Power management settings
Syntax List current settings (Get)
pmset -g [custom | live | cap | sched | ups | ps | ...full list below] UPS settings: pmset -u [haltlevel percent] [haltafter minutes] [haltremain minutes] Settings for battery(b),charger(c), UPS(u), all(a): pmset [-b | -c | -u | -a] [displaysleep minutes] [disksleep minutes]
[sleep minutes] [womp 1/0] [ring 1/0] [autorestart 1/0] [dps 1/0]
[reduce 1/0] [powerbutton 1/0] [lidwake 1/0] [acwake 1/0]
[lessbright 1/0] [halfdim 1/0] [sms 1/0] [boot]
Override settings and sleep now: pmset [sleepnow | noidle | lock | touch] Schedule: pmset schedule [cancel] {sleep | wake | poweron | shutdown | wakeorpoweron} "MM/dd/yy HH:mm:ss" [owner]
pmset repeat cancel
pmset repeat {sleep | wake | poweron | shutdown | wakeorpoweron} weekdays "MM/dd/yy HH:mm:ss" Where weekdays is a subset of MTWRFSU ("M" and "MTWRF" are valid strings) Key: GETTING -g (with no argument) will display the settings currently in use. -g live Display the settings currently in use. (default if no argument given) -g custom Display custom settings for all power sources, although these settings might not currently be in use; a pre-set settings profile might be active instead. -g cap Display which power management features the machine supports. -g sched Display scheduled startup/wake and shutdown/sleep events. -g ups Display UPS emergency thresholds. -g ps /batt Display status of batteries and UPSs. -g pslog Display an ongoing log of power source (battery and UPS)state. -g rawlog Display an ongoing log of battery state as read directly from battery. -g profiles Display the settings associated with each Energy Saver profile. 10.5+ -g thermlog Show a log of thermal notifications that affect CPU speed. Not available on all platforms. -g assertions Display a summary of power assertions. Assertions can prevent system sleep or display sleep. 10.6+ -g assertionslog Show a log of assertion creations and releases. 10.6+ -g activity Display a summary of power state of Display wrangler and Disk Queue Manager.10.6+ -g activitylog Show a log of power state changes to Display Wrangler and Disk Queue Manager. 10.6+ -g sysload Display the "system load advisory" - a summary of system activity available from the IOGetSystemLoadAdvisory API. 10.6+ -g sysloadlog Display an ongoing log of lives changes to the system load advisory. 10.6+ -g ac / adapter Display details about an attached AC power adapter. Only supported for MacBook and MacBook Pro. -g log Display a history of sleeps, wakes, and other power management events. This log is for admin & debugging purposes. -g uuid Display the currently active sleep/wake UUID; used within macOS to correlate sleep/wake activity within one sleep cycle. history -g uuidlog Display the currently active sleep/wake UUID, and prints a new UUID as they're set by the system. -g history A debugging tool. Prints a timeline of system sleeplwake UUIDs, when enabled with boot-arg io=0x3000000. -g historydetailed Prints driver-level timings for a sleep/wake. Pass a UUID as an argument. -g everything Print output from every argument under the GETTING header. This is useful for quickly collecting all the output that pmset provides.10.8+ ARGUMENTS displaysleep - display sleep timer; replaces 'dim' argument in 10.4 (value in minutes, or 0 to disable) disksleep - disk spindown timer; replaces 'spindown' argument in 10.4 (value in minutes, or 0 to disable) sleep - system sleep timer (value in minutes, or 0 to disable) womp - wake on ethernet magic packet (value = 0/1) ring - wake on modem ring (value = 0/1) autorestart - automatic restart on power loss (value = 0/1) dps - dynamically change processor speed based on load (value = 0/1) reduce - reduce processor speed (value = 0/1) powerbutton - sleep the machine when power button is pressed (value=0/1) lidwake - wake the machine when the laptop lid (or clamshell) is opened (value = 0/1) acwake - wake the machine when power source (AC/battery) is changed (value = 0/1) lessbright - slightly turn down display brightness when switching to this power source (value = 0/1) halfdim - display sleep will use an intermediate half-brightness state between full brightness and fully off (value = 0/1) sms - use Sudden Motion Sensor to park disk heads on sudden changes in G force (value = 0/1) hibernatemode - change hibernation mode. Please use caution. (value =integer) hibernatefile - change hibernation image file location. Image can only be located on the root volume. Please use caution. (value = path) ttyskeepawake - prevent idle system sleep when any tty (e.g. remote login session) is 'active'. A tty is 'inactive' only when its idle time exceeds the system sleep timer. (value = 0/1) networkoversleep - this setting affects how macOS networking presents shared network services during system sleep. This setting is not used by all platforms; changing its value is unsupported. destroyfvkeyonstandby - Destroy File Vault Key when going to standby mode. By default File vault keys are retained even when system goes to standby. If the keys are destroyed, user will be prompted to enter the password while coming out of standby mode.(value: 1 - Destroy, 0 - Retain)
pmset must be run as root in order to modify any settings.
See man pmset for a description of power management with more examples.
The macOS Energy Saver preference file is stored at:
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
If energy saving preferences are not 'sticking', then trashing this preference file and rebooting will usually fix things.
Examples
Set displaysleep to a 5 minute timer on battery power
$ sudo pmset -b displaysleep 5
Print the power management settings in use by the system:
$ pmset -g
Restore default settings:
$ sudo pmset -c 2 -b 1 -u 1
“Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like nobodys watching” ~ Satchel 'Satchmo' Paige
Related macOS commands:
caffeinate - Prevent the system from sleeping