Steam Doesn’t Keep Mac Awake

[SlaunchaMan]

When starting a download with Steam for OS X, you need to be sure the Mac doesn’t enter sleep mode; if it does, the download will be paused. OS X has power management APIs that would enable Steam to keep the Mac awake while downloads are in progress; those should be used.

[ionizedbloom]

I agree, however Valve has been historically slow to bring imporvements that are OS specific to steam.

[SlaunchaMan]

This is true. If a Steam OS X developer is reading this:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/cocoa/reference/foundation/Classes/NSProcessInfo_Class/Reference/Reference.html#/apple_ref/doc/uid/20000316-SW29

[briankyle]

To continue downloading on a Macbook Pro you need to plug in the power supply and go to the System Preferences>Energy Saver> options for power adaptor and check the "Prevent computer from going to sleep automatically when the display is off" box. This lets the screen turn off, but keeps your MBP downloading in steam.

Unfortunately, there is no such function when on battery power!

[videogames]

Power management settings should have an option to not put the computer to sleep if hard drive / network is being used. I don't think this is an issue with the Steam app itself.

[SlaunchaMan]

As I said above, there is an API that Steam could use on OS X to inform the system of its power needs. Of course you can override the power management settings yourself, I’d just like Steam to be a better citizen on OS X.

[hooby]

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