Does your Mac go to sleep when you are downloading a file or backing it up? Do you want to keep your Mac from sleeping? Okay, there are three easy ways to do so. The first one is using the energy-saver feature, second is to use the terminal, and the third is using a third-party app. All of these methods are straightforward. So, let us dig right in and see how to stop your Mac from sleeping.
Windows only: Tiny utility NoSleepHD stops external hard drives from powering down, bypassing the mandatory sleep mode built into many USB drives—and eliminating the delay while the drive powers. Because the hard drive and the display consume the most power, putting at least one or both of these parts into Sleep mode can dramatically reduce the amount of power your Mac consumes while it’s asleep. To define how your Mac should put itself into Sleep mode automatically, follow these steps: Choose the Apple key→System Preferences.
Prevent Your Mac from Sleeping Using Energy Saver
- Click on the Apple logo from top-right → Click on System Preferences.
- Click on Energy Saver.Note: If you are on a MacBook, you will see two tabs here: Battery and Power Adapter. You can follow steps 3 and 4 below for both Battery power and while your MacBook is charging.
- Drag the Turn display off after slider to Never → Select Ok from the popup.
- Next, tick the box for Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off.
Now, your Mac will not go to sleep. If you wish to turn off this feature, follow the above steps, and drag the slider to the left and set the time according to your preference. Now, you Mac will sleep after the set period of inactivity.
RELATED: How to Keep MacBook from Sleeping With Lid Closed
Prevent Mac From Sleeping Using Terminal App
- Go to Applications folder → Utilities → and open Terminal.Or press Command (⌘) + Space Bar to open Spotlight Search and type Terminal.
- Type one of the following Terminal commands according to your preference and hit the enter
caffeinate -d
To prevent the display from sleepingcaffeinate -i
To prevent the system from idle sleepingcaffeinate -m
To prevent the disk from going idlecaffeinate -s
Keep the Mac awake while it is plugged into AC powercaffeinate
Now, your Mac will stay awake for as long as you leave the Terminal running. To stop this, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Ccaffeinate -t 1800 &
Here 1800 is the time in seconds. You can set it to anything. Now your Mac will stay awake for this time duration
The above commands run as long as you leave the Terminal app running.
Mac Sleep Display
Using Third-party Apps
- Download
- Open the app and click on Next. You can read and click Next on all subsequent screens to learn more about this app.
- Click on two half-circle icon (that looks like a pill) from the top menu bar.
- Click on Indefinitely. Now you Mac will never sleep.
- Now, Click on the Amphetamine app icon from the top menu bar and then click on End Current Session.
Other Apps That Prevent Your Mac From Sleeping
Amphetamine is potent (and popular). However, your choices are not limited. Some other great apps that keep your Mac from sleeping are:
That’s all, mate!
No Sleep For Mac Free Download
Signing off…
These were the easy ways to keep your macOS device from sleeping. Now you can peacefully continue to download big files, backup the Mac, or prevent the screen from dimming when you are not watching a video in full screen. I hope this tutorial was helpful, and you learned something new.
You may also like to take a peek at:
Which method are you going to use? System Preferences, any App, or Terminal? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments down below.
The founder of iGeeksBlog, Dhvanesh, is an Apple aficionado, who cannot stand even a slight innuendo about Apple products. He dons the cap of editor-in-chief to make sure that articles match the quality standard before they are published.
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You can make Mac OS X Lion more energy efficient by configuring parts of your Mac to go into sleep mode automatically when you are not using them.
Sleep mode means that your display or your Mac is in a temporary low-power mode. This saves energy on all Macs, and also saves battery power on a notebook Mac. For example, you can set up Mac OS X to put the display to sleep automatically after a period of inactivity. Similarly, you can configure Mac OS X to put your entire Mac to sleep after you have not used it for a specified amount of time.
To access your Mac’s sleep options:
Open the Energy Saver Preferences.
Open System Preferences.
Click Energy Saver.
The Energy Saver preferences appear.
From here, to set sleep options for a desktop Mac:
Click and drag the slider to set the computer sleep timer.
This specifies the period of inactivity after which your computer goes to sleep.
Click and drag the slider to set the display sleep timer.
This specifies the period of inactivity after which your display goes to sleep.
To set sleep options for a notebook Mac, after opening the Energy Saver Preferences:
Click Battery.
Click and drag the slider to set the computer sleep timer for when your Mac is on battery power.
Click and drag the slider to set the display sleep timer for when your Mac is on battery power.
Click Power Adapter.
Click and drag the slider to set the computer sleep timer for when your Mac is plugged in.
Click and drag the slider to set the display sleep timer for when your Mac is plugged in.
If your Mac’s display is in sleep mode, you can wake up the display by moving your mouse. If your entire Mac is in sleep mode, you can wake up the computer by clicking the mouse. You can also wake up the display or your entire Mac by pressing a key such as Command, Control (Ctrl), Option, or Shift on your keyboard.