How To Set Sleep Timer On Mac

It's ofttimes a expert idea to let your Mac sleep after a period of time when yous're not using it, simply the way recent versions of macOS present sleep-mode options in Organization Preferences feels counter-intuitive. Here's how to sort information technology out.

First, a Notation well-nigh Sleeping Mac Laptops

Mac laptops automatically sleep when you close the lid to conserve battery life. Unfortunately, there is no setting in System Preferences to change this. If you'd similar your MacBook to stay awake while closed, y'all'll demand to plug in an external brandish or utilise a third-party utility.

RELATED: How to Keep Your MacBook Awake While Closed

For Automatic Sleep on a Timer, Visit Energy Saver

If you're looking for a mode to configure when your Mac sleeps after a certain flow of time, yous need to visit the "Energy Saver" panel in "Arrangement Preferences." Click the "Apple" logo in the upper-left corner of the screen and select "Organization Preferences."

In Arrangement Preferences, click "Energy Saver."

When trying to configure your Mac to automatically sleep, defoliation often arises because the pick isn't spelled out in Energy Saver preferences. Before versions of macOS included two sliders in this preference pane: one to ready when the display turns off, and i to set when the computer goes to slumber. At some point, Apple tree combined these sliders into ane to encourage people to permit their computers sleep by default, thereby theoretically helping to conserve energy.

Unfortunately, in more recent versions of macOS (such as macOS 10.15 Catalina), information technology is no longer immediately obvious how to go your Mac to sleep after a certain flow of time.

But fear not; we'll sort it out. What you lot do next in Energy Saver preferences depends on whether yous want your computer to sleep or not to slumber later on a certain period of time. Let's cover the options.

Set your Mac to Automatically Sleep After a Period of Time

If you want your Mac to automatically go to sleep after a certain menstruation of time, locate the slider labeled "Turn display off after" in Energy Saver preferences.

Drag the slider to lucifer your desired slumber time. Besides, brand sure that "Prevent estimator from sleeping automatically when the brandish is off" option is not checked.

Then close System Preferences. Afterwards the period of time y'all selected, the brandish will go nighttime, and the Mac should go into sleep manner soon afterward—unless something is holding up the process. In that case, see the section on troubleshooting beneath.

How to Automatically Turn Off Your Mac'due south Brandish without Sleeping

If y'all desire your Mac'due south display to plow off after a period of time, but you don't want your computer to become to sleep, utilise the "Turn display off after" slider.

And here's the fundamental role: Make sure the "Prevent figurer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" option is enabled by placing a check marking beside it. This is what keeps your computer from sleeping when the display is off.

Once you cull the "Preclude Sleep" setting, macOS volition warn you lot that your figurer "may use more energy" in a pop-upward dialog. Click "OK."

Every bit a 3rd possibility, if y'all never want your brandish to turn off—and you never desire your Mac to slumber—ready the "Plough brandish off" slider to "Never."

What to Practice If Your Mac Refuses to Sleep Automatically

If your Mac doesn't go to sleep after the time you specified in Energy Saver preferences, then it is possible that network activity or an active process (such as an application or system background task) is keeping it awake.

Ane way to cheque for an active procedure that may exist preventing sleep is by using macOS'south congenital-in Activity Monitor utility. Open "Action Monitor" and click the "Energy" tab. Look for the cavalcade labeled "Preventing Sleep."

If any particular in the listing says "Yes," then your Mac will not automatically sleep while that process is running. You can either look for the job to complete, quit the process, or Forcefulness Quit the process if it is non responding.

There's too a way to dig deeper into what may be preventing your Mac from sleeping using the Terminal awarding and a command-line program called pmset, just it requires more within knowledge of how the Mac works under the hood than the Activeness Monitor method listed above. Adept luck!

RELATED: How to Figure Out What's Preventing Your Mac From Sleeping

Later on Sleep Comes Standby

Later on some time in Sleep mode, your Mac will enter "standby." Information technology works like hibernation fashion on Windows PCs. The Mac volition save the contents of its memory to disk to save boosted ability, merely information technology will take longer to resume from standby than it does to wake from sleep.

Here's how to customize when your Mac enters standby.

RELATED: How to Choose When Your Mac Hibernates (or "Enters Standby")

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/688291/how-to-control-when-your-mac-automatically-goes-to-sleep/

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