What is rapportd on a Mac, and should the firewall let it accept connections?
rapportd lets your Apple devices find and talk to each other: Universal Control, Handoff, AirPlay to Mac. It used 7 MB here. Why it asks to accept connections.
What is rapportd?
rapportd handles device to device communication between your Apple devices on the same network: Universal Control, Handoff, Continuity Camera, AirPlay to Mac, and using an iPhone as a remote. It lives at /usr/libexec/rapportd and runs as you. On our Mac it used 7 MB, and had received about 17 KB in one network sample.
Should I allow rapportd through the firewall?
Allow it if you use any of those features; they need it to accept connections from your other devices. Deny it if you never do, and they stop working on this Mac, with nothing else affected. It is signed by Apple and part of macOS.
Why does rapportd use network?
Small, regular exchanges with your other devices to know which are nearby. Our sample showed kilobytes, not megabytes. Larger traffic means a feature is in use, such as an AirPlay stream.
See it live
Free Mac's System tab ranks every process by processor use and energy impact, once a second, and marks the ones macOS will not let you quit as protected. See also sharingd and which app is using the internet.
Related: bluetoothd and chronod.
Common questions
What is rapportd on a Mac?
Apple's service for communication between your devices, used by Universal Control, Handoff, AirPlay to Mac and Continuity.
Should I allow rapportd to accept incoming connections?
Yes, if you use Universal Control, Handoff or AirPlay to Mac. Denying it only turns those features off.
Is rapportd a virus?
No. It is part of macOS, at /usr/libexec/rapportd.