Keep MacBook awake with lid closed

How to keep your MacBook awake, even when the lid is closed.

First off, we’re going to show you how to accomplish to keep your MacBook awake after closing the lid in two simple steps. After that, we’re going to explain why this isn’t a feature of our Mac app Caffeinated.

Step 1: Open Terminal

There are several ways to find and open Terminal on your Mac. One of the quickest and easiest ways to open it is with Spotlight Search. 

1) You can use the keyboard shortcut Command + Space to open Spotlight Search on your Mac. Or click on the Spotlight Search button in your menu bar.

2) Type in “Terminal”.

3) You should see the Terminal application under Top Hit at the top of your results. Double-click it and Terminal will open.

Step 2: Run Command

There are essentially two commands you will need. One for keeping your MacBook awake (even with the lid closed) and the second one you’ll use whenever you’d like to let your MacBook sleep again.

Note: Keeping your MacBook running while the lid is closed, will potentially trap heat between the display and the keyboard of your MacBook.

1) Command to deactivate Lid-Sleep (keep system awake):

2) Command to activate Lid-Sleep (let system sleep again, like normal):

Simply copy the desired command from above and paste it in Terminal. Hit Enter. Since these commands are sudo commands, they require your password to run. Therefore, simply enter your password and hit Enter again. Voilà! That’s how to keep MacBook awake with lid closed.

Why is this not a feature of Caffeinated?

Well, we would love to implement this feature, but for now it’s simply not possible due to Apple’s guidelines and restrictions for apps available on the App Store.

These limitations are not a bad thing, as they help preventing harmful software (malware) on your Mac. Apple tries to keep the system safe and clean. Even though this comes with limitations for us developers, we appreciate this, especially from a users perspective.