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Remote / away-from-home Apple TVs

Reach your server from a vacation home, a parent's house, or the office over a private Tailscale network.

By default your Apple TV reaches the server over your home network. To run an Apple TV somewhere else — a vacation home, a parent's house, the office — connect both to the same private Tailscale network. Tailscale is a free, secure mesh VPN; it gives your server a stable private address that the remote TV can reach without opening any ports to the internet.

1. Install Tailscale on the computer running the server and sign in.
2. The web admin shows your Tailscale address under Settings → How TVs reach this Mac, next to the home-network address — e.g. http://100.x.y.z:8737.
3. Put the remote Apple TV on the same Tailscale network — install the Tailscale app on the Apple TV and sign in to the same account, or run the TV behind a small Tailscale-connected router or travel router at the remote site.
4. On the remote Apple TV, the app won't find your Mac automatically. On the Can't find your Mac automatically screen (or in the app's Settings → Mac), enter the Tailscale address 100.x.y.z with port 8737 and choose Connect.