Did you know your MacBook has a built-in barista?
Well, sort of. It’s called ‘caffeinate’, and it’s a nifty little command that keeps your Mac awake. No, it won’t brew you a cappuccino, but it will stop your computer from dozing off when you need it most.
How many times have you walked away from your Mac, only to come back and find it’s gone to sleep?
Enter ‘caffeinate’. This simple command line tool is like a shot of espresso for your MacBook. It tells your computer, “Hey, stay awake! We’ve got work to do.”
Here’s how it works:
-
Open Terminal
-
Type
caffeinate -
Hit Enter
That’s it. Your Mac is now caffeinated and ready to pull an all-nighter.
Want to get fancy? Try caffeinate -t 3600 to keep it awake for exactly one hour. Or my go-to command caffeinate -d to prevent the display from sleeping too.
It’s simple. It’s useful. And it’s been hiding on your Mac all along.
So next time you need your MacBook to stay alert, don’t reach for the coffee pot or 3rd party tools. Just give it a dose of ‘caffeinate’ instead.
Let me know what other useful commands are hiding in plain sight.