Require password immediately after sleep on Mac

By default, macOS may give a small window after your screen goes dark before it asks for a password. In a coffee shop, open office, or anywhere you step away from your desk, that gap is enough for someone to walk up and access your machine. The fix is one setting — and it should probably be on for everyone.

Why "Immediately" is the right choice

The password delay option in macOS exists for convenience — it means you don't get prompted if you nudge your mouse a second after the screen dims. But that same grace period is a security hole. If someone walks past your desk while you're grabbing a coffee, they have a window to access whatever was on screen.

Setting the delay to Immediately means the password is required the moment your display turns off or the screensaver starts. Touch ID or Apple Watch unlock still works instantly, so the friction in practice is essentially zero.

Where to find the setting in macOS 13 Ventura and later

The Lock Screen settings moved in macOS Ventura. The old path (System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General) no longer exists. The new location is:

1. Open System Settings from the Apple menu.
2. Click Lock Screen in the sidebar.
3. Find the option labelled "Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off".
4. Click the dropdown and select Immediately.

The other delay options are 5 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, and 4 hours. Unless you have a specific reason for a delay, Immediately is almost always the right choice.

Lock your screen instantly with a Hot Corner

Requiring a password on sleep is half the equation — the other half is being able to lock your screen quickly when you step away. Hot Corners let you trigger an action by moving your cursor to any corner of the display. Setting one to lock the screen means you can secure your Mac in a single mouse movement as you stand up.

1. Open System Settings.
2. Click Desktop & Dock in the sidebar.
3. Scroll to the bottom and click Hot Corners…
4. Click the dropdown for whichever corner you want to use and choose Lock Screen.
5. Click Done.

The bottom-left or bottom-right corner works well for most people since it's a natural place to throw the cursor as you stand up. You can also hold a modifier key (like ⌘ or ⌥) in the dropdown so the corner only triggers when you hold that key — useful if you accidentally trigger it too often.

Lock via keyboard shortcut

If you prefer a keyboard shortcut, macOS has a built-in one on all modern Macs:

# built-in keyboard shortcut to lock the screen
Control + Command + Q

This locks immediately, regardless of the sleep password delay setting. It's the fastest keyboard option.

Lock via Terminal

If you ever need to trigger a screen lock from a script or automation, you have a couple of options:

# put the display to sleep immediately
pmset displaysleepnow

# or use AppleScript to trigger system sleep
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to sleep'

The pmset displaysleepnow command turns off the display without putting the whole system to sleep — your downloads and apps keep running. If the password delay is set to Immediately, waking the display will ask for a password straight away.

Check your screensaver idle time

The password lock kicks in when the screensaver starts or the display turns off — so your screensaver idle time matters too. To check how long before the screensaver activates:

# check the screensaver idle time (in seconds)
defaults -currentHost read com.apple.screensaver idleTime

A result of 300 means 5 minutes. You can adjust the screensaver timeout in System Settings → Lock Screen → Start Screen Saver when inactive. For most people, 5 or 10 minutes is a reasonable balance between security and annoyance.

Does Touch ID still work after sleep?

Yes. Even with the delay set to Immediately, Touch ID and Apple Watch unlock both work. You tap the fingerprint sensor and you're back in — no typing required. The only time you'll need to type your full password is after a restart, or if Touch ID fails a few times in a row.

That makes the Immediately setting genuinely painless for most people. The security benefit is real; the extra friction is minimal.