Mac mini without a display

By Manuel, 18 July, 2023

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi everyone,
Has anyone experience with a headless Mac mini setup? I'd use speakers connected via 3.5mm port, a Braille display connected via USB and the Magic Keyboard with numpad and Touch ID.
Can the Mac mini set up only using VoiceOver without a display?
Are there any disadvantages when you do not have connected a display? Like performance decrease or so?
And how can I connect the magic Keyboard at first set up as I think it can only connect via Bluetooth?

Thanks.
Manuel

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Comments

By Manuel on Friday, July 28, 2023 - 00:35

Is a mouse really needed? I don't need such a device. A keyboard is enough. ;-) Will the Mac mini refuse booting if no mouse is plugged in?

By Adaria on Friday, July 28, 2023 - 00:35

I don't even know if the headless dongle is required. I have a Mac Mini and plugged in the dongle, ensureed to pair the magic keyboard with the device by plugging in via cable and that was it. Used headphones in the jack to set it up and it went fine. Mind you I'm a total newbie with Mac and it all worked great. I also have a trackpad but didn't bother getting it paired with the device until after I had it set up.

I just need a wireless pair of headphones to make the system fully wireless. Either way I love it. Keep it on my TV stand with the headphones plugged into a very long headphone extender cord.
Thanks!

By Manuel on Friday, July 28, 2023 - 00:35

Hi everyone,
thank you for the information on this topic. I now ordered a Mac mini and will test this out. I'll report to you if I had success with this setup.

By Manuel on Friday, July 28, 2023 - 00:35

Fortunately, I have an USB mouse available that I can easily plug in. It's not an Apple Magic Mouse though.

By PaulMartz on Friday, July 28, 2023 - 00:35

So, in a headless system, is the desktop resolution determined / constrained by the graphics hardware supported resolutions?

It has been a while since I tried this, but the last time I disconnected my monitor, the desktop reverted to 800x600 pixels or something like that, straight out of the 1980s IBM PC clone era. Only by reconnecting my monitor could I set a higher resolution.

By John Lipsey on Friday, July 28, 2023 - 00:35

As far as I can tell, this seems to come and go.
When one of my best friends set up his Mac mini there was no requirement to have a mouse connected. This was a few years back.
However, when I got my M1 Mac mini last year, and set it up, I was unable to proceed through the set up process without a mouse connected. I'm not sure if this changed in Ventura or not.

By Manuel on Friday, July 28, 2023 - 00:35

Hi everyone,
I could set up my Mac mini without a mouse. There was a dialog at the beginning of the setup that said If you don't wanna connect a mouse, press return. I did so and the setup assistant went on.
@Paulmartz: What do you mean with Desktiop resolution? Where can I check this if all is set right?

By Chris on Friday, July 28, 2023 - 00:35

I'm glad to hear from multiple people this has been fixed in Ventura. This is something that should have never happpened in the first place. I'm still livid Apple employees claimed it would work when it didn't in Monterey, but that goes back to a lack of QA testing. There should never be a reason to block the screen reader. The only things you should need at a minimum are a keyboard and an audio output device. By all means display a warning, but don't block everything from working. I hope Sonoma contains even more bug fixes. I'm considering the M3 Mini when that launches.