Remove the password grace period after sleep on Mac

You already require a password — but it's set to kick in "after 5 minutes," which means for five whole minutes after the screen sleeps, anyone can wake your Mac straight into your session. That timed delay is the grace period, and you can drop it to zero. Set Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off to Immediately and there's no window left at all.

What the delay actually means

The Lock Screen dropdown isn't a yes/no switch — it's a countdown. Whatever value you pick is how long macOS will let someone back in without a password after the display sleeps. "After 5 minutes" doesn't mean it locks in five minutes; it means it stays unlocked for five minutes and only then starts demanding the password. If you close the lid and someone opens it three minutes later, they're on your desktop.

The dropdown offers a ladder of values — typically Immediately, 5 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, and longer. Every option except the first leaves a live window. For a machine you actually care about, that ladder has exactly one safe rung.

Set the delay to Immediately

1. Open System Settings → Lock Screen.
2. Click the Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off dropdown — it's probably showing your current delay, like 5 minutes.
3. Choose Immediately at the top of the list.

Done. The change is the same across macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia. From here on, the instant the display sleeps — however it sleeps — the login wall is up, with no countdown running behind it.

Is any delay ever worth keeping?

• 5 seconds is the popular compromise: it forgives a screen that dims for a moment while you're reading, but still locks fast. If constant re-authentication at your own desk drives you up the wall, this is the sane fallback.
• 1 minute or more is hard to justify on a portable Mac — it's long enough for the exact "stepped away" moment that gets people caught.
• Immediately is the right default for any laptop that leaves the house, or any Mac in a space you share.

If you want the tiny bit of forgiveness, pick 5 seconds. Otherwise, Immediately removes the guesswork entirely.

Zero the delay from Terminal

The delay is a single value in seconds stored in com.apple.screensaver. Zero means immediate:

# No grace period: require the password immediately
defaults write com.apple.screensaver askForPassword -int 1
defaults write com.apple.screensaver askForPasswordDelay -int 0

To bring a delay back, write the number of seconds you want — 5 for the 5-second option, 300 for five minutes — or delete the key to return to the default:

# Undo: 5-second grace period
defaults write com.apple.screensaver askForPasswordDelay -int 5
# or clear it entirely
defaults delete com.apple.screensaver askForPasswordDelay

On macOS 14 and 15 the Lock Screen dropdown is the control the login window actually reads; the Terminal key writes the same preference. If a value doesn't seem to apply, open System Settings → Lock Screen and confirm the dropdown reflects it.

Trigger the lock on purpose

With no grace period, a manual lock is instant — so learn the keystroke that fires it. See the lock screen shortcut on Mac to lock the moment you stand up rather than waiting for the idle timer.