This is a premium feature that may not be available on your current plan. Check availability on the Applivery pricing page.
Enabling TeamViewer Remote in a macOS Policy makes Applivery silently install the TeamViewer Host app on every Mac that Policy applies to, apply the profiles it needs, and register those Devices with TeamViewer. From then on, you start a remote session from the Device's Action menu — no TeamViewer setup on the Device itself, and nothing for the person using it to install beforehand.
Looking for Windows? Check out TeamViewer Remote Support for Windows.
Before you start
On macOS, TeamViewer Host needs a few system permissions before it can show and control the screen. Applivery takes care of most of them for you, but one has to be granted on the Mac itself:
Layer | What it does | Who takes care of it |
|---|---|---|
TeamViewer configuration profile | Configures TeamViewer Host and registers the Device for remote sessions | Applivery — applied when the Policy is set to Enabled, removed when it is set to Disabled |
Apple permissions profile | Grants TeamViewer Host the Remote Desktop and Accessibility permissions it needs to control the Mac | Applivery — applied when the Policy is set to Enabled |
Screen & Audio Recording | macOS privacy permission that lets TeamViewer Host share the screen during a session | The person using the Mac — no admin rights required |
Screen & Audio Recording
This permission is separate from the Apple permissions profile and has to be approved on the Mac, but the person using it can do it without admin rights. Until it's granted, sessions may fail to start.
If they dismissed the prompt, or it never showed up, ask them to:
Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & Audio Recording.
Turn on the toggle next to TeamViewer Host.
Enabling TeamViewer Remote
Once in the Applivery Dashboard, go to Policies 1 and open the macOS Policy you want to enable Remote Support on.
In the left-hand menu, select the TeamViewer Remote section and find the TeamViewer Remote configuration 2.
Choose Enabled and save your changes. Every Device that Policy applies to will now get TeamViewer Host and its profiles installed automatically.
The three configuration states
TeamViewer Remote uses the Not configured / Enabled / Disabled pattern. This matters because a Device can have more than one Policy applied to it: what actually reaches the Device is the composed result of every Policy in its set, not the value of any single one.
So each state is really what this Policy contributes to that composition:
State | What this Policy contributes |
|---|---|
Enabled | Turns TeamViewer Remote on. TeamViewer Host is installed, the TeamViewer configuration profile and the Apple permissions profile are applied, the Device is registered with TeamViewer, and it takes a license from your pool |
Disabled | Turns TeamViewer Remote off. Any Device that ends up without it active is deregistered from TeamViewer, the TeamViewer configuration profile is removed, and its license is released back to the pool |
Not configured | Contributes nothing. This Policy stays out of the decision, and the result comes from the other Policies in the set |
Which Policy wins
Policies are evaluated sequentially, in the order set by their Priority in the composition. The first Policy that actually sets a value decides the outcome — Not configured is skipped over, and no later Policy overrides a value that has already been set.
Neither Enabled nor Disabled beats the other, in other words: order is what decides. Here it is on a Device with two Policies, where Policy 1 is evaluated first:
Policy 1 | Policy 2 | Composed result |
|---|---|---|
Not configured | Enabled | Enabled — Policy 1 sets nothing, so Policy 2 decides |
Disabled | Enabled | Not active — Policy 1 got there first, and Policy 2 doesn't override it |
Enabled | Disabled | Enabled — the same rule the other way round: Policy 1 got there first |
Use Not configured when a Policy has no business deciding about Remote Support — one that only deploys apps, for example. Use Disabled when you want a Policy to actively keep Remote Support off, and check that it is evaluated before any Policy that enables it, or it won't have any effect.
Automatic installation
Applivery deploys TeamViewer Host silently as a .pkg — the person using the Mac doesn't have to install anything. Along with the app, Applivery applies the TeamViewer configuration profile and the Apple permissions profile (Remote Desktop and Accessibility) described in Before you start.
The Device shows up as Ready once TeamViewer Host is installed and configured. Remember that Screen & Audio Recording still has to be granted on the Mac for sessions to share the screen.
How licenses are counted
Each Device with TeamViewer Remote active in its composed configuration uses one TeamViewer license from your plan, whether or not anyone ever actually connects to it. What counts is the number of Devices with the feature active, not the number of sessions you open.
The moment a Device stops having TeamViewer Remote active through its Policies, it is unregistered from TeamViewer and its license is released automatically. How the composition changed doesn't matter: setting a Policy to Disabled, removing the Policy that was enabling it, or moving the Device elsewhere all have the same effect.
Starting a remote session
Navigate to any of your macOS Devices and click the Action button 1. Then select TeamViewer Remote 2.
The TeamViewer Remote Support modal opens. Choose the Control Type and the Open With option for this session 3.
Click Start remote session. If you chose TeamViewer client, the session is handed off to the TeamViewer desktop app on your machine, which connects to the Device.
You don't fix a session type when enabling the Policy — every option is available every time, and you pick per session:
Setting | Options |
|---|---|
Control Type | Unattended — connects without anyone accepting on the Device, for machines with nobody in front of them. Attended — someone at the Device has to accept the incoming session. View only — someone at the Device also has to accept, and you see the screen without any keyboard or mouse input being sent |
Open With | New browser tab — runs on TeamViewer's web client, nothing to install on your machine. TeamViewer client — hands the session to the TeamViewer desktop app, with its full set of features |
You can change your selection as many times as you like before clicking Start remote session — the value showing when you click is the one that gets used.
What you can do during a session
Once connected, the features available depend on the Control Type and Open With option you chose, and on what the TeamViewer client supports for that session.
On the managed Mac itself, TeamViewer Host shows up installed alongside the Applivery Agent (if the Device has it) — put there by the automatic installation described above.
Troubleshooting
The TeamViewer Remote Support modal shows a status badge next to the Device, so you can tell at a glance whether a session can start. Hover the ⓘ icon next to the badge for a short explanation.
Ready
TeamViewer Host is installed and configured on the Device. You can start a session.
Not enabled in policy
The Device's composed Policies don't have TeamViewer Remote set to Enabled. Go back to Enabling TeamViewer Remote and confirm you're editing the Policy that Device is actually assigned to.
App not installed
The Policy is enabled, but TeamViewer Host hasn't finished installing on that Device yet — or couldn't. Since the install is silent, wait and retry first.
If it persists, check that the TeamViewer configuration profile and the Apple permissions profile have been applied to the Device (see Before you start).
Starting a session against a Device in this state fails, whichever Control Type or Open With option you pick.
The session fails to start on a Ready Device
TeamViewer Host is installed, but the session doesn't start properly or the person at the Mac sees a recording prompt. This usually means Screen & Audio Recording hasn't been granted yet. Ask them to turn it on for TeamViewer Host in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & Audio Recording — they don't need admin rights to do it.
If remote control still doesn't work, check that the Apple permissions profile (Remote Desktop and Accessibility) is present on the Device. If the Policy is enabled but the profile is missing, wait for it to finish applying and try again.
The Device goes offline mid-session
If the Device disconnects right after you click Start remote session, the remote session window closes on its own. Wait for the Device to come back online and start a new session.
Nothing seems to happen when I click Start remote session
Give it a moment before clicking again — double-clicking Start remote session won't open two sessions, so a second click doesn't speed anything up.