I have an older 11” MBA with a damaged screen. The repair would require a screen replacement which is too expensive. I’d like to be able access some files in the damaged MBA as well as open some apps. The damaged screen will not allow normal use of the MBA. Is it possible for me to link the MBA to another device such as another MBA or iMac. I’ve looked in your video tutorials and couldn’t find something covering this.
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Mike
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How Do I Link Two Mac Devices
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There are a few ways to do this. One way is to use the MacBook Air in Target Disk mode. This involves connecting a cable between the two devices after booting the MacBook Air in a special mode. Then the drive of the Air appears as an external hard drive.
Which cable you use is going to depend on what this old MacBook Air has, and what your other Mac has. Here is Apple's instructions: How to use target disk mode to move files to another computer.
Another method is to use migration assistant to bring over the entire user account from your MacBook Air to your other Mac. How to move your content to a new Mac. You can do this using that same cable, or over Wi-Fi. Not having a display on the Air may make it harder, but you can probably still make it work. Just transfer that account, not anything else. Then you can log in as that user on your working Mac and grab the files you need.
Another method is to use File Sharing or Screen Sharing, if that was turned on with your broken Mac already. With both computers connected to the same Wi-Fi network, use Go, Connect to Server in the Finder and then Browse. Or, just look in the left sidebar of the Finder window and select the broken Mac. Then connect to it using either sharing method. Using Screen Sharing you can actually "use" the old Mac this way.
You could also just connect an external monitor to the MacBook Air too. Then you could operate the computer temporarily from that until you get the files. Even if you don't have one, maybe you could borrow one from a friend, neighbor, someone on NextDoor, or a local Mac users group buddy, etc.
That’s a lot more than I anticipated. The trick will be to see what can be accomplished with about half of the screen "invisible". Mouse tracking won’t work in the portion that is black. I suspect the best best is to locate an external monitor. I had thought that was a feature newer Macs had. Thanks.
Mike: If you can see half the screen, then I think your best bet is to use Screen Sharing. Half the screen should be enough to turn that on in System Preferences. Then you can easily see/control the whole screen from your other Mac. You can use Screen Sharing to control a Mac that doesn't even have a screen (like a Mac mini not connected to a screen) and many people do just that on a regular basis.
Thanks Gary. Screen sharing did work, easy peasy. The only issue was logging in "blind" since the password entry is in a blocked unviewable portion. Once logged on, set the screen sharing option and worked just fine. I’m now going to explore the sharing options in other ways.
i have a similar situation .. but i have added a spare monitor i had to the dvi port and can get the specific stuff out of the old mac.