- Origin should not allow machine to sleep while downloading/updating a game. As the title says, Origin currently allows a machine to go to sleep while downloading/updating a game. This is really annoying because I have to go into Windows' settings and disable sleeping while the game downloads so that I can leave it unattended.
- Aug 14, 2021 Of course, the answer is yes. Downloads will continue when your best laptop is in sleep mode. However, it’s a small file size then you can leave your pc to download while in sleep mode. I strongly advise not to leave your pc on sleep mode when downloading larger files. Disappointment will be your result as there is a high chance that the file.
- Just discovered some cool Dock shortcuts. Thought someone might find these useful. Option + Click on app in Dock will hide the app's window (just like clicking an open app in Taskbar on Windows hides it). Command + Click: opens the app's location in Finder (also works for items in Downloads in Dock!). Command + Option + Click: hides all windows except this app.
If there’s one thing that MacBook owners always want more of, without doubt, it’s battery life. Even though the latest MacBooks can give you up to 11 or 12 hours of web browsing or video playback, the more you use your Mac the more your battery capacity will gradually decrease, until you’ll eventually have to keep it plugged in practically all the time.
The good thing is there are quite a few third-party tools that let you extend your battery life and, by default, your Mac comes with some great solutions for preserving your battery for as long as possible too. One of them is Sleep Mode.
Let’s explore what Sleep Mode on Mac is, how to use it, and how to prevent Mac from sleeping when you need it to be turned on at all times.
Stop Sleep Mode In Mac
What’s Sleep Mode On Mac?
You’ve probably noticed that when you don’t use your Mac for a minute or two, the display would become slightly dimmed. Your screensaver will then be activated shortly and probably stay on for another 10 minutes. Finally, the screen will go completely black. That’s Sleep Mode.
Sleep Mode essentially stops all your visible Mac activity but keeps the vital processes going. That’s how it differs from a complete shut down. In Sleep Mode, your Mac is still able to check your Mail app in the background, for example. And once you click on the screen or hit any key, the computer will wake up instantly, without any loading process.
The simple answer, no. As suggested, just turn off your monitor and let it run like that. Same with peripheral lights if they're bothersome. If your PC or laptop sleeps by itself due to lack of input, check your power options in Control Panel.
Generally, Sleep Mode works perfectly for what it’s intended to do: saving battery while you’re away from your MacBook. Sometimes, however, it could interfere with what you’re doing. For example, you could be comparing a spreadsheet with a physical report or try to draw something from your MacBook screen. Using your keyboard to wake your Mac up could be annoying, especially if your screen auto-locks as well.
So how to keep Mac from sleeping? There are a few ways.
How to stop Mac from sleeping with Energy Saver
Since Sleep Mode is one of the built-in features on your Mac, you can control how it’s activated as well. To do so, there’s an option in your System Preferences called Energy Saver.
Energy Saver separates similar functions in two categories: Battery and Power Adapter. There’s a slider for inactivity time after which the screen will be turned off and a few checkboxes:
- Put hard disks to sleep when possible
- Slightly dim the display while on battery power
- Enable Power Nap while on battery power
- Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off (Power Adapter only)
The options are pretty self-explanatory. Power Nap means allowing your Mac to back up to Time Machine and check email, calendar, and iCloud while asleep. It’s recommended that you keep all the boxes checked to preserve your battery.
But if you’re wondering, “Why does my Mac keep going to sleep?” It’s only because the “Turn display off after” slider is set to some specific time. The easiest way for how to stop your Mac from sleeping is to move that slider all the way to the right (in Battery and Power Adapter tabs) to Never and click OK when asked to confirm.
How to seamlessly control Mac sleep
While you now know how to stop Mac from sleeping by using Energy Saver, it’s not the best option when you only want your Mac not to sleep for the next hour, for example, but act in normal, battery-friendly mode the rest of the time. Coming back to the Energy Saver menu and tweaking the slider every time is just too burdensome.
Lungo is like a shot (or a few) of espresso for your Mac. This simple utility lives in your menu bar and is the perfect answer for how to change sleep time on Mac. Just click on its icon and choose the time for which you wish to keep your Mac awake, whether it’s 10 minutes, four hours, or indefinitely. You can stop the app at any time as well by clicking on its icon again and selecting Deactivate. Now you don’t need to launch Energy Saver at all.
How to prevent Mac from sleeping with Terminal
Another default way to fine-tune when your Mac goes to sleep and when it doesn’t is by using Terminal:
- Open Terminal from your Applications folder
- Type caffeinate -d to prevent your Mac from sleeping
- Press Enter to activate
Here are some other commands you can run instead:
Do Downloads Continue In Sleep Mode Mac Free
- caffeinate -i will cancel idle sleeping
- caffeinate -m will stop the disk from going idle
- caffeinate -s will keep your Mac awake while it’s plugged in
- caffeinate will prevent your Mac from going to sleep while Terminal is running or until you press Control + C
- caffeinate -t 1800 (or any number) will make sure your Mac is awake for the number of seconds you specified
All commands will stay active for as long as the Terminal session is running.
How to schedule sleep on your Mac
If you’re using your Mac as a data dashboard or other real-time monitoring solution daily, you also have an option of setting your MacBook sleep and active times using a predefined schedule.
Here’s how to turn off sleep mode on Mac at certain times:
- Launch Energy Saver from System Preferences
- At the bottom, click Schedule…
- Check the box for “Start up or wake”
- Select Sleep, Restart, or Shut Down from the dropdown
- Pick the frequency and set the exact times as needed
- Click OK
Now you won’t have to remember to manually adjust your Mac’s sleep and awake settings. But since your Mac is going to be using its battery more actively now, you’ll also benefit from a solution that will extend the length of its cycles.
Endurance is an automatic MacBook battery enhancer. With no input from your side, it magically grants your MacBook up to 20% longer life on every battery cycle. Endurance does so by tweaking some energy-intensive but non-vital aspects of your Mac, such as dimming the display slightly, turning off Turbo Boost, hiding background apps, pausing certain services, and so on. You can simply set Endurance to turn on as soon as your battery level drops below a certain percentage and then just forget about it.
How to completely optimize your Mac
While knowing how to keep Mac from sleeping and extend its battery life using Endurance is great, you can also make your Mac more energy-efficient by getting rid of everything that clogs its systems and overloads its CPU. Think of all the cache files, user logs, launch agents, mail attachments, and uninstalled applications that drag your Mac performance down. Good news is you can get your Mac back in shape in just one click.
CleanMyMac X is the world’s leading optimization software for your Mac. It not only scans your system and optimizes the use of your Mac’s resources but also identifies any malware, updates your software, and suggests which files you might want to delete based on the last time you’ve used them. In other words, it’s a complete and user-friendly optimization solution at your fingertips.
As you can see, learning how to change sleep time on Mac isn’t difficult. You can do so manually with Energy Saver or Terminal or you can use Lungo as an automated solution. Just don’t forget to get Endurance to extend your battery life and optimize your system with CleanMyMac X.
Best of all, Lungo, Endurance, and CleanMyMac X are available to you absolutely free for seven days via a trial of Setapp, a platform with more than 190 outstanding Mac apps for every daily task on your mind. Try them all at no cost and see how much more productive you can be!