Whether you want to control a headless Mac mini or reach your laptop from another room, macOS has built-in SSH support. Here’s how to set it up end-to-end.

1. Enable Remote Login

Open System Settings → General → Sharing and flip on Remote Login.

You’ll see a line like:

To log in to this computer remotely, type "ssh username@Your-MacBook.local"

That’s your address. By default it allows access to all users; you can restrict it to specific ones if needed.

If you’re not sure what your username or hostname are, run these on the Mac:

whoami          # your username
hostname        # your hostname (e.g. Your-MacBook.local)
ipconfig getifaddr en0   # IP address over Wi-Fi (use en1 for Ethernet)

2. Prevent the Mac from Sleeping

SSH connections drop the moment the Mac goes to sleep. To keep it awake when plugged in:

System Settings → Battery → Options

  • Turn on “Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off”

Alternatively, from the terminal:

sudo pmset -c sleep 0 disksleep 0

The -c flag applies only when connected to AC power.

3. Generate an SSH Key

Password login works out of the box, but key-based auth is more secure and skips the password prompt.

Generate a new Ed25519 key with an explicit filename:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_macbook -C "macbook"

Using -f avoids accidentally overwriting an existing id_ed25519. This creates two files:

  • ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_macbook — your private key (never share this)
  • ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_macbook.pub — your public key (safe to copy anywhere)

4. Authorize the Key on Your Mac

On the Mac you want to SSH into, add the public key to its authorized list:

mkdir -p ~/.ssh
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_macbook.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

If you’re adding a key from another machine, copy it over first:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_macbook.pub username@your-mac.local

5. Connect

From any machine on the same network:

ssh username@your-mac.local

From outside your network, you’ll need your Mac’s public IP and port forwarding set up on your router — or use a tunnel like Tailscale to avoid that entirely.

That’s it. Remote Login + sleep prevention + a key pair is the minimal setup for a reliably reachable Mac.