How to Disable Auto Log Off on Mac OS X

So your Mac keeps logging you off automatically? After about 30 minutes?

My work iMac, running OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks, kept logging me off after a period of a half hour or so. I would leave my desk for a meeting, say, and come back to find me logged out and all my applications closed. Grindingly frustrating.

After lots of searching, I finally found the solution – almost by accident.

Pref pane on Mac OS X

Head to Preferences, and the Security & Privacy pane (above).

Advanced tab in Security & Privacy

Go to the fourth tab at the top, “Privacy.” Hit the “Advanced…” button at the bottom of the window.

Uncheck the automatically log out

UNCHECK THIS BASTARD.

And done.

Hope that helps!

One comment.

  1. Umm… I think that some software you may have installed on your Mac may have done this to you. On my system (which is a rather new installation of macOS 10.12.3), the default is to “Log out after 60 minutes of inactivity”, but the check box is not active.

    It may also be true that Apple have changed the default for this setting in later system releases. I haven’t paid attention to this control until I finished reading your article!

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