Vratislav Holub If you use your MacBook as a desktop, or if you have it closed and connected to an external monitor, then you may have noticed one imperfection. Even though the Mac is connected to a separate display and has an external keyboard and mouse/trackpad available, it still won't work for you unless you connect it to power. This is a rather special limitation on the part of the operating system, which cannot be bypassed natively. Very briefly it can be said that only two options are offered. You will either connect the MacBook to a charger or use a monitor that supports charging via Power Delivery. No other option is offered natively.
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Flying around the world with Apple As we mentioned above, this is a rather strange restriction that apple growers have been complaining about for a long time. A simple rule works here. As soon as the apple laptop is closed, it automatically goes into sleep mode. This can only be reversed by powering up. If you want to use the MacBook in the so-called clamshell mode, i.e. as a closed laptop with an external monitor, there are still alternative ways to achieve this.
How to use MacBook in clamshell mode without power
If you want to use your Mac in the aforementioned clamshell mode, you can resolve the matter fairly quickly via the Terminal. As already mentioned, macOS works in such a way that the entire device goes to sleep after the MacBook lid is closed. This can be canceled via the Terminal. However, such a thing is generally not recommended. The only option is to completely disable sleep mode, which in the end can do more harm than good.
For this reason, in this article we will focus on a more comfortable and safer way in the form of a free application. The key to success is the popular Amphetamine app. It enjoys fairly solid popularity among apple users and is primarily designed to prevent the Mac from going into sleep mode at a given time interval. We can imagine the whole thing with an example. If you have a process running and you don't want your Mac to go to sleep, just activate Amphetamine, choose a time after which the Mac is not allowed to go to sleep, and you're done. At the same time, this app can realize the use of the MacBook in clamshell mode even without a connected power supply.
amphetamine
So let's take a look together at how to actually set up the Amphetamine application. You can download it for free directly from Mac App Store here. After installing and running it, you can find it in the top menu bar, where you just need to go to Quick Preferences > Allow system sleep when display is closed. Once you clear this option, a dialog will open informing you of the importance of installing Amphetamine Enhancer. You can that one download at this address. Then just open and install Amphetamine Enhancer Closed-Display Mode Fail-Safe. This module can be seen as a safety fuse that will definitely come in handy.
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Once you have Amphetamine Enhancer installed, including the mentioned module, and unchecked Allow system sleep when (within Quick Preferences), you're practically done. Now all you have to do is select Amphetamine from the top menu bar and choose how long you want your Mac to sleep. Subsequently, it is possible to use it in clamshell mode even without a connected power supply.
Interesting talk. But it is not clear how to control the MacBook when it is closed. So what is it good for?
I have MB, I only have one cable to the monitor and everything is OK. I doubt that anyone will spend tens of thousands of MB to buy a 3K monitor WITHOUT "Power Delivery".
This solution only works until one forgets it - which I don't really believe in... and you still need to charge the MB from time to time 🤷♂️
I have MB with M1 not long ago and thank you for this advice, I often connect my MB to the TV and without a cable to the socket more comfort - it's more convenient - great