Guide
Keeping a Mac awake
Scheduled work only happens while the agent is running. A Mac that sleeps at 2am is a fleet that does nothing until morning.
A missed run does not come back
A run has a thirty minute window. If the machine was asleep when a schedule came due and is still asleep half an hour later, that occurrence is skipped and the schedule moves on.
This is deliberate. Waking a laptop after a weekend should not fire two days of backlog at one phone. It does mean sleep quietly costs you runs rather than delaying them.
The settings that matter
- System Settings → Displays → Advanced → Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off, on.
- Keep the machine on mains power. Battery overrides most of this.
- Energy settings differ between desktops and laptops; on a Mac mini the equivalent option lives under Energy.
A closed lid still sleeps
None of the above keeps a laptop awake with the lid shut, unless an external display is attached. If the machine has to live closed, a Mac mini is the honest answer.
Checking it worked
The clearest test is the next morning: did the overnight runs happen?
To ask the machine directly:
pmset -g assertionsAnd to confirm the agent itself is loaded:
launchctl list | grep appfarmmagicIf the machine restarts
The agent registers a launchd job, so it comes back on login without anyone touching it. What it cannot do is get past FileVault: a Mac that reboots to an encrypted disk waits at the login screen, and nothing runs until someone signs in.
Keeping the phones awake too
A Mac staying up does not keep the phones up. Turn off auto-lock on each device, or run a keep-awake schedule so they stay on Wi-Fi rather than idling for days.