Reach your Mac from anywhere with Tailscale

Why Tailscale, and what it is

Tailscale is a mesh VPN built on WireGuard. Each of your devices gets a stable private address, and traffic between them is encrypted end to end and, wherever possible, sent directly from one device to the other. The personal plan is free. It is not made by us, and it has its own privacy policy; Mimac adds its own end-to-end encryption on top, so your screen is encrypted twice.

The alternative would have been a relay of our own, which is what most remote desktop apps run. We chose not to: a relay means your screen passes through someone else's server, it costs money that turns into a subscription, and it adds latency. Tailscale gives you the same convenience with a company whose whole product is the network.

Steps

1. Install Tailscale on the Mac.

   Download it from tailscale.com or the Mac App Store, open it, and sign in with the identity provider of your choice. Tailscale runs in the menu bar and starts at login. Make sure Start at login is on in its settings; a headless Mac needs it running before anyone has touched it.

2. Install Tailscale on the iPad.

   Install Tailscale from the App Store and sign in with the same account. iPadOS asks to add a VPN configuration; allow it. Once the toggle is on, the iPad can reach every device on your tailnet whether it is on cellular, hotel Wi-Fi or your own network.

3. Find the Mac's Tailscale name.

   Click the Tailscale icon in the Mac's menu bar. The Mac is listed by its machine name, for example mac-mini, next to an address that starts with 100.. With MagicDNS on, which it is by default for new tailnets, the name alone resolves from the iPad. Either works in Mimac.

4. Connect from Mimac.

   Open Mimac on the iPad, add a host, and type the Tailscale name or address. If you paired on your home network already, the connection completes without a code. If this is the first time these two devices meet, the Mac shows a six-digit pairing code in its menu-bar item, so pair once while you can see the Mac's screen.

5. Keep the Mac on the tailnet.

   Tailscale asks devices to re-authenticate periodically. On a Mac with a person in front of it that is a click; on a headless Mac it is a dead connection. In the Tailscale admin console, open the Mac's machine entry and choose Disable key expiry. Then make sure the Mac does not sleep: System Settings → Energy, Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off and Wake for network access.

6. Tune for the road.

   Mimac's defaults are chosen for a local network. On a slower link, open the tuning panel and lower the bitrate cap; Mimac also adapts on its own and recovers lost packets rather than stalling. Sessions over Tailscale start, resume and reconnect exactly as they do at home.

What to expect away from home

Honesty first: 120 fps is a local-network figure. Away from home, frame rate and responsiveness follow your connection. A good home fibre link at one end and a hotel's Wi-Fi at the other is very usable for code, writing, mail and a terminal; it is not the same as sitting on the sofa at home, and no remote desktop app can make it so.

Tailscale tries to connect your two devices directly. When a network in between will not allow that, it falls back to one of its own relay servers. That relay is Tailscale's, not ours, it only ever carries encrypted bytes, and it adds some latency. Tailscale shows which kind of connection you have in its status; direct is what you want.

When the Mac does not appear

• Is Tailscale connected on both devices? Both toggles on, same account.
• Is the Mac awake? A sleeping Mac is not on any network. See step five.
• Did the Mac's key expire? Check the admin console; disabling expiry prevents this.
• Is Mimac Connect running on the Mac? It starts at login, and before login if you installed that component.
• On cellular, some carriers block VPN traffic on certain plans. Try Wi-Fi to rule it out.

Still stuck? Write to support@mimac.ai with the Tailscale status from both devices.

How Mimac compares for this setup

Prices and facts as of September 1, 2026. Full comparisons: Mimac vs Workbench, Jump Desktop, Screens 5. Pricing details on the pricing page.