How to Shut Down Your Mac After Inactivity

You can make your Mac automatically shut down after a period of inactivity. This ability is not included as standard in Mac OS X; to do this you will need to use Power Manager.

Power Manager includes a built-in task that will make your Mac shut down safely after a period of inactivity. Let's walk through how to create this task.

Create a Shut Down After Inactivity Event

  1. Launch System Preferences and select Power Manager.
  2. Click Add… to create a new event.
    Click Add to start creating the shut down event in Power Manager
  3. Choose the template Power off after inactivity.
    Select the "Power off after inactivity" task for your new event
  4. Click Continue to the What and When step.
  5. By default, the event will Sleep after 15 minutes. Adjust the action to Shut Down and the required period of inactivity to match your needs.
    Adjust the event's action and inactivity duration.
  6. Continue through the remaining steps until your event is created.
    Continue through the Time Constraints
    Continue through the Interactive Constraints
    Use the Why step to name and describe your new event
    Finally confirm your new Power Manager event

Having followed the steps above, you will have created a new event in Power Manager. This event will start working immediately and will shut down your Mac after a period of inactivity.

Your new shut down after inactivity event is ready and scheduled

Remember that unsaved changes may be lost if you let your Mac shut down automatically. Always save changes before leaving your Mac unattended.

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Published by Graham Miln on