Prevent Mac from Sleeping on Sonoma

Picture this: you are in the middle of completing a task on your Mac running Sonoma. You get up to grab something, and when you return, you find your screen has gone black. This occurs because sleep mode is enabled on your Mac. Fortunately, you can disable sleep mode to prevent minor inconveniences and keep your Mac active while working.

Before we start:

 

Using sleep mode is one of several methods to preserve MacBook battery time. However, an even better method exists to optimize your Mac and enhance its overall performance. Optimize and secure your Mac with MacKeeper's Find & Fix tool.

 

MacKeeper’s Find & Fix tool is designed to enhance your device’s performance and help protect and secure your Mac. This tool conducts comprehensive scans across all of MacKeeper’s features, searching for opportunities to enhance your Mac’s security, get rid of unnecessary files, and improve your privacy—all within a single interface. You can address any detected issues with just one click.

 

Here’s how to use MacKeeper’s Find & Fix utility:

1. Download MacKeeper and select Find & Fix from the sidebar.
2. Click the Start Full Scan button to initiate the scan and monitor the progress on the screen.
3. When the scan is finished, review your results and MacKeeper status. From here, you can either go through each section separately or address all issues MacKeeper found in one click by hitting the Fix Items Safely button.

Preventing your Mac from entering sleep mode at inconvenient times can be the difference between having a productive work session and feeling frustrated. Stick around to learn how to keep Mac from sleeping.

What is sleep mode on a Mac Sonoma?

Sleep mode on a Mac running macOS Sonoma is a feature that helps conserve power and extend battery life. When you activate sleep mode, your Mac automatically turns off its display and pauses some background processes to reduce energy consumption. Even though the computer isn't completely switched off, it still uses minimal power.

Mac’s sleep mode is particularly helpful for saving battery when temporarily stepping away from your laptop without shutting it down and having to turn it on again. However, it can also be inconvenient when it activates while you’re busy, like when you're downloading a large file, as the download might fail. Similarly, if your Mac enters sleep mode while you’re multitasking or actively using it, it would require you to enter your password when you resume work, disrupting your workflow.

For these reasons, while sleep mode provides significant benefits in terms of power conservation and battery management, it’s essential to be mindful of when to use it. Adjusting your Mac's sleep settings can help you avoid interruptions while undertaking important or time-consuming tasks.

Important: 

 

If you use sleep mode to save your Mac’s battery, consider using MacKeeper’s Find & Fix utility instead. It takes a comprehensive approach to optimizing your Mac, including removing redundant files and addressing any issues, making it a better solution to enhance your device’s performance. Here’s how to use it:

1. Launch MacKeeper and select Find & Fix from the sidebar.
2. Click the Start Full Scan button to start scanning your Mac, review the scan results, and hit Fix Items Safely to resolve the issues listed by MacKeeper.

Reasons for disabling sleep mode on Mac Sonoma

Here are some reasons why you would want to keep your Mac active instead of allowing it to enter into sleep mode:

• Downloading large files is a time-consuming process that requires patience and, more importantly, our Mac to stay active. Your Mac entering sleep mode during the download process could result in failed downloads, requiring you to start over.
• Uploading data to cloud services. Likewise, uploading files to cloud services, especially in large amounts, requires your Mac to stay active. If it goes to sleep, it could interrupt the transfer process and possibly delay the uploads or cause errors.
• Processing high-definition media. If you convert or finalize high-definition videos or images, your Mac needs to stay awake. This prevents interruptions in the processing tasks, which can be time-consuming and risk data corruption if stopped midway.
• Staying connected on video-conferencing apps. Keeping your Mac awake is crucial when you want your colleagues or clients to reach you via video-conferencing apps. Sleep mode can disconnect you from meetings or make you miss important calls and notifications.
• Short breaks. Your Mac going to sleep when you step away briefly, whether to attend to something or go to the bathroom, can be inconvenient. Constantly having to wake it up can disrupt your workflow and productivity, particularly if you frequently step away from your desk.

By preventing your Mac from going to sleep, you can ensure that these critical tasks proceed smoothly without unnecessary interruptions.

How to prevent MacBook from going to sleep on macOS Sonoma

There are several solutions you can implement to prevent your Mac from entering sleep mode. This includes changing the power-saving and lock screen settings. Prevent sleep mode from activating via Mac’s Terminal utility. Finally, a third-party app can be used to stop Macs from going to sleep when the lid is closed.

