The Energy Saver Preference Pane is a useful option to detect the inactivity and save energy.
It means whenever you are not working on your Mac and your system senses inactivity, Energy Saver preference pane puts your Mac to sleep, turn off the display and more, according to the settings chosen. Moreover, it is better to wake up your system than starting it after it’s been shut down.
You must be wondering what is the function of this feature and what happens to your Mac when it is enabled.
When it makes your Mac go to sleep, it saves energy but what actually happens to your Mac is actually multi-pronged…
- The processor goes into low-power mode to reduce the energy consumption.
- Mac’s video output is turned off, therefore any connected display will enter its idle state or display a blank screen.
- Internal hard drives will spin down.
On portable Macs:
- The Ethernet port turns off, if applicable
- Expansion card slots turn off
- The built-in modem, if present, turns off
- An AirPort card, if present, turns off
- The USB ports only responds to the power key on an external keyboard
- The optical media drive, if present, spin down
- Audio input and output turns off
- Keyboard illumination, if a feature of your portable computer, turns off
Note: Portable computers don’t have network connectivity when in sleep mode, but can wake if the Energy Saver option “Wake for network access” is enabled. If you wish to use file sharing or don’t want to interrupt your Internet connection, you should not manually put the computer to sleep, and you should drag the “Computer sleep” slider to Never.
Using The Energy Saver Preferences Pane
To open Energy Saver Preference Pane, follow these steps:
- Go to Apple icon and click it. A drop down menu will appear, select System Preferences.
- In System Preferences pane, click the ‘Energy Saver’ icon in the Hardware section.
The Energy Saver preferences pane consists of settings applicable to the AC power adapter, battery, and UPS if present which allows you to modify Mac’s energy usage and performance based on the how your Mac is being powered.
Follow these steps to set the computer sleep time:
- Go to Apple icon-> System Preferences-> Energy Saver Preferences.
- Select the power source (Power Adapter, Battery, UPS) to start.
Note: You see the Battery button only if you have a portable Mac. You see the UPS button only if your Mac is connected to an uninterruptible power source.
- You will get different options:
- Automatic Graphics Switching – Extends the life of your battery, set your Mac to automatically switch between.
- Computer Sleep and Display Sleep/ Turn Display off After Slider – Drag the slider to set the amount of time your computer or display should wait before going to sleep.
- Put hard disks to sleep when possible – Put the computer’s hard disk to sleep whenever inactivity is sensed, it reduces the power consumption. It is beneficial to turn it on, if using an older Mac device.
- Wake for Network Access – Users can access your computer’s shared resources, such as shared printers or iTunes playlists, even when your computer is in sleep mode.
- Slightly dim the display while on Battery Power – Reduces the brightness of the display while on battery power.
- Enable Power Nap while on battery power/Enable Power Nap while plugged into a power adapter – Enables your computer to check for email, calendar, and other iCloud updates while sleeping.
- Note: When your Mac is plugged into a power adapter, Power Nap can do Time Machine backups as well.
- Start up automatically after power failure – starts your Mac after apower interruption.
- Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off – Prevents the computer from going to sleep when the display sleeps.
- Show battery status in the menu bar – Shows the battery icon in the menu bar. The battery icon shows when your portable Mac is connected to a power supply and the battery is
- Schedule – Set a daily schedule for putting your Mac to sleep or turning it off and on.
In this way, you can use Energy Saver Preferences and reduce consumption of battery or power adapter whatever the mode of your usage is. Try it and let us know if it works.
Next Read: How to Set-up an iCloud Account on your Mac