Caffeine is a tiny program that puts an icon on the right side of your menu bar. Click it to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. Click it again to go back. Right-click (or ⌘-click) the icon to show the menu. How to stop mac from sleeping when closing lid. May 30, 2011 No, it's not possible to continue downloads while the machine is in sleep mode. You can however just sleep the displays and keep things running. To sleep the display press. Puts all displays to sleep. You could also define a hot corner to display sleep in System Preferences Expose & Spaces Expose tab. Regards, Captfred. Here's what you need to do if you want to use your Mac with the lid closed, including how to keep a MacBook awake with the lid closed or prevent it sleeping so you can continue with a download. Download AntiSleep - Keep System Awake for macOS 10.11 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. ‎Keep Awake: System Display and External Displays Wi-Fi Network Audio In - Out Disks and External Storages Other External Media Bluetooth Timers: Deactivate System Sleep Display Sleep Display Fade Deactivate Emulation of Mouse Movements Triggers. Well there’s another app called Insomnia (download here) which gives you a bit more flexibility than Caffeine insofar as it allows you to separately toggle idle sleep (your Mac going to sleep after a certain amount of time when the lid is left open) and lid-closed sleep (your Mac going to sleep when the lid is closed). You can also set either type of sleep to only be disabled for a certain period of time, after.

Many of us don’t have the time to sit at their laptop all day whilst you download new files, programs and updates. So, it makes sense that when you do have large downloads that you’d do this whilst you’re going about the rest of your day, leaving your laptop to deal with things.

But if you’re looking to download something on your laptop, will this download continue whilst your laptop is in sleep mode? Or do you need to change the settings of your laptop so it never enters sleep mode in order for you to download something successfully? Well, that’s what we’re going to take a look at now.

Will a download continue in sleep mode?

The fact of the matter is that no, a download will not continue whilst your laptop is in sleep mode. This is because whilst it’s in sleep mode, your laptop is trying to conserve energy, so it won’t continue with any active downloads. However, you can stop your laptop from going into sleep mode, which will in turn ensure that it carries on downloading.

How to stop your laptop from entering into sleep mode will depend on which operating system you’re using. So, let’s have a look how you stop your laptop entering into sleep mode for both Windows and Mac.

How to stop your laptop entering sleep mode – Windows

If you’re using a Windows laptop, then it’s pretty straight forward how to stop your laptop going into sleep mode. This is important, especially if you’re a student with a ton of work to download (check here for the best affordable student laptops).

All you need to do is go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > System Settings, and from there you’ll be able to access the settings. Adobe after effects mac download free. The third option down should read When I close the lid, giving you the option to either have your laptop sleep, hibernate, shut down or do nothing when you close it.

Of course, out of these you’re going to want to select do nothing. This will ensure that when you close the lid of your laptop, it won’t enter into sleep mode, and it will then continue to download instead.

How to stop your laptop entering sleep mode – Mac

On a Macbook, things are pretty similar, but you also have another option too.

In a Mac, you just need to go to System Preferences > Energy Saver, and this will bring you to the menu you need to be on. Here, you’ll be able to select the time that you want your laptop to stay on without it going into sleep mode. If you slide this along to Never, then this will prevent your laptop from entering into sleep mode and you’ll continue your download.

Will Sleep Continue My Download Mac Os

However with a Mac, this isn’t your only option for this, especially if you don’t want to leave your laptop lid open. If you don’t want to change the settings of your Macbook on the whole time, then you can install an app like Insomnia X. This will make sure that when you do close the lid of your laptop, that your downloads continue as they were.

What about on my computer?

If you’re using a computer, then it’s going to enter into sleep mode if you stop using it for a period of time. You can stop this with the settings above. All you need to do with a computer is turn the monitor off and let it keep downloading, which should be all you need to do to get your programs downloaded properly.

Conclusion

There’s nothing more annoying than having something big to download, forgetting about it and coming back to your laptop with no progress made. But there are things you can do to ensure that the download continues even when you’re not using the device. This way, you’ll be able to download large files without having to be on your laptop at the same time.

By default if you haven’t used your Mac for a while the computer will go to sleep, however if you are watching a long video or referencing a document you might want it to stay awake indefinitely. There are a few options to achieve this, read on to find out.

Mac Not Going To Sleep

Disable sleep in the System Preferences

If you never want your Mac to go to sleep ever, the most straightforward method is simply to disable sleep in the System Preferences. Navigate to the “Energy Saver” section and drag the slider to “Never” under both the Battery & Power Adapter sections. Download picasa 3 free for mac. Don’t mind the warning about the display’s life being shortened — it’s not a realistic concern for modern LCD/LED displays which Macs use. The worst that will happen is your Mac’s battery will run flat and it will be forced to go to sleep automatically.

Install the Caffeine app

So how about if you only want your Mac to stay awake sometimes? Like if you’re downloading a big file? The best solution to this is to download the Caffeine app (here), a free piece of software which puts a coffee cup symbol in your menu bar. Clicking the coffee cup toggles whether or not your Mac will be able to go to sleep — full means it won’t sleep and empty means it will. Very simple.

Get the Insomnia app

Now what if you want your Mac to sleep when you close the lid, but not when it’s just sitting open and idle? Or the other way around? Well there’s another app called Insomnia (download here) which gives you a bit more flexibility than Caffeine insofar as it allows you to separately toggle idle sleep (your Mac going to sleep after a certain amount of time when the lid is left open) and lid-closed sleep (your Mac going to sleep when the lid is closed). You can also set either type of sleep to only be disabled for a certain period of time, after which it will automatically be re-enabled, in case you forget.

Temporarily disable sleep via the Terminal

If you want to temporarily disable sleep on your Mac but for some reason or another can’t/don’t want to install a third party app, another option is to use the built-in Terminal utility. Simply open up the Terminal utility/app and type the following command followed by the enter key:

The terminal window will then show something like the below, which indicates sleep is disabled on your Mac:

To re-enable sleep simply press the CONTROL-C key combo in the Terminal window to stop the command, or else it will disable when you close the terminal window or restart your Mac.