Guides Lid Awake

Lid Awake

Lid Awake keeps an Apple Silicon Mac running after its display lid closes, even without a charger or external display. It is separate from the ordinary Keep Awake action: Keep Awake prevents idle sleep, while Lid Awake changes the system's closed-lid sleep policy.

Enable it

Turn on the Lid Awake extension in Settings, then activate it from Settings, the Home quick actions, the sidebar or the command line. The first activation can open System Settings so you can approve Edith's background item. This is a one-time approval for the helper that applies the privileged power setting. Later toggles are silent.

The signed helper is embedded inside Edith's menu bar companion. If Edith reports that it is missing, reinstall the current app and reopen it before trying again.

Session choices

Choose one policy before starting:

Session	Stops when
Indefinitely	You turn Lid Awake off.
15 minutes	The timer expires.
30 minutes	The timer expires.
1 hour	The timer expires.
2 hours	The timer expires.
Until lid reopens	The lid has closed and then opens again.

The timer and lid-cycle state are owned by the always-on menu bar companion, so closing the main Edith window does not cancel them.

Battery and quit behavior

The optional battery floor can pause Lid Awake below 10, 20 or 30 percent while the Mac is unplugged. It resumes after charging above the floor with a small safety margin. Starting Lid Awake manually while already below the floor overrides the pause for that discharge.

Keep Restore normal sleep when Edith quits enabled unless you deliberately want the changed policy to survive the app quitting. Turning the Lid Awake extension off always restores normal sleep, regardless of that setting.

Safety

A closed Mac that remains awake keeps using power and producing heat. Do not put it in a bag or another enclosed space while Lid Awake is active. Set a time limit or a battery floor for unattended work, and confirm that the task no longer needs the machine before leaving it closed for a long period.

Use ed lid-awake status --json to inspect the active session, deadline, battery pause and helper registration. The complete command workflows are in the Lid Awake command reference.