Retina Displays and set the resolution to Native.

    1. Turn off authentication at the network level (NLA) on the Windows 11 PC (just for testing purposes).

    Run sysdm.cpl on Windows and uncheck the box next to Remote tab. Only let computers running Remote Desktop with NLA connect.

    1. Make a new Windows PC user profile

    Click on Accounts, then Add a New Local User. Try getting in touch with that person.

    1. Keep Microsoft Remote Desktop and macOS up to date

    Go to Updates in the App Store and open it. Make sure that both Remote Desktop and macOS are up to date.

    1. Give permissions by hand

    Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access & Screen Recording > Allow Microsoft Remote Desktop to connect.

    1. Check out the Microsoft Remote Desktop Beta to see if it works with M1/M2.

    Learn more about Windows Server Remote at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-serve...

    Click on "Try the beta client" and then scroll down.

    If the problem keeps happening, it might be because of a problem with how the M1 GPU and the Windows 11 RDP session are set up or how they work together. Finally, you could try the Universal version of the app or an alternative RDP client like Jump Desktop to see if the issue is only with the Microsoft client.

    Tell me how it goes. I'm here to make sure this is fixed.

    Many thanks,

    Pau

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