How to Stop Your MacBook from Sleeping | Digital Trends

Your MacBook is your ideal powerhouse for all things computing. Web surfing, graphic design, video editing, music production, you name it, the MacBook can do it. But like any good laptop, your MacBook has a number of battery saving features built-in and enabled by default. One of these features is the computer’s sleep mode, which optimizes battery life by reducing power consumption.

If you leave your office with the window open on your MacBook and the screen is black when you go back, your computer is in sleep mode. However, if you use your MacBook for networking functions that require constant full performance, or if you simply want to turn off sleep mode because you don’t like it, there is an easy way to disable it.

Disabling Sleep Mode via Power Saving/Battery Settings (macOS Ventura and later)

With the introduction of macOS Ventura, a few things have changed. The name of the utility used to configure your Mac has changed from System Preferences to System Preferences. And the format has changed from an icon-oriented interface to tabs on the side. Many of the specific system settings have also changed. So if you’re switching from a Mac with an earlier version of macOS, you should follow these instructions.

Still, it remains easy enough to disable sleep mode in macOS Ventura and later.

Step 1: Open System settings.

Step 2: Choose Lock screen Tab. You will find two options: Turn off the display when inactive on battery power And Turn off the display on the power supply when it is inactive. A selection is also displayed as to how long the display should be inactive before it is switched off. Choose Never to prevent your Mac from going to sleep.

Step 3: You can also make sure your Mac doesn’t go to sleep when it’s plugged in and the display is turned off. To do this, select the battery Tab, then Options…. Then switch Prevent the power adapter from being on when the display is off further.

Turn off sleep mode using Power Saving/Battery Settings (pre-macOS Ventura)

Step 1: Choose System settings.

Step 2: Select the Energy saver symbol (or battery for newer versions of macOS).

Step 3: There are two tabs – Battery and Power Adapter. The former is automatically selected when opening Power Saving Mode, so let’s start with it.

By default, the Turn off display after section already has a specific time set that is used when no activity is detected on the Mac.

To completely disable this feature, drag the slider to the right where it says Never.

Step 4: A warning window will appear indicating that the MacBook may be using more power at these specific settings. Hit that OK button to confirm the change.

Step 5: Below the slider there are some additional settings that you can also disable:

• Put hard drives into hibernation mode whenever possible
• Dim the display slightly in battery mode
• Enable Power Nap on battery power

Step 6: Choose power adapter Click the tab and drag the slider to the right again Neverand also disable some of the following settings (leave the first one enabled):

• Prevent the computer from automatically going to sleep when the display is off
• Put hard drives into hibernation mode whenever possible
• Wake for Wi-Fi network access
• Enable Power Nap while connected to a power adapter

Disable schedule (before macOS Ventura)

If your schedule tool is enabled in sleep mode, you will also need to disable it to prevent your MacBook from going to sleep.

Step 1: Choose Time schedule Button.

Step 2: Uncheck the boxes Start or wake up And Sleep Boxing. Choose OK Button.

My MacBook goes to sleep when I don’t want it to

In case your MacBook goes to sleep or wakes up without your command, there may be a problem with your sleep settings. To troubleshoot, you should first go to your sleep settings. The time it takes for your MacBook to enter sleep mode (when connected or disconnected from the power adapter) may be too short a time window.

Adjust the amount of time as you see fit. Additionally, you can go to your MacBook’s battery settings to disable it Prevent the power supply from auto-sleeping when the display is off.

My MacBook wakes up when I don’t want it to

This section is a little more complicated because there are several functions and programs that can wake up your MacBook. Don’t worry, though, because we have troubleshooting and fixing tips for every potential culprit:

Step 1: If your MacBook’s shared resources are accessible to other users on your network, your laptop will wake up when Mom or Dad tries to open one of your MacBook resources.

To prevent this, open System settingsthen click battery. Then click Options > Enable for network access > *Never.

You can also disable other sharing features by clicking System settings > Generally > Split. Find the service you no longer want to share and turn off sharing.

Step 2: Without your knowledge, your MacBook may be running one or two programs in the background that are preventing it from sleeping. To keep an eye on this type of activity, open a Finder window and then click Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.

Step 3: Just click now CPU Click the button at the top of the page and you’ll get a breakdown of the software and other tools that are currently communicating with your MacBook’s processor.

It’s important to highlight how this will affect your battery if your Mac doesn’t have sleep options enabled. As Apple itself states in the power saving window, if you never put it to sleep, you may shorten the lifespan of your display.

If your Mac is always operational even when it is not completely shut down, it will also affect the overall health of your system’s battery.

For more information on how to save your MacBook’s battery and extend its overall lifespan, check out our detailed guide.

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