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How to Turn off Mac Display Instead of Sleep using Power Button

In this guide, we will show you a nifty method using which you can turn off your Mac display instead of putting it to Sleep using the Power button. While you can get this job done via the Hot Corners [Settings > Desktop & Dock > scroll bottom, press the “Hot Corners…” button > Choose your corner and select “Put Display to Sleep”], however, that isn’t the most feasible and viable approach for many. So what else can be done? Well, there does exist a handy workaround that will allow you to get this job done using the Power button itself.  Without any further ado, let’s unearth this hidden gem right away!

How to Turn off Mac Display Instead of Sleep Using Power Button

How to Turn off Mac Display Instead of Sleep using Power Button

To get this job done, you’ll have to tweak the Power setting and change its value to False [0 for Boolean] in the com.apple.PowerManagement.plist file which is stored in the /Library/Preferences/ directory. So on that note, let’s put this tweak to the test right away:

  1. To begin with, you can read the current values via the below command:
    defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
  2. Then set the “Sleep On Power Button” value to False via the below command:
    sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist "Sleep On Power Button" 0
  3. Finally, restart your Mac and the changes will be implemented.

That’s it. These were the steps to turn off your Mac display instead of putting it to Sleep using the Power button. If you have any queries concerning the aforementioned steps, do let us know in the comments. We will get back to you with a solution as soon as possible.

FAQ 1: The Output of % pmset -g

After carrying out the above tweak, if you use the % pmset -g command, then the Sleep On Power Button will still show the value as 1. This is just a UI bug and in the backend, everything is working well and good.

FAQ 2: Write “Sleep On Power Button” 1

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist "Sleep On Power Button" 1

FAQ 3: Delete “Sleep On Power Button” 1

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist "Sleep On Power Button"

[Credits for all the commands given in this guide go to MacRumors Member bogdanw].


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