Since publishing Energy Saver Best Practices three years ago, Apple has reorganized settings related to display and computer sleep.

The company has also built new Macs that more efficiently manage energy usage and make shutdown less necessary for conservation — so much so that the newest Mac mini moves the power button to the bottom of the computer in order to cram in more ports for peripherals.

While there is some logic to where the related settings are now located, I might argue that they are now so separate as to also be difficult to find if you don’t know the precise context of what you seek.

Although these are mostly set-it-and-forget-it settings, I’ll take this time to share some of this underlying wisdom so you know where to look on the rare occasions when you need to make a change.

Client Notes

Last week, I had a fabulous first session with Smiley, who recently switched from a PC and an Android to a Mac and an iPhone, and is living the glory of the Apple ecosystem. I helped him let go of Google services and consolidate his digital footprint around iCloud.

After our meeting, Smiley wrote this glowing review: Ben is a pleasure to work with and the results are that I was carried to the next level with a lot more understanding of the Mac ecosystem and I have a lot less worry about it. This happened because Ben listens superbly well and he heard exactly what my problems were and knew how to fix them.

I also empowered Lloyd to talk about his technology experiences and challenges simply by listening and enabling him to think about his underlying needs. And, I reconnected David to his Gmail account on an aging Mac by deleting a passkey created using a newer iPhone — and then supported him in buying a new Mac to make everything run better.

Mac Lock Screen Display Sleep Setting

Display vs. Computer Sleep

It’s been nearly a decade since Apple clearly differentiated between display and computer sleep settings. Once upon a time, there was a timer for each in the Energy Saver pane in macOS’ System Preferences.

In these beforetimes, Macs took longer to sleep and wake, so there was some logic to separating these settings. Now, the Energy pane of System Settings on desktop Macs and the Battery pane on laptop Macs provide nothing of the sort.

That’s because these settings have moved to the Lock Screen pane, which represents what you see on your Mac’s display when you’re not actively using it. Also, the sleep timers are no longer sliders and have changed to popup menus with only preset durations.

On a desktop, you can specify how long to wait when the display is inactive before turning it off. On a laptop, there are two settings: one when on battery and one when on power adapter.

If you had set a different duration set on macOS 12 or earlier, such as 4 minutes, this is retained in the popup menu of macOS 13 or later. (Also, it’s still possible to specify a different time using the pmset command in Terminal.)

Mac Energy Settings can prevent computer sleep

Sleep to Conserve Energy

By default, turning off the display puts the whole Mac to sleep. This is acceptable because Macs are so well integrated and wake and sleep with such ease that there’s rarely a need to split these functions.

Compared to the 80–100 watts that many Mac models use while in active operation, most Macs use about 1 watt while asleep. Modern Macs can go to sleep in just a second and wake just as fast. Even if your Mac wakes to the Lock Screen, the ability to unlock using Touch ID or an Apple Watch enables you to quickly pick up where you left off.

However, if you have background processes that don’t prevent your Mac from sleeping, such as running Folding@home, you can prevent your Mac from going to sleep when the display is off.

Note: On most Macs of the last decade, it’s best to let storage drives manage their own energy needs and keep Put hard disks to sleep when possible disabled. From what I’ve heard, this setting can sometimes cause more harm than good.

Mac Control Center Battery Settings

Battery Settings

On a MacBook, the main area of the Battery settings pane shows some simple graphs of battery level and screen usage over the last 24 hours or 10 days. It also allows setting a preference for Low Power Mode. All other settings are hidden under an Options button.

Meanwhile, the ability to show battery information in the menu bar has moved to a third settings pane: Control Center. In the Other Modules section, you’ll find toggles to display these details in the Control Center panel itself, as well as whether to show the dedicated Battery menu, the battery charge percentage, and the current energy mode.

Do you put your Mac to sleep when you’re not using it? Do you shut down when you’ll be away for a while or before a big storm?

Share more about your practices in the comments.