Set sleep and wake settings for your Mac

Created by John Carnell, Modified on Mon, 3 Mar at 5:45 PM by John Carnell

You can set sleep and wake settings for your Mac. For example, you can set your Mac to go to sleep after a specified duration of inactivity, or set it to wake for network access.

Note: Some of the options may not be available, depending on your Mac.

Set your Mac to go to sleep after inactivity

On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Lock Screen in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)
Do any of the following:
- Click the pop-up menu next to “Turn display off on battery when inactive”, then choose an option.
- Click the pop-up menu next to “Turn display off on power adapter when inactive”, then choose an option.

Specify sleep and wake settings for a Mac laptop

On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Battery in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)
Click Options, then do any of the following:
- Stop automatic sleeping when the display is off: Turn on “Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off”.
- Put hard disks to sleep: Turn on “Put hard disks to sleep when possible”.
- Update your system while it’s asleep: Click the pop-up menu next to Enable Power Nap, then choose an option.
  See Turn Power Nap on or off on Mac.
- Allow your Mac to wake briefly so users can access shared services (if applicable): Click the pop-up menu next to “Wake for network access”, then choose an option.
  See Share your Mac resources when it’s in sleep.

Specify sleep and wake settings for a Mac desktop computer

On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Energy in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)
Do any of the following:
- Stop automatic sleeping when the display is off: Turn on “Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off”.
- Put hard disks to sleep: Turn on “Put hard disks to sleep when possible”.
- Update your system while it’s asleep: Turn on Enable Power Nap.
  See Turn Power Nap on or off on Mac.
- Allow your Mac to wake briefly so users can access shared services (if applicable): Turn on “Wake for network access”.
  See Share your Mac resources when it’s in sleep.