Below are the troubleshooting options you can try to prevent MacBook Pro, Air, or Mini from going to sleep on OS X Sonoma:

1. Change power-saving settings
2. Change lock screen settings
3. Prevent sleep mode via Terminal
4. Stop Mac from going to sleep when the lid is closed

Your Mac doesn’t always have to have sleep mode enabled. When it gets in the way of your productivity, simply turn off sleep mode on Mac Sonoma using the detailed guides below.

1. Change power-saving settings

Sleep mode can sometimes be counterproductive. If it frequently interrupts your workflow, you can adjust your Mac's power-saving settings to minimize interruptions while you are busy with something important.

Follow the detailed steps below to disable sleep mode on macOS Sonoma:

1. Click on the Apple menu in the upper-left corner of your screen and select the System Settings option from the drop-down menu.
2. In the System Settings window, check the left sidebar and click Battery> Options.
3. Now, prevent your Mac from sleeping on Sonoma by finding Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off and toggling it on to ensure it remains active even when it is not in use.

Note from our experts: 

 

Sleep mode comes in handy for minimizing performance issues such as your MacBook heating up, especially when running multiple programs and web browser tabs simultaneously. However, sleep mode might also disrupt your productivity by putting your Mac to sleep too frequently, at inconvenient times, or when you’re not quite ready. However, the guide provided above can help you keep your device responsive during important tasks and sessions and minimize inconveniences.

2. Change lock screen settings

For your peace of mind, ensure you keep your Mac active. To achieve this, adjust the lock screen settings in System Preferences. This will ensure that your Mac’s display does not go off or switch to the screen saver prematurely, allowing for an uninterrupted user experience.

Here is a detailed guide to altering your Mac Sonoma’s lock screen settings:

1. Open System Settings from the Apple menu or by clicking on the System Settings icon in your dock or Applications folder.
2. Head to the sidebar and click on the Lock Screen option.
3. Navigate to the right, look for the pop-up menu next to the Start Screen Saver when inactive option, and select Never from the drop-down menu to prevent your screen saver from displaying.
4. Find the option named Turn display off when inactive and choose Never to stop your display from automatically turning off.
5. Once you’ve made these changes, ensure you close the System Settings window to save your new settings.

Hint from our team: By default, when your Mac activates a screen saver, it enters sleep mode before displaying it. While it’s a good way to save energy, it’s likely to interrupt or slow down your workflow if you frequently leave your Mac unattended for short periods of time, like when you need the bathroom. Similarly, when you set your Mac to turn off the display during periods of inactivity, it also enters sleep mode based on the time frame you have stipulated. This is why we advise adjusting your Mac’s lock screen settings.

3. Prevent sleep mode via Terminal

You can prevent your Mac from going to sleep by using the Terminal app, which allows you to make temporary changes to the sleep settings. These changes will stay active as long as the Terminal window remains open, so keep it open as long as you’re busy. Do the following:

1. Press the Command (⌘) and the Space bar keys simultaneously to open Mac’s Spotlight search.
2. In the search bar that appears, type “Terminal” (without quotation marks) and select it from the list of results that appear.
3. Once the Terminal window is open, you must enter a specific command to turn off sleep mode on Mac Sonoma. Type the command: caffeinate -d in the Terminal window and press Enter. This command tells your Mac to stay awake indefinitely as long as the Terminal window is open (ensure you don’t close it until you’re done using your laptop). Suppose you have a specific amount of time in mind to keep your Mac awake. In that case, you can use an alternate command: caffeinate -t X (replace the "X" with the number of seconds you want your Mac to stay awake. For example, to keep your laptop awake for one hour, you enter the command: caffeinate -t 3600).

4. Stop Mac from going to sleep when the lid is closed

Here’s how to prevent your Mac from entering sleep mode when the lid is closed using Amphetamine, a free third-party app:

1. Download the Amphetamine app from the App Store and install it on Sonoma.
2. Navigate to the upper-right corner of your desktop, click on the Amphetamine icon, and choose the Indefinitely option from the drop-down menu.

Note from the MacKeeper team: Amphetamine, a robust utility created by William Gustafson, is available for free on the App Store. It's the simplest way to stop your MacBook from going to sleep when you close the lid.

Prevent macOS Sonoma from activating sleep mode

You use your MacBook for various activities. When you're focused and engaged in your tasks, the last thing you want is for macOS to go into sleep mode, forcing you to enter your login credentials again to continue what you were doing. Fortunately, you can avoid this inconvenience.

By adjusting a few settings on macOS Sonoma using the tips in our guide, you can prevent your computer from entering sleep mode, ensuring uninterrupted productivity and entertainment. More importantly, use MacKeeper's Find & Fix tool, which is a more effective approach to improving your Mac’s overall performance. In addition to enhancing its performance, our tool optimizes startup time and ensures your apps are up-to-date.