So I like to be an environmentally conscious Mac user, doing my bit for the planet and all that. As such, I recently set my Mac Mini to sleep after a specified amount of tea-making/bathroom-visiting/untimely-fire-drill-responding activity, reverting automatically to a password-protected screensaver.
This app is a super-tiny download, and it’s like giving your macOS machine caffeine pills. Once activated, your system will stop going to sleep. Go ahead and get your Breaking Bad jokes out of. Caffeine will be active only in hours with an x Compatibility. Caffeine works by simulating an F15 key up event every 59 seconds. Of all the key presses available, F15 is probably the least intrusive, and least likely to interfere with your work. However, Caffeine might interfere with some apps. Caffeine: Keep your Mac from. The new Workflow editor looks like it’ll make programming your Mac to do your bidding so much better.”. Mac menu bar apps on.
Having merrily sailed along like this for a month or so, I was suddenly alerted to a flaw in this logic when it comes to file uploads. As anyone lucky enough to work in publishing will appreciate, print deadlines are a bitch, and no matter how organised one is, uploading those final PDFs is generally a frantic, urgent, click-to-the-death scenario – so when I left my upload running overnight and returned in the morning to find it paused behind the screensaver, panic ensued.
Of course, this was due to my recent green initiative. The sleep/screensaver combination had interrupted my upload (via Filezilla, if of interest) and was waiting for me to enter a password to resume it. Unfortunately by this point in time I was obliviously devouring a vindaloo in front of the telly.
Since the incident I’ve conducted a bit of research and came across Caffeine, a free app that prevents your Mac from sleeping. The app can be toggled on/off with one click, so you can activate it when uploading files overnight, or any other circumstance when you won’t be there to control the sleep/screensaver. You can set it to run for a specified amount of time or just indefinitely, each time you turn it on.
I’ve now installed this across all our machines, reducing the risk of future failed uploads. Of course, it still requires a bit of human initiative to remember to turn it on…
Pros: Free, simple to use
Cons: Missing the option to schedule activation in advance (see note on ‘human initiative’ above)
Last Updated on September 18, 2020 by
Prevent your Mac from falling asleep, dimming your screen or starting the screensaver. Theine keeps macOS awake just like caffeine does with you.
• It just works
Caffeinate your Mac through a simple click on its menubar icon or even better: define a custom global hot key. It is fast, lightweight and optimized for macOS 10.15 Catalina.
• Always on time
The timer function allows you to control exactly how long Theine should be activated. You can also set a custom default duration or choose to caffeinate your Mac infinitely.
• Less but better
Theine looks brilliant in light and dark mode. It is designed for modern retina displays and perfectly fits to macOS accent colors. But our favourite feature is: It is as little design as possible.
• More Features
– Auto-Start on login
– Activate on startup
– Activate with left or right click
– Acoustic feedback
– “Lockscreen allows sleep” option
– “Auto-deactivate on low battery” option
– Automatische Deaktivierung bei geringer Akkuladung
– Support for many languages
– Optimized for VoiceOver
Disclaimer: Theine will not prevent your MacBook from sleeping if you close its lid for security reasons.
• Caffeinate when…
– Watching or recording videos
– Listening to podcasts
– Doing a presentation at work or school
– Waiting for large files to download
– Talking to your friends
– Rendering sophisticated media files
Caffeine App Mac
– Observing live stats or long-running tasks on your screen
My mission is to create value-creating, honest software that is carefully crafted. If you have any ideas on how I can improve Theine even further please drop a message: [email protected]
What’s New in Version 3.2 – Sep 17, 2020
• This version brings minor UI improvements