Apr 16, 2011 TeamViewer to the rescue. Or You’re trying to help your Dad email a picture as an attachment and he just can’t figure out what to do after he clicks on the little paperclip. You guess it, TeamViewer’s got your back! But the worst part about TeamViewer, no unattended access for Apple computers.
If your Mac goes to sleep unexpectedly
Make sure that Energy Saver is set up the way you want: choose Apple () menu > System Preferences, then click Energy Saver. Adjust one or more of the following controls to affect when your Mac goes to sleep. Some of these controls might not be available on your Mac.
- 'Turn display off after' slider
- 'Display sleep' slider
- 'Computer sleep' slider
If a slider is set to 'Never,' sleep is disabled for that feature. - Schedule button
Make sure that you aren't putting your Mac to sleep accidentally:
- Pressing the power button can put your Mac to sleep.
- Moving your mouse pointer to a hot corner can put your Mac to sleep, depending on your Mission Control settings. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Mission Control. Click the Hot Corners button, then see if any of the corners are set to 'Put Display to Sleep.'
- Using magnets near your Mac notebook can put your Mac to sleep.
If your Mac doesn't go to sleep when you expect
Check your Energy Saver settings as described above, and be aware that your Mac won't automatically go to sleep unless it's inactive:
- The same network activities that can wake your Mac can also keep your Mac from sleeping.
- Any app or other process that's running on your Mac could also be keeping your Mac awake. Check the Energy Saver pane of Activity Monitor to identify apps that need your Mac to be awake. If 'Yes' appears in the Preventing Sleep column for an app, your Mac won't automatically sleep while the app is running. Other apps prevent sleep only when doing certain things, such playing music or video, printing, or downloading files.
If you started from macOS Recovery on a Mac notebook, automatic sleep is disabled as long as the Mac is using AC power.
If your Mac wakes unexpectedly
Your Mac might wake for these activities:
- Network activity that uses the Wake on Demand feature. Examples of network activity include iTunes sharing, photo sharing, printer sharing, file sharing, and using Back to My Mac.*
- Enhanced notifications from FaceTime, Messages, and other apps and services.
- Bluetooth activity. To prevent Bluetooth devices from waking your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Bluetooth. Click the Advanced Button, then deselect 'Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer.'
If you have a MacBook Pro (2016 or later) or MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017), note that these models are designed to start up when you open their lids or connect them to power.
*As of July 1, 2019, Back to My Mac service is no longer available.
If your Mac doesn't wake when you expect
Your Mac might pause a few seconds before it wakes up. If it doesn't seem to wake at all, check for these possibilities:
- Your screen brightness might be turned down.
- If you're using an external display, your display might be turned off.
- Your Mac might be in safe sleep. To wake from safe sleep, press the power button.
- Check for a sleep indicator light, if applicable, and make sure that your Mac isn't turned off.
If the previous steps don't work
These additional steps may help identify or resolve the issue:
- Reset the SMC.
- Reset NVRAM.
- Disconnect external devices other than your Apple keyboard, mouse, and display. If that resolves the issue, gradually reconnect your devices, testing each time, until you find the device that is interfering with sleep. Then check the documentation that came with the device, or contact the device manufacturer.
- Start up in Safe Mode to see if the issue is related to non-Apple startup items, login items, or kernel extensions.
- Try to isolate the issue by using another user account.
If you still see the issue, contact Apple Support.
FaceTime is not available in all countries or regions.
Put your Mac to sleep
You can save energy by putting your Mac to sleep when you're not using it. When your Mac is sleeping, it's on but consumes less power. And waking your Mac from sleep is quicker than starting it up after it's been shut down.
To put your Mac to sleep immediately, do one of the following:
- Choose Apple () menu > Sleep.
- If you use a Mac notebook computer, close its built-in display.
- Press Command (⌘)–Media Eject (⏏).*
- Tap the power button on your computer.*
*These options don't apply to MacBook Pro models with Touch ID.
Adjust settings in Energy Saver
When you don't use your Mac for a while, macOS can automatically turn off features that you aren't using. When the computer needs to perform a task, related components power back up.
You can adjust energy-related settings in the Energy Saver pane of System Preferences:
- Choose Apple menu > System Preferences.
- Click Energy Saver.
Display sleep
You can tell your Mac how long to wait before it puts its display to sleep. Turning your display off is useful if your computer is performing a task (such as playing music) but you don't need to see anything that the computer is doing.
Putting your display to sleep stops the video signal to any internal and external displays. For Apple displays and built-in displays, this also means that the backlight on the LCD is turned off to save energy.
When your display goes to sleep, the screen goes dark or turns off, but apps that are still busy on your Mac stay active. If your display has a power indicator, it may change to indicate that the display is in low-power mode. To wake your display, move the mouse, touch the trackpad, or press a key on the keyboard.
Put hard disks to sleep when possible
This setting powers down the hard drive motor when you aren't reading or writing files from the drive. Solid-state drives (SSDs) don’t have moving parts, so this setting doesn’t affect Mac computers that use only SSDs to store data.
Consider deselecting this option if you have an internal or external non-SSD drive and you use apps—for example, pro audio or video editing software—that work better with continued read and write access to the hard disk.
Wake for network access
Select this option if you want your computer to automatically wake up when someone accesses its shared resources, such as shared printers or iTunes playlists.
This setting applies to wired connections from other computers, such as Ethernet connections. It also applies to Wi-Fi connections if you use a properly configured AirPort base station. Some tasks might prevent the computer from sleeping when idle.
Enable Power Nap
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Power Nap allows your Mac to occasionally wake from sleep to perform tasks such as checking for new email or software updates.
During Power Nap, your Mac leaves its displays and other hardware that isn't needed for these tasks powered down to save energy. After it's finished, your Mac automatically goes back to sleep to save energy.
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If you don't want your Mac to wake up on its own to perform these tasks, deselect this option.
More options
You might see more options in Energy Saver preferences depending on whether you use a Mac desktop or notebook.
iMac, Mac Pro, and Mac mini
When you use a desktop Mac, you can control when your computer, display, and hard disks are put to sleep to save energy.
These options are available on iMac and Mac Pro:
Mac mini has these options:
Turn display off
With some Mac desktop computers, you can set how long to wait until the computer enters its lowest idle power mode. This setting is different from display sleep because other parts of the computer also sleep.
If you set the computer to never sleep using this slider, the display and other elements of the computer remain in a fully powered state.
Start up automatically after a power failure
You can set your Mac desktop computer to automatically restart if its AC power connection becomes unavailable. For example, if there's a power outage, or you inadvertently disconnect the AC power cord, your Mac starts up again on its own once power is reconnected.
You can automatically re-open windows, apps, and documents on your Mac after it restarts, which is useful if you have your computer set to perform tasks when it's left unattended.
MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook
With Mac notebooks, some options are available when the computer operates on battery power, and others are available on AC power. For example, you might want your computer to never sleep when you are connected to AC power. But when it’s on battery power, you might want it to sleep when it’s been idle for only a short time so that the battery remains charged longer.
In the Energy Saver preference pane, select the Battery or Power Adapter tab:
Automatic graphics switching
The automatic graphics switching option appears on Mac notebooks that have more than one built-in graphics chip. When you select it, your computer uses its low power graphics chip for tasks like text editing to save energy. For higher-intensity tasks, like playing games or compressing video, macOS automatically switches to another more complex graphics chip.
If you deselect this option, your computer always uses high-performance graphics, which uses more energy.
Other sleep modes
Some Mac computers enter special sleep modes when you leave them idle for a long time, helping them conserve even more energy.
Standby Mode
For Mac computers that start up from an internal SSD, macOS includes a deep sleep mode known as Standby Mode.
Mac computers manufactured in 2013 or later enter standby after being in sleep mode for three hours. Earlier models enter standby after just over an hour of sleep. During standby, the state of your session is saved to flash storage (SSD). Then, the power turns off to some hardware systems such as RAM and USB buses.
Standby extends how long a notebook computer can stay asleep on battery power. A notebook with a fully charged battery can remain in standby for up to thirty days without being plugged in to power.
Safe sleep
macOS also includes a deep sleep mode known as safe sleep. Your Mac might enter safe sleep if your battery begins to run low, or your computer is left idle for a long time.
Safe sleep copies the contents of memory to your startup drive and powers down the computer, allowing you to pick up where you left off without losing your work.
To wake your Mac from safe sleep, press its power button. If you use a Mac notebook and its battery is low, connect the AC adapter first.
When you wake your computer from safe sleep, a progress indicator appears. This indicates that the previously stored contents of memory are being read from the startup disk and copied back into RAM.
Waking your Mac
To wake your Mac from any of these sleep modes, do one of these:
- Tap the computer's power button.
- Click your mouse or trackpad.
- Open the lid on your Mac notebook.
- Press a key on a connected keyboard.
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If you use sharing features on your Mac, other computers that use these services may be able to wake your computer on demand.
Learn more
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- You can also save energy by adjusting your display’s brightness and the brightness of your backlit keyboard.
- Learn what to do if your Mac doesn't sleep or wake when expected.