Filed under: Freeware
Keep your Mac awake with caffeine
Our Macs work hard, and sometimes they get sleepy. But that doesn't mean they can slack off on the job! To keep your Mac alert and ready to go, check out Caffeine. It's a tiny little app (and at 48KB, we mean tiny!) that puts an icon in your menu bar. Give it a click to prevent your Mac from going to sleep, putting the disk to sleep or dimming the screen. Click again to remove these restrictions. It's quicker than launching system preferences and adjusting those settings manually, and convenient for those overnight downloads. Caffeine is universal and free.Alternatively, try out Jiggler, which periodically "jiggles" your cursor to prevent your Mac from sleeping or launching a screensaver. Like Caffeine, Jiggle is universal and free. Now tell your Mac to get to work!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mat Lu said 11:11AM on 4-19-2007
One thing I like about Jiggler (which I've used for years) is that it's a free-standing application. That means it's not always running (and thus taking up memory) the way Caffeine is (in my quick test Caffeine took 22MB of real memory even when not active; not much, but on my machine every little bit counts). Of course I suppose you could just quit Caffeine, when you're done with it.
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Zack kitzmiller said 3:06PM on 4-19-2007
Does this prevent my lappy-t from sleeping when i close the lid? I'd download and try, but the filesize it too big.
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Liam said 3:44PM on 4-19-2007
48kb is to big? even on dial up it would download in no time...
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Brian said 3:46PM on 4-19-2007
As Zack said, is there any app that will prevent it from going to sleep when you close the lid? As far as I can tell this program does not allow you to do that, and I would like to be able to close the lid but keep Adium connected. Anyone know of anything?
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Brian said 3:48PM on 4-19-2007
Your comments: As Zack said, is there any app that will prevent it from going to sleep when you close the lid? As far as I can tell this program does
not allow you to do that, and I would like to be able to close the
lid but keep Adium connected. Anyone know of anything?
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Aron Trimble said 3:49PM on 4-19-2007
I don't think there *is* a system preference to prevent your monitor from dimming automagically... so this is super handy!
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Josh said 3:52PM on 4-19-2007
What I would like is a utility to do the opposite... I'd like to be able to put my iMac screen to sleep instantly, but leave the computer on to carry out tasks. Does such a thing exist?
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marcosmalo said 4:32PM on 4-19-2007
Don't you think you oughta give Gruber, over at "Darling" Fireball, a hat tip or a shout out?
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Andre said 4:35PM on 4-19-2007
Caffeine seems great. Thanks for the link! :)
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FlacoakaIntruder said 4:55PM on 4-19-2007
I think "sleepless" is an app that wont let your mac go to sleep, i dunno if its UB and I strongly suggest NOT to use this app on an ibook... not letting your ibook sleep when you close the lid can cause really serious problems to your beloved white mac... i think that powerbooks, macbooks/pro users can use it without risk though
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FlacoakaIntruder said 4:56PM on 4-19-2007
Doze is another option... and its free =)
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Ariza said 5:06PM on 4-19-2007
Josh - I was looking for the same thing - its really annoying that you can't turn the iMac display off.
I set display preferences to put the display to sleep when its idle for 1min but even then when my eyeTV starts to record a show in the middle of the night it wakes the computer the monitor comes on for a minute then goes to sleep again.
A way to turn it off would be great
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Ian Scott said 5:09PM on 4-19-2007
Josh, I don't know if it works this way on the iMac, but on my MacBook I just turn down the screen brightness all the way; the lowest setting actually turns off the screen's backlight. It's controllable on a USB keyboard with the F14-15 keys. Give it a shot.
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Ahmad said 5:17PM on 4-19-2007
@2,4,5 - try this
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17893
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/30315
@7 - try this
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/31918
I know that's a screensaver, but I think it does what you want. you could set a hot corner to start the screensaver and it would work. but I just know there's another app out there that's exactly what you're looking for... I just can't remember the name
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andrew harrison said 8:45PM on 4-19-2007
"6. I don't think there *is* a system preference to prevent your monitor from dimming automagically... so this is super handy!"
in the energy saver prefpane, click on options, then deselect "automatically reduce... before display sleep"
then you can just turn off sleep [or turn the time out a long way up]
"8. Don't you think you oughta give Gruber, over at "Darling" Fireball, a hat tip or a shout out?"
yeah, seriously. it's not like he mentioned one, and not the other, you basically just stole his two posts and put them into one.
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Matt said 1:45AM on 4-20-2007
This app would be perfect if it was a little more customizable. I'd like to keep my Mac on but let the display still automatically shut off, and this program keeps the display on. Not very useful for all-night downloads...unless you don't mind wasting all that energy...
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andrew harrison said 2:54AM on 4-20-2007
"16. This app would be perfect if it was a little more customizable. I'd like to keep my Mac on but let the display still automatically shut off, and this program keeps the display on. Not very useful for all-night downloads...unless you don't mind wasting all that energy..."
go to the energy saver prefpane, set "put the computer to sleep" all the way to the right [never] and then set "put the display to sleep" to whatever timeout you want. simple.
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matt said 3:51AM on 4-20-2007
NO credit to Daring Fireball?
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andrew harrison said 8:52AM on 4-20-2007
"18. NO credit to Daring Fireball?"
yep, still nothing
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icerabbit said 3:25PM on 4-20-2007
I need something the opposite. Something that will put my DP to sleep. Somewhere along the line with 10.4 it started refusing to go to sleep.
It always wakes up again right at the point which would seem to be the power down of the drives etc.
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