Stop others using your Mac when you step away

Open-plan desks, hot-desking, a coworker who "just needs to check one thing" — a shared office is exactly where a Mac's default grace period lets you down. Set your Mac to require the password Immediately after the screen sleeps, and the moment you lock it or walk away, it's genuinely closed to everyone else.

The shared-desk problem

At home, an unlocked laptop is low-stakes. In a shared office it's the opposite: your screen may hold a client's data, unreleased work, an internal Slack, or a half-written email you wouldn't want forwarded. When you step off to a meeting or a coffee, the default macOS behavior keeps that session reachable for minutes after the screen goes dark — plenty of time for a curious neighbour to wake it and be looking at your desktop.

It's rarely malicious. Someone borrows your desk while you're out, taps the trackpad, and suddenly they're in your account rather than the login screen. Requiring the password immediately makes "I stepped away" and "it's locked" the same event, so there's no in-between state to exploit or stumble into.

Turn it on

1. Open System Settings → Lock Screen.
2. Find Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off.
3. Choose Immediately from the menu.

The setting reads the same across macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia, and applies to every way the display sleeps — the idle timer, a Hot Corner, closing the lid, or the screen saver starting. With Touch ID, you still get back in with a fingerprint; the setting only controls whether authentication is demanded at all.

Build the "lock before you leave" habit

Immediate locking closes the gap after sleep, but it can't read your mind about when to sleep. In an office, don't wait for the idle timer — lock deliberately:

• Control + Command + Q locks instantly. Make it the last thing you do before standing.
• A Hot Corner set to Lock Screen lets you flick the pointer into a corner as you push back your chair.
• If your team uses shared machines, fast user switching lets someone sign into their own account from your lock screen without touching your session.

Combine the keystroke with the zero-delay setting and there's no window where a passer-by lands on your desktop — the lock is real the instant you trigger it.

Do it from Terminal

The same two keys in com.apple.screensaver control it, handy if you're setting up several machines:

# Require the password immediately after sleep
defaults write com.apple.screensaver askForPassword -int 1
defaults write com.apple.screensaver askForPasswordDelay -int 0

To undo, restore a delay in seconds or remove the keys:

# Undo: 5-minute grace period
defaults write com.apple.screensaver askForPasswordDelay -int 300
# or delete the keys
defaults delete com.apple.screensaver askForPasswordDelay
defaults delete com.apple.screensaver askForPassword

On macOS 14 and 15 the Lock Screen dropdown is the authoritative control the login window reads; these keys write the same preference. If a change doesn't stick, open System Settings → Lock Screen once to confirm it shows Immediately.

Let coworkers sign in without touching your session

If people genuinely share the machine, fast user switching from the menu bar gives each person their own account from the lock screen — your session stays locked while theirs opens.