High Alert

Keep your Mac awake

Keep your Mac awake with simple timed or indefinite modes from Droppy controls. It is useful for long exports, presentations, or sessions where sleep would interrupt progress.

What it does

  • Prevent display and system sleep
  • Timer presets: hours or minutes
  • Indefinite mode until disabled
  • Lightweight, no battery drain

How to use it

  1. Start it from the shelf widget, the menu bar or a Ring button, for a set number of minutes or hours, or indefinitely.
  2. Pick the mode: Display keeps the screen on, System Only lets the screen dim while the Mac keeps working, and Lid Closed keeps it working after the lid shuts.

Where it shows up

  • Shelf widget
  • Live Activity
  • Lock screen
  • Global shortcut
  • Ring action
  • Menu bar
  • Droppy for iPhone

The lock screen shows a countdown card while it is active, and the notch keeps a timer pill.

Workflows

A long export

System Only, indefinite. The screen sleeps, the export does not, and the battery lasts longer than it would with the display lit.

A presentation

Display mode with a timer a little longer than the talk, so it ends on its own afterwards.

A download with the lid down

Lid Closed keeps the Mac awake in a bag or on a dock. macOS asks you to authorize this the first time, because it is a real change to how the machine sleeps.

Tips

  • The Ring can carry a button per duration, so one held shortcut offers 20 minutes, 2 hours and indefinite side by side.
  • The lock screen shows the countdown on its own card, so you can see it is still holding without unlocking.
  • It is on the iPhone too, which is the easy way to release it from the sofa.

Getting it

CategoryProductivity
SetupReady the moment you turn it on.
Where to turn it onSettings, Store, or open it in Droppy if the app is installed.