why does my mac keep logging me out

From the menu bar, select

 ▹ System Preferences... ▹ Security & Privacy

If there's a closed padlock icon in the lower left corner of the preference pane, click it and enter your login password when prompted.

Click the Advanced button and, in the sheet that opens, uncheck the box marked

Log out after … minutes of inactivity

Hi

This does not work for me as I have checked and I do not have the Log out after xx mins checked. I also made sure the Require password immediately box was not checked. Do you have any other ideas please? This started last week when I updated my iOS to Sierra. Thanks for any ideas you may have.

Sarah

I'm sorry but this is not helpful.
Why must I disable a CRITICAL security feature of the operating system in order to keep it from logging out my other user on the system (that I keep separate for administrative purposes)????

Sure, I'm glad there is a setting to auto-logout after x minutes (although it's largely unnecessary due to the screen saver password feature is turned on). But screensaver / wakeup password requirement (completely unrelated) should NOT affect whether users log off automatically or not.

This is a HUGE time waster and I actually lost a spreadsheet because of this cr*p. I kind of feel like some "not quite as bright as the OSX guys" IOS developer designed it this way on purpose because they think the laptop is an iphone and it will save battery life. In general, those folks at apple who think that

-autologging out people to save battery
-not downloading complete email messages
-not doing thorough indexing of the hard drive

-automatically removing content from my device like my music library is fine because everyone has a data connection (which... yeah... may be charged back to them by their cellular provider

is OK because it saves battery life and capacity, can you please like, fall on a knife?

I don't think it's appropriate to second guess computer users who are used to having control of their systems for WORK.

And the full screen issue that seems to trigger this is yet another poorly thought out behavior. Requiring a separate virtual desktop for full screen breaks window switching behavior (command-tab) that has worked perfectly for more than 10 years. Now that's broken. And some not so bright developer (who again.... should take the suggestion above) has decided that full screen should be implemented with a virtual desktop so that people can swipe... (taking their fingers off the critical home row of the keyboard breaking their speed and efficiency)... They need to make it an option and not force it. Powerpoint, Acrobat, and other programs have been correctly implementing full screen mode since OS X 10.0. I don't want this stupid virtual desktop. And now it's forcing users on my system that are open and editing documents to log out on top of the other inconveniences.

The captain has abandoned ship... and it's pretty obvious.

It may be crashing when it tries to sleep, or when it tries to wake up.

This is usually caused by peripherals that are not sleep-compliant.

Security & Privacy > General, do not tick "Require password [immediately] after sleep or screen saver begins.

And here is a helpful video link 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-mVJS8FHI8

Thank you. Solved.

THANKYOU!!!!!
I have been looking for this for days, I thought I was missing something!!

What about if this box is already unchecked?

And what about if when this happens, I have zero minutes of inactivity (e.g. while I'm loading a webpage in Safari and scrolling through it)?