MacOS – VNC connection to OS X Yosemite 10.10 not working with Firewall enabled.

firewallmacosNetworkremote desktop

I've been connecting to my Mac with the iOS VNC app to monitor a process remotely, and noticed Firewall was turned off in Security & Privacy. enter image description here

So of course I turned it back on, and tried to connect again with VNC. The connection fails with "The computer's network could not be contacted." With "Stealth Mode" disabled, VNC still will not connect.

The obvious solution here would be to approve VNC logins:

The same way SSH is enabled, but clicking the "+" brings up a drop-down menu to select an application.

Checked VNC's support site, but they have outdated information:
https://support.realvnc.com/knowledgebase/article/View/269/12/how-do-i-allow-connections-through-my-firewall

What am I missing here?

Best Answer

Enabling the firewall changed the SSH/VNC connection IP. I changed it to the correct IP in the iOS VNC app, and can now connect even with Stealth Mode enabled on the client Mac.

The Sharing Control Panel clued me in, as the IP shown wasn't the one entered in the VNC app: enter image description here

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