If you leave a massive file downloading or a complex video rendering overnight, you might return to your Mac in the morning only to find that the process failed halfway through. By default, macOS is designed to put the entire computer to sleep shortly after the display turns off to save battery and electricity. If you want your Mac’s screen to turn off but need the actual computer to stay awake and keep working, you must change its energy settings.
How to Prevent Automatic Sleep
You can configure your Mac to remain active even when the screen goes black.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your screen.
- Select System Settings… from the dropdown menu.
- Scroll down the left-hand sidebar and click on Displays.
- Click the Advanced… button located at the bottom of the Displays window.
- Look for the toggle switch labelled Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off.
- Click the toggle switch to turn it On.
- Click Done to save your changes.
Now, when your Mac’s screen turns off due to inactivity, the internal processor, hard drive, and Wi-Fi connection will remain fully active. Your large downloads and heavy rendering tasks will continue running seamlessly in the background while still saving energy on the display.