macOS has a number of options that management when your Mac reduces the facility it makes use of and the way it behaves when it does. There’s a comparatively hidden setting that routinely logs you out of the present macOS account after a selected variety of minutes idle. This doesn’t shut down your Mac, but it surely quits all open packages and makes the Mac inaccessible with no password except you’ve turned on the Visitor account.
The setting is discovered at > System Settings > Privateness & Safety. Scroll right down to the very backside and click on the Superior button. That is the place you’ll discover “Log off routinely after inactivity.” If enabled, there’s additionally a area into which you’ll be able to enter the period of time desired. If it was a thriller as to why your Mac was logging out after inactivity—because it was to at least one Macworld reader—simply disable that swap.
This buried setting could be the reason for mysterious macOS logouts.
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Should you had meant to make use of this characteristic, make sure that the idle time is on the proper length to not wasted your time throughout working periods.
You possibly can have the safety of requiring a password when your laptop is idle with out closing lively purposes and logging out, after all. For that choice, go to > System Settings > Lock Display. Select the length and choices you need for beginning the display saver or turning off the show. Setting “Require password after display saver begins or show is turned off” to Instantly ensures that after both of these occasions happens, somebody would want a password to unlock your Mac.
In case you have a Contact ID sensor on a Mac laptop computer, have a Magic Keyboard with Contact ID linked to an M-series Mac, or personal an Apple Watch, you can also make this simpler on your self, too. In > System Settings > Contact ID & Password (or simply Password with out Contact ID). Because it matches the {hardware} you personal:
- Allow “Use Contact ID to unlock your Mac” for a laptop computer or Magic Keyboard with Contact ID.
- Allow below Apple Watch your watch’s title to let it unlock your Mac.
For safety causes, macOS retains a timer working as one issue that lets the working determine whether or not you should use Contact ID or an Apple Watch to unlock your Mac. Chances are you’ll be prompted for the account’s password at any given time even with these choices chosen.
Make life simpler by letting your fingerprint or Apple Watch unlock your Mac.
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This Mac 911 article is in response to a query submitted by Macworld reader Lawrence.
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We’ve compiled a listing of the questions we get requested most continuously, together with solutions and hyperlinks to columns: learn our tremendous FAQ to see in case your query is roofed. If not, we’re at all times on the lookout for new issues to resolve! Electronic mail yours to mac911@macworld.com, together with display captures as applicable and whether or not you need your full title used. Not each query will likely be answered, we don’t reply to e mail, and we can not present direct troubleshooting recommendation.
