Caffeine

Caffeine is a free app that keeps the Mac awake.

The problem

Whenever the display goes to sleep on my MacBook, the drive shuts down and stops the back-up. This 2011 MacBook likes to meet energy guidelines and sleeps a lot, even with settings tweaked to the max in System prefs.

– Dan Stewart (Big Dan)

Also, a Mac laptop may want to sleep when it's not plugged in, but you don't want it to do this while it is showing a presentation.

The solution

I have used the free app Caffeine for years and it works great.

– Keith Hamilton

Once it is installed, click once in the menu bar to tell the computer not to sleep or show the screen saver.

External links

• Caffeine page at MacUpdate – reviews state that it still works on macOS 10.14 Mojave in 2020
• Lightheadsw.com, developer's site (includes an older version for OS X 10.4)

Credits

Contributed on Mac-Ministry List in January 2012. Expanded in March 2014. Updated by Neville Reid in January 2020.