Keep Mac Awake 1.0.6

Keep Mac Awake 1.0.6

Keep Mac Awake keeps a MacBook with Apple silicon awake with its lid closed, without an external display or keyboard.

New in 1.0.6

• Renewed signing certificates. The app and its installer are signed with new Developer ID certificates of the same developer, which spell the developer's legal name correctly.
• New installations are counted. The first update check after a new installation says only that it is the first, so the number of new installations per day can be counted; nothing about the Mac is sent, and with the update check off nothing is sent.
• Keep Mac Awake 1.0.4 and 1.0.5 install this version by themselves when no session runs. From 1.0.3 or earlier, install 1.0.6 once from keepmacawake.com (in 1.0.3, Install in the panel also works, with the administrator password).

What it does

• Keep Mac Awake lives only in the menu bar. Its panel has one power button and a choice of no limit, 1 hour, 8 hours or a custom number of hours, up to 168.
• When the lid closes during a session, the built-in display is turned off, also when another app has asked to keep it on. While another display is in use, nothing changes.
• By default it works only on AC power. If AC power is disconnected, the session waits for it to return.
• Optionally it also runs on battery power above a threshold you choose, 20% by default. Reaching the threshold ends the session.
• The menu bar icon and the panel show whether sleep prevention is confirmed, waiting for AC power or needs attention, and why the last session ended.
• The keepmacawake command controls the same session from a terminal or an AI agent's tools: status, start with no limit or a number of hours, stop and battery settings.
• New versions install by themselves when no session runs, with no password and no download page to visit; Install in the panel does it at once.
• Quitting the app or turning the session off restores the sleep setting. A supervising service restores it if Keep Mac Awake's background service or the main system service stops responding.

Price and trial

• 9 USD, tax included, a one-time payment per Mac. No subscription and no account.
• The 3-day trial starts with your first session; during it a session lasts up to 8 hours. When the trial ends, a running session continues to its end; a new one needs the purchase.
• Buy for $9 in the panel (or keepmacawake buy) opens the purchase page in your browser, then Stripe's checkout. After paying, the page opens Keep Mac Awake and unlocks this Mac; the purchase works offline from then on.
• After a reinstall, or in a second user account on the same Mac, choose Restore purchase. For a new Mac, write to hi@keepmacawake.com.

Requirements and limits

• Any Mac with Apple silicon (an M-series chip) and macOS 26 or later.
• A background service keeps the session going when the panel is closed or a terminal command ends. Quitting Keep Mac Awake ends the session.
• The setting is system-wide and also blocks manual sleep while a session runs.
• Keep Mac Awake does not keep network connections alive and does not wake a Mac that is already asleep.
• Keep a working Mac ventilated. A closed bag can overheat it. A battery session ends at a serious thermal state; on AC power, the heat is left to macOS.

Privacy

On its own, Keep Mac Awake goes online only for updates: a daily update check, one request to keepmacawake.com, and, when it finds a newer version and no session runs, the download of that version from GitHub. The first check after a new installation says only that it is the first. Neither carries anything about this Mac, and keepmacawake config set --update-check off turns both off. Restore purchase, when you choose it, sends one request with this Mac's ID. Buy opens the purchase page in your browser. It reads the power source, battery level, charging state, lid state and thermal state on this Mac; with the lid closed during a session, which displays are active and the time since the last input (not the input itself); and the Mac's platform UUID, only to derive the Mac ID; the UUID itself is neither stored nor sent. It stores your battery preferences, the update check setting and the latest version it found, the position of its menu bar icon, the license after a purchase, the time of the first session for the trial, and the state its system services need to restore the sleep setting; it keeps no session history.

Installing, updating and removing

Open the installer package and follow the steps. Since 1.0.4, a newer version installs by itself when no session runs, and Install in the panel does it at once; neither interrupts a session. You can also open the new package, which ends a running session first. Either way a running copy quits first, opens again afterwards and keeps your settings. To remove Keep Mac Awake, use the uninstall package from the same release.