Apple silicon MacBooks have legendary battery life, and this is largely due to aggressive software management. One of macOS’s most ruthless battery-saving features is called App Nap. If you have an application running, but you completely hide its window behind another application (or minimize it to the Dock) for more than a few seconds, the operating system assumes you aren’t using it.
macOS will forcefully throttle that hidden app’s CPU usage to zero, put its memory into a deep sleep state, and pause its network traffic. The exact millisecond you bring the window back to the front, macOS violently wakes the app back up.
While incredible for battery life, App Nap is devastating for professional workflows. If you are rendering a massive 3D scene in Blender, running a complex Python script in Terminal, or exporting a podcast in Logic Pro, hiding the window to check your email will instantly pause the rendering process without warning you. If your background tasks keep pausing when you look away, you must disable App Nap system-wide via the Terminal.
Step 1: Understand the GUI Limitation
In older versions of macOS (like Catalina), you could right-click an app, click “Get Info,” and simply check a box that said “Prevent App Nap.” Apple permanently removed this checkbox from the graphical user interface in modern versions of macOS (Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma). The only way to disable the feature is by modifying the core defaults via the command line.
Step 2: Execute the Override Command
You can use a global boolean override to command the macOS power management daemon to ignore the App Nap protocol entirely.
- Open the Terminal application (Search for it using Spotlight, Cmd+Space).
- Copy and paste the following exact command:
defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAppSleepDisabled -bool YES - Press Return.
There will be no confirmation message; the prompt will simply return on a new line if it succeeded.
Step 3: Reboot to Apply
Because App Nap is deeply integrated into the kernel’s window manager (WindowServer), applying this global setting change requires a complete system reboot to take effect.
- Click the Apple logo and select Restart…
The Result
Once your Mac reboots, App Nap is globally deactivated. You can launch a massive video render in Final Cut Pro, minimize the window completely to the dock, open 20 tabs in Safari, and watch an entire movie. The render will continue processing in the background at 100% CPU speed, completely ignoring Apple’s battery-saving protocols.
How to Re-Enable App Nap (For Travel)
If you are about to take a 14-hour flight and need your MacBook battery to survive as long as possible, you should turn App Nap back on to prevent background tabs from draining your power.
- Open Terminal.
- Execute the reverse command:
defaults delete NSGlobalDomain NSAppSleepDisabled - Restart your Mac.