Prevent your computer from going to sleep
Caffeine is a tiny program that puts an icon in the right side of your menu bar. Click it to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. The Week in iOS Apps: Caffeine-powered. The 20 best Mac games. The 10 best iPhone and iPad games of 2019. Today's Best Tech Deals. Picked by Macworld's Editors. Find More Hand-Picked Tech Deals. Google Drive is a compelling choice because it offers 15 GB of storage space, and best-in-class web apps, like Google Docs and Sheets for free. Dropbox (also free) is a good choice if you don’t need the attached web services and prefer a simpler, leaner (2 GB) cloud storage service. Caffeine is a social broadcasting platform for gaming, entertainment, and the creative arts. With Caffeine, you can engage in real-time with the broadcaster or your viewers - no more long delays when chatting. Welcome to the future of broadcasting. Caffeine is a tiny program that puts an icon in the right side of your menubar. Click it to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. Click it again to go back. Hold down the Command key while clicking to show the menu.
If you have problems with your PC locking or going to sleep, caffeine will keep it awake. It works by simulating a keypress once every 59 seconds, so your machine thinks you're still working at the keyboard, so won't lock the screen or activate the screensaver.
The icon is shown above - it's the leftmost one in the task tray, and this is all you see. Double-clicking the icon empties the coffee pot (that's what the icon is) and temporarily disables the program. Double-clicking it again refills the pot, and will keep your machine awake.
By default the app starts enabled, and works every 59 seconds. There are some command line switches you can use to alter this behaviour:
xx
- where xx is a number which sets the number of seconds between simulated keypresses. This must be the first text on the commandline-startoff
- application starts disabled.-exitafter:xx
- application will terminate after xx minutes-activefor:xx
- application will become inactive after xx minutes-inactivefor:xx
- application will become active after xx minutes-appexit
- terminates current running instance of application-appon
- makes the current running instance of the application active-appoff
- makes the current running instance of the application inactive-apptoggle
- toggles the running state of the current running instance of the application-apptoggleshowdlg
- toggles the running state, and shows dialog-replace
- closes the current running instance, replacing it-noicon
- does not show a task tray icon-useshift
- simulate the shift key instead of F15-showdlg
- shows a dialog indicating whether caffeine is active-ontaskbar
- show a task bar button (use with -showdlg)-allowss
- prevent sleep, but allow the screensaver to start-key:xx
- simulate using virtual key code xx
Note: the codes on the linked page are in Hex, convert them to decimal for use with this parameter-keypress
- simulate a full key press, not just a key up event-oldicons
- use more colourful tray icons-darkicons
- use icons which work better for dark-on-light colour schemes-watchwindow:xx
- active only when a window with xx in the title is found-activehours:....xxxxxxxx....
- put 24 . or x characters - which indicate from hour 0 to hour 23 of the day. Caffeine will be active only in hours with an x
Compatibility
Caffeine works by simulating an F15 key up event every 59 seconds. Mac native app google photos. Of all the key presses available, F15 is probably the least intrusive, and least likely to interfere with your work.
However, Caffeine might interfere with some apps:
- PowerPoint uses the F15 keypress to pause video in a slide
- Google Docs/Sheets
- Smartsheet
- Terminal emulation, e.g. Putty
If you think any of these might cause you a problem, set the
-useshift
command line parameter.Video
Caffeine user humancar2n has put together a short YouTube video showing how the app works.
Mac version
Do you need this functionality on your Mac? Lighthead Software have written a separate app, also named Caffeine, which can help you out.
Versions
v1.90 - October 2020
-darkicons
command line option added-activehours
command line option addedTooltip replaced with a new one which works more reliably
Menu appearance updated
![Caffeine Caffeine](/uploads/1/3/4/2/134217319/477465469.jpg)
v1.81 - May 2020
Bug with the
-watchwindow
command line fixedv1.80 - January 2020
v1.64 - September 2017
Option for old icons added, 'cos not everyone likes the new ones
App store crashing mac catalina. v1.63 - February 2017
Icons updated slightly to show up better on a white background.
Best Mac Apps Caffeine App
v1.62 - April 2016
New icons, designed by Rubén Gómez Radioboy
v1.61 - October 2015 Cycliq app for mac.
Fixed bug with app not going active/inactive correctly when a timed period elapsedv1.60 - July 2013
New command line options:
-allowss
-ontaskbar
-apptoggleshowdlg
-key:xx
-keypress
Added menu items to go Active/Inactive
Best Mac Apps Caffeine Boost
Type in About box corrected
-apptoggle
will re-show the dialog if it was originally shownv1.50 - November 2010
New command line options:
-inactivefor
-showdlg
-apptoggle
Simulated keypress changed from right context menu key to F15 as this is likely to be even less intrusive.
v1.40 - July 2009
New command line options:
-replace
-noicon
-useshift
Hovering over the tray icon now shows the status of the app
v1.35 - May 2009
Simulated keypress changed from shift to the right context menu key (at the suggestion of Kevin Kleinfelter) as this is likely to be less intrusive.
v1.30 - February 2009
Command line switches added to terminate the app after x minutes, disable the app after x minutes, and enable or disable the currently running instance of the app
v1.20 - March 2008
![Best mac apps caffeine without Best mac apps caffeine without](/uploads/1/3/4/2/134217319/275462462.jpg)
Command line switches added to set the interval and to start disabled