Why does your Mac go to sleep?
Every Mac has a built-in idle timer. After a period of no mouse movement, keyboard input, or other activity, macOS dims the display, then puts the system to sleep entirely. This is controlled by your Energy Saver (or Battery) settings in System Settings.
Sleep is usually a good thing. It saves energy, extends battery life, and reduces wear on components. The problem comes when your Mac sleeps during something important: a long download, a presentation, a remote desktop session, or a render that takes hours to finish.
Why the built-in options fall short
You can change your Energy Saver settings to "Never" in System Settings, but that applies all the time. Your Mac won't sleep on its own until you change it back, which means your MacBook could drain its battery overnight if you forget. There's no way to say "stay awake only while I'm downloading something" or "stay awake on weekdays between 9 and 5."
And if you're in a corporate environment, your IT department may have locked those settings entirely with an MDM profile. You literally can't change them.
The better approach: Shake It On
Shake It On is a menu bar utility that keeps your Mac awake by moving your mouse slightly every few seconds. It lives in your menu bar, runs quietly in the background, and knows when to run and when not to.
Unlike changing a system setting, Shake It On uses actual mouse movement to reset the idle timer naturally. This is more reliable than system-level approaches, especially in corporate environments where IT policies lock down Energy Saver settings, or during remote desktop sessions where the host software needs to see real input activity.
Smart conditions
What makes it useful is the conditions. Instead of keeping your Mac awake all the time, you can tell Shake It On exactly when to run:
- Only Shake If audio is playing, a specific app is running, Wi-Fi is connected, an external display is attached, CPU usage is above a threshold, or an external disk is connected
- Paused When the display is locked, screensaver is running, Focus/DND is active, camera is in use, a specific app is in the foreground, or you're on battery
- Scheduled to specific hours and days of the week
This means your Mac stays awake during a 3-hour render but still goes to sleep normally when you walk away for the night.
Why mouse movement works better
Shake It On moves the cursor with subtle, natural-looking motion. This has a few advantages over the system-level approach:
- Corporate environments — IT departments often lock down Energy Saver settings via MDM profiles. Mouse movement bypasses this because macOS sees it as genuine user activity.
- Remote desktop — VNC, SSH, Screen Sharing, and TeamViewer sessions can disconnect after their own idle timeout, even if the Mac stays awake. Mouse movement appears as real activity to the remote software.
- Messaging apps — Slack, Teams, and similar apps use mouse and keyboard activity to set your status. System-level sleep prevention doesn't affect this. Mouse movement does.
Getting started
Shake It On requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later. It runs on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.
- Download and install Shake It On from the website
- Grant Accessibility permission when prompted (required for mouse movement)
- The app appears in your menu bar with a cursor icon
- Open Settings to configure your shake interval, conditions, and schedule
- That's it. Shake It On runs in the background and keeps your Mac awake when your conditions are met.
The default settings work well for most people: shake every 5 minutes, pause when on battery or when the display is locked. You can fine-tune from there.