Amphetamine not working with the lid closed? How to fix it

Amphetamine is free, has no ads or in-app purchases, and is still the default answer when someone asks how to keep a Mac awake. Its App Store listing lists keeping a MacBook awake while its display or lid is closed among its features. When that stops working, the cause is usually configuration rather than a broken app. These checks go from most to least common. Each one says where the information comes from.

1. Check the session does not allow sleep when the display closes

Per the App Store listing, each Amphetamine session lets you allow or prevent several things, including system sleep when the built-in display is closed. If that one is allowed, the Mac sleeps at lid close even though the session is running.

1. Open Amphetamine's settings and find the session defaults for Closed-Display Mode.
2. Make sure system sleep with the display closed is not allowed.
3. End the current session and start a new one, so the change applies, then test with a short lid close.

2. On Apple Silicon, install Power Protