macOS Catalina 10.15.5 My desktop goes back to startup screen after about 2 minutes. Where do I change the time out?
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Jeanne Owens
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How Do I Keep My Desktop From Going To Sleep?
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Three places to look. First look in System Preferences, Energy Saver, Turn display off after... See what that is set to.
Second, look in System Preferences, Desktop & Screen Saver, then Screen Saver at the top. Look at the bottom and see what your "Start after" time is.
Then, look in System Preferences, Security & Privacy and see what your "Require password ... after sleep or screen saver" time is set to.
So, for instance, if you have your screen saver set to start after 2 minutes, and then Require Password to start Immediately, then you get your 2 minutes of inactivity leading to a login screen. Or, maybe you don't have a screen saver set or it is longer than 2 minutes, but your Energy Saver is set to turn the display off after 2 minutes, then the same applies.
I think it is important, for security, to keep the security setting at Immediately. Forget about the screen saver. Set the Energy Saver setting to 5 or 10 minutes. So it sleeps the display after 5 minutes and you need a password when that happens.
The danger is when the security setting is something other than Immediately, especially for MacBooks. If you have it set to 15 minutes, for instance, then you can close your lid, someone can steal it during that time, and can open the lid up and have access to the data.