Keepresso help

Guides and how-tos

Install Keepresso, tune your keep-awake triggers, and fix the common snags. Short, practical walkthroughs.

Getting started

5 guides

Install Keepresso, grant it the permissions macOS asks for, and get your first keep-awake session running. Start here if the app is new to you, or if you want to know what it does before you download it.

How to keep your Mac awake

The ways to stop your Mac sleeping, from built-in settings and the caffeinate command to a menu-bar app that keeps it awake on your terms.

Getting started with Keepresso

Download Keepresso, drop it in Applications, and start a keep-awake session from the menu bar.

Is Keepresso safe? Open source and notarized

Keepresso is free, open source, notarized by Apple, and asks for almost no permissions. Here is what it can and cannot do.

Use Keepresso in your language

Keepresso speaks fifteen languages and follows your system language by default. Switch it any time from Preferences or the Welcome screen.

Keepresso vs Amphetamine, KeepingYouAwake, and caffeinate

An honest comparison of Keepresso, Amphetamine, KeepingYouAwake, and the caffeinate command. When each is enough, and when a free open-source menu-bar app is the better fit.

Using Keepresso

13 guides

The day-to-day features: timed sessions, smart triggers that watch an app or a download, closed-display mode, the command line, and automation leases for AI agents. Each guide covers one job, with the exact menu items and shortcuts.

Keep your Mac awake for a set time

Start a timed keep-awake session so your Mac stays up for a download or render, then sleeps on its own.

Keep your MacBook awake with the lid closed

Stop your MacBook from sleeping when you close the lid, on battery, with no external display and no power cord, using a free open-source app.

Keep awake only when it matters, with smart triggers

Set conditions so Keepresso keeps your Mac awake only while an app runs, a call is live, you are on power, and more. Never on when it should not be.

Let AI agents keep your Mac awake with automation leases

Give AI agents and scripts a safe way to hold your Mac awake. Automation leases are bounded and self-expiring, with an MCP server and a bundled agent skill that teach your agent the whole protocol.

Stop your Mac sleeping during Zoom, Teams, and Meet calls

Keep your Mac awake during video calls automatically, so it never sleeps mid-meeting, on any app including calls in a browser tab.

Keep an external drive or NAS from sleeping on your Mac

Stop an external hard drive, SD card, or NAS from spinning down mid-job, and keep your Mac awake while it is connected.

Control Keepresso from Shortcuts, Raycast, or a script

Start, stop, or toggle keep-awake from the Shortcuts app, Spotlight, Siri, Raycast, Alfred, or a URL, and let event hooks call back when something happens.

Fix cloud gaming and streaming lag on a Mac

Regular ping spikes while gaming, on GeForce NOW, or streaming with Moonlight and Parsec? On a Mac the usual cause is AWDL sharing your Wi-Fi radio. Keepresso can test for it and pause it for the session.

Stop Teams, Slack, and VDI marking you away

Keep your Mac reporting activity so Teams, Slack, remote-desktop, and VDI sessions keep you Active instead of flipping to away or logging you out.

Toggle keep-awake with a keyboard shortcut

Set a system-wide hotkey to flip keep-awake on or off from any app, and have Keepresso start a session automatically when it opens.

Keep your Mac awake from the command line

Drive Keepresso from the terminal, scripts, and pipelines with the keepresso command. Start, stop, and read status, hold the Mac awake caffeinate-style, or take a bounded automation lease.

Keep your Mac awake during long builds and compiles

Stop macOS from sleeping mid-compile. Use Keepresso timers, CPU or process triggers, and closed-lid mode so Xcode, cargo, gradle, and CI-style builds finish unattended.

Keep your Mac awake for Time Machine and long backups

Stop sleep from interrupting Time Machine or a long backup. Use Keepresso's Backup Running preset, volume triggers, and disk keep-alive so the job finishes.

Headless & remote

2 guides

Running a Mac mini or Mac Studio with no monitor attached, or reaching a Mac from somewhere else. Keeping a headless machine awake and reachable, and getting a sharp Screen Sharing picture without a dummy display plug.

Keep a headless Mac mini or Mac Studio awake

Turn a Mac mini or Mac Studio into a reliable always-on machine that never sleeps, survives a power cut, and comes back on its own.

Fix blurry Screen Sharing on a headless Mac

A headless Mac gives you a fuzzy, low-res desktop over Screen Sharing or VNC. Keepresso can serve a crisp HiDPI display with no HDMI dummy plug and no paid app.

Troubleshooting

3 guides

When the Mac sleeps anyway, the password prompt keeps coming back, or a trigger is not firing. Each guide names the likely cause and the setting that fixes it, including the macOS behaviour Keepresso cannot override.

My Mac still goes to sleep

A short checklist for when Keepresso is on but your Mac keeps sleeping anyway.

Why won't my Mac sleep? See what is keeping it awake

Your Mac will not sleep and you do not know why. Keepresso shows every app holding it awake, in plain language.

Stop the repeated administrator password prompts

Closed-display mode, the AWDL pause, fan boost, game CPU priority, and scheduled wake can ask for your admin password on every launch. Install the administrator helper once and they never ask again.

Get Keepresso

Free and open source, for macOS 14 and newer. Install it and keep your Mac awake on your terms.

Download the DMG View on GitHub