He dove into . There it was: “Enable Power Nap while on battery power.” Disabled. That was the culprit. Without Power Nap, the Mac truly sleeps—CPU throttled, network stack suspended, downloads frozen.
On the plane to Tokyo, he wrote a quick note in his phone: “Mac sleep downloads: Apple's own stuff = yes with Power Nap. Third-party = no. Lid closed = sometimes. Dim screen + prevent sleep = always yes.”
He smiled. One more lesson learned from the 2 AM tech trenches. does mac keep downloading in sleep mode
Then, heart pounding, he clicked from the Apple menu.
He’d heard conflicting things. His friend Priya, a developer, swore that modern Macs with Power Nap kept downloads alive. But his cousin Mark insisted that Wi-Fi disconnected the moment the lid closed. Leo decided to test it—without actually testing it. He opened Activity Monitor, watched the network traffic for the download process. It was chugging along at 50 MB/s. He dove into
Newer Intel Macs and all Apple Silicon Macs use a feature called (always on for Apple Silicon). While in sleep, Power Nap allows the Mac to: Download Software Updates from Apple. Download Mac App Store items in the background. Sync iCloud data and fetch new emails. Perform Time Machine backups .
To stop it, go back to the Terminal window and press . 4. Change "Prevent Sleeping" Settings (Plugged-in Only) Without Power Nap, the Mac truly sleeps—CPU throttled,
Generally, (like those in Safari or third-party apps) when the system enters its low-power sleep state. Sleep mode shuts down the processor and network hardware to conserve energy, which halts active background tasks.
But he also desperately needed sleep.
If you are using a MacBook and want to close the lid while downloading, you must use one of the methods above (like Amphetamine) to prevent the sleep transition, or keep it connected to an external monitor and power supply.
If you prefer not to install third-party apps, you can use a built-in terminal command. Open . Type caffeinate and press Enter.