How to prevent laptop from sleep when lid closed

I'll second this response. As someone who is constantly moving around while at work - conference room to conference room to office to meeting to ... - it is far more dangerous for my laptop to be open than it is closed. Sure, keeping it running while in a roller-bag is not good for the hard drive... and I have no problem letting it sleep / hibernate / or even fully shutting down. HOWEVER... there are too many good business reasons to shut the lid without anything happening.

1. Someone walks into my office and I don't want them to see the confidential information on my screen (no... not ****... just good security)

2. I'm walking down the hall to a meeting and have the same issue. Why should I advertise what I'm working on? What if it's the latest layoff list?

3. My current employeer has great wireless access but requires a formal signoff to connect (via a web-page with ID/PW). What happens when my laptop goes to sleep? I have to re-authenicate!

Regardless of how you personally feel about the issue, this type of behavior should be considered a basic security practice as well as a convenience.

In response to some of the options presented above:

a. I have an external mouse connected. Doesn't make a difference.

b. Sharing your internet connection? Seriously? That's a terrible idea as a general practice.

c. Running a 3rd party program may be OK, but every new program brings some risk. If a 3rd party program can do it... why doesn't Apple just expose the setting.

Apple: I can run both Linux and Windows and have the OPTION to let my machine run with the lid closed. Please give us the same courtesy.

Cheers,

Jim

If you plug in an external monitor/keyboard you can run it with the lid closed.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3131

Otherwise, it is going to go to sleep - no way to disable that.

If you are leaving things running, why close the lid? - set sleep to never in control panels, choose a screen and HD timeout and let it run. It will run cooler if the screen is up anyway.

I finally found a way to keep my MacBook awake even with the lid closed. And you don't need a keyboard or mouse! You use a free program that you install. I'll post the guide if you want to see. It's called de tune: http://appducate.com/2012/12/keep-laptop-awake-even-when-lid-closed/

Hi,

The best way I found to do this without any other app is to check "share internet connection" (or whatever it's called in English) in the sharing pref pane.

That way, if Wifi is connected and if your MBP is on mains, then closing the lid does not make it go to sleep. It'll continue to download, for example. The minute you pull out the mains cord, it'll go to sleep.

What an absurd limitation and incredible oversite! If you've used any other operating system on a laptop long enough you'll know how convienient it is to be able to shut the lid without it sleeping in certain situations. Two quick examples:

You have a virtual machine running inside you laptop for development and you want to walk half a block away to the other coffee shop. - Seriously? I have to walk down the street with my open laptop in one hand and my coffee in the other to prevent the silly thing from sleeping? What if it's raining? I have to get my laptop wet simly because I can't flip a software switch to tell it not to sleep when I close the lid? MAJORLY dissappointing Apple.

You work in a large building, and you need to show your boss your work, but he/she is in the opposite corner of the building. I either have to walk through the whole building opening and bumping into heavy doors with laptop open, (forget taking my coffee with me!) or I have to make my boss wait while my machine starts back up and re-connects to the wifi, etc. - That's Rediculous!

I'm a little embarassed to be seen with this Macbook now. Such arbitrary limitations seem to be frequent. I can't do the things I could with a regular laptop running any other unix OS.

Apple, I like your ability to make things easy for people who don't know about computers, but that is not mutually exclusive with allowing more technical people to do what they need to do. It's a simple software switch you are choosing not to make available to us.

Reply to:

tomdextrine

Re: How to prevent laptop from sleep when lid closed

Hi,

The best way I found to do this without any other app is to check "share internet connection"

(or whatever it's called in English) in the sharing pref pane.

That way, if Wifi is connected and if your MBP is on mains, then closing the lid does not

make it go to sleep. It'll continue to download, for example. The minute you pull out the mains

cord, it'll go to sleep.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------

Very nice.... Worked Perfectly for me, Tanks!

Message was edited by: YoDaddy

Reply to:

Courcoul Mexico

Sure, but I'll take my $124 1.5TB HDD over your $1,050 960GB SSD (OWC prices, BTW) for now....

Sorry about the Bad Sectors on your Hard Drive..... im good tho, thanks for asking lol

Disabling sleep mod when closing MacBook lid

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Open up Terminal and type:

sudo pmset -a lidwake 0

This will disable the sleep/wake feature when opening or closing the lid.

To reenable it, type:

sudo pmset -a lidwake 1

To check the status of the lid wake feature type:

pmset -g

And look for the lidwake value.

0 = Disables

1 = Enabled

******************************************************************************

You should appreciate that there is a downside to operating a MBP in a 'clamshell' mode. With the cover closed, the heat dissipation will to an extent be compromised and thus be less efficient. Should you be employing CPU intensive applications, an early shut down could very well occur.

Ciao.

Unless your Mac (or any other portable) has a SSD, moving a running computer is a Bad Idea. Even with the Sudden Motion Sensor to protect the HDD, the risk of drive damage goes up manyfold times.

But it is your data after all and you are wholly entitled to screw up at your leisure.

As said Courcoul, dropping a running laptop into a backpack and bouncing down the hallway with the HD still spinning (and the read/write head bouning about .00004 inches away from the spinning platters) is not the wisest of choices, at least in my reality.

You are welcome to your own reality, and accept all risks that come with it.

steve359 wrote:

Some people have dollars to offer to the fire gods. Some people do not.

Indeed! The Thunderbolt Display gods I offer to, instead.....

As for Bad Sectors, 8 Mac portables and a grand total of 28 HDDs since 1993, internal and external, I've only met them twice. So we're really not that acquainted.

Well spoken Jim, much better than I did. This is a very legitimate need. I have been using NoSleep in the meantime, but seriously Apple, stop disabling us.

Yes a spinning hard drive is not a good thing to jar, but if you listen while you're moving you're laptop you quickly get a feel for how it responds when it's moved. Just be gentle, as always, and if you're going to throw it in something like a backpack, make sure it's sleeping first. (Heat concerns are formost.)

I am new to Mac...

But I have been in IT for long time and what is being asked for is not only SIMPLE but it has been industry standard in other OS's.

Trying to tell people (especially paternalistically) that it cannot or shouldn't be done is just plain silly. No one hear is suggesting closing a lid and then juggling with their laptop and a chainsaw at the same time... closing a lid, sticking it under your arm and walking to another office is not only simple but it is safe and responsible AND normal.

Just because Apple hasn't addressed it does not mean it shouldn't be done. When the first iphone came out "cut & paste" wasn't an option... was it because it shouldn't be an option?

Power options should be user controlled and if someone is unfortinate enough to munch a HDD then it is their problem and they will learn. The rest of us will walk from room to room responsibly.

I'm considering purchasing a new Macbook Pro (switching from an all-Windows life).

I keep my laptop in the living room, usually have it leaning up against my couch or chair with the lid closed. But one thing I do quite often is download or upload large files (whether it be a new 2+ gig download from MSDN or uploading a big HD video from my video camera to YouTube). I start such an upload/download and close the lid, put it back into its resting place and walk away. I don't want to leave the lid open sitting on the floor where the cat can walk ontop of the keyboard, or someone might kick it, or something else. It's just too convenient to close the lid and put it out of the way while it does the work.

This is obviously not a CPU intensive task, so overheating is not something I would have to worry about.

I still want to buy it... I'm ready to move away from Windows. Just glad I found out about this beforehand. Would hate to resume my habits only to find out it did nothing while I closed the lid. The sharing of the internet connection sounds like my best bet... just would of course protect it so no one can get in it.