You can stop your M1 Mac or Intel Mac from going to sleep using a handy Terminal command called Caffeinate. Here's how you can use it.
Learn to Stop Your Mac from Going to Sleep Using a Simple Terminal Command
There are a wide number of reasons why you'd want your Mac to stay awake. For example, you just set up your Mac as brand new and you need everything from iCloud to download and sync instantly. There is nothing more annoying other than walking up to your Mac just to find out that your computer decided to take a nap when you didn't want it to.
Thankfully, using the power of Terminal and a small command called Caffeinate, you can keep your Mac away for an indefinite period of time. And it is actually super easy to follow as well.
Note: This command does not working on versions of macOS / OS X older than Mountain Lion. To achieve the same thing, you might want to look into apps on Mac App Store that offer similar functionality.
Step 1. Launch Terminal
Step 2. Type in the following command as is and hit Return / Enter on your keyboard:
caffeinate -t 3600
You can replace the '3600' seconds value with anything you like. In fact, go nuts with it and type '10000000' and your Mac will stay awake for that mighty duration.
Step 3. If you want to disable the command, simply close the Terminal window
As I mentioned above, this Terminal command is especially handy when you are setting up a new Mac and want everything to download and sync without any sort of interruptions. Furthermore, this command is handy for situations when you have something running on loop in the background and sleep interruptions are not an option.
Older versions of macOS / OS X do not have the luxury of Caffeinate. Thankfully, there are a number of apps on the Mac App Store that achieve the same thing. But of course, nothing beats the convenience of a built-in feature, right?
Check out more tutorials below:
- How to Use Dock on Apple Watch – Add or Remove Favorite Apps
- Factory Reset Your Phone Before Upgrading to the Galaxy S21 [How To]
- How to Clear RAM on iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Models to Enhance Performance
About the author: Uzair has been writing about tech for a little under 10 years. Started off in the Symbian days, migrated to Android, eventually settling on iOS and Mac to make a living. Loves photography, drones, talking about the latest tech, and firmly believes that iPad is the future of computing. Served as Editor-in-Chief with Redmond Pie for five years, author at The Readers Eye and many other freelance gigs. Wccftech is now his current home.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
