Power management settings.
Syntax Settings for battery(-b), charger(-c), UPS(-u), All(-a): pmset [-a | -b | -c | -u] [setting value] [...] List current settings (Get): pmset -g [custom | live | cap | sched | ups | ps | ...full Getting list below] UPS settings: pmset -u [haltlevel percent] [haltafter minutes] [haltremain minutes] Override settings and sleep now: pmset [sleepnow | displaysleepnow | boot | noidle | lock | touch] pmset relative [wake | poweron] seconds Schedule: pmset schedule [cancel] [cancelall] {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: SETTINGS acwake - Wake the machine when power source (AC/battery) is changed (value = 0/1) autorestart - Automatic restart on power loss (value = 0/1) 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) 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) lidwake - Wake the machine when the laptop lid (or clamshell) is opened (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) hibernatemode - Change hibernation mode. (value =integer) Please use caution not all hardware supports all modes. Check local man page. 0 = Normal sleep, no hibernation (default on desktops), 1 = Legacy Hibernate mode, RAM written to disk and system unpowered, 3 = Safe Sleep (default on laptops), 5 = the same as mode 1, but for use with secure virtual memory. 7 = the same as mode 3, but for use with secure virtual memory. 25 = Hibernate mode, only settable via pmset. The system will store a copy of memory to persistent storage (the disk), and will remove power to memory. The system will restore from disk image. If you want "hibernation" - slower sleeps, slower wakes, and better battery life, use this setting. post-2005, MacOS 10.7+. hibernatefile - Change hibernation image file location. Image can only be located on the root volume. Please use caution. (value = path) 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. powerbutton - Sleep the machine when power button is pressed, instead of shutting it down, (value=0/1) powernap - Enable/disable Power Nap on supported machines (value = 0/1) proximitywake - On supported systems, this option controls system wake from sleep based on proximity of devices using same iCloud id. (value = 0/1) reduce - Permanently reduce processor speed (value = 0/1) ring - Wake on modem ring (value = 0/1) sleep - System sleep timer (value in minutes, or 0 to disable) sms - Use Sudden Motion Sensor to park disk heads on sudden changes in G force (value = 0/1) 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) womp - Wake on ethernet magic packet (value = 0/1) GETTING -g (with no argument) display the settings currently in use. -g live Display the settings currently in use. (default if no argument given) -g everything Print output from every argument under the GETTING header. This is useful for quickly collecting all the output that pmset provides. -g ac / adapter Display details about an attached AC power adapter. Only supported for MacBook and MacBook Pro. -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 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 history A debugging tool. Prints a timeline of system sleeplwake UUIDs, when enabled with boot-arg io=0x3000000. -g historydetailed Print driver-level timings for a sleep/wake. Pass a UUID as an argument. -g log Display a history of sleeps, wakes, and other power management events. This log is for admin & debugging purposes. -g powerstate [class names] Print the current power states for I/O Kit drivers. Caller may provide one or more I/O Kit class names (separated by spaces) as an argument. If no classes are provided, it will print all drivers' power states. -g powerstatelog [-i interval] [class names] Periodically print the power state residency times for some drivers. Caller may provide one or more I/O Kit class names (separated by spaces). If no classes are provided, it will log the IOPower plane's root registry entry. Caller may specify a polling interval, in seconds with -i polling_interval; otherwise it defaults to 5 seconds. -g profiles Display the settings associated with each Energy Saver profile. 10.5+ -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 sched Display scheduled startup/wake and shutdown/sleep events. -g stats Print the counts for number sleeps and wakes system has gone thru since boot. -g systemstate Print the current power state of the system and available capabilites. -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 therm Show thermal conditions that affect CPU speed. Not available on all platforms. -g thermlog Show a log of thermal notifications that affect CPU speed. Not available on all platforms. -g uuid Display the currently active sleep/wake UUID; used within macOS to correlate sleep/wake activity within one sleep cycle. -g uuidlog Display the currently active sleep/wake UUID, and prints a new UUID as they're set by the system. -g ups Display UPS emergency thresholds.
pmset must be run as root in order to modify any settings.
See man pmset for a description of power management with more examples.
In system preferences âžž Energy saver you can set Sleep times and 'Wake for Network Access'
Hibernation and Safe Sleep modes will turn OFF RAM memory during sleep.
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.
Scheduled power on/off events are stored separately in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist
Print the power management settings in use by the system:
$ pmset -g
Print a snapshot of battery/power source state at the moment:
$ pmset -g batt
Set displaysleep to a 5 minute timer on battery power, leaving other settings on battery power and other power sources
unchanged:
$ sudo pmset -b displaysleep 5
Restore default settings for charger, battery and UPS:
$ sudo pmset -c 2 -b 1 -u 1
Sets displaysleep to 10, disksleep to 10, system sleep to 30, and turns on WakeOnMagicPacket for ALL power sources (AC, Battery, and UPS) as appropriate:
$ sudo pmset -a displaysleep 10 disksleep 10 sleep 30 womp 1
Schedule the system to automatically wake from sleep on July 4, 2026, at 8PM:
$ sudo pmset schedule wake "07/04/16 20:00:00"
Set the hibernation mode to normal sleep:
$ sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
Restart the computer at midnight every day:
$ sudo pmset repeat restart MTWRFSU 00:00:00
Cancel all scheduled system sleep, shutdown, wake, and power on events:
$ sudo pmset repeat cancel
“Work like you don’t need the money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like nobodys watching” ~ Satchel 'Satchmo' Paige
Local man page: pmset - Command line help page on your local machine.
caffeinate - Prevent the system from sleeping.
powermetrics - Gather and display CPU usage stats.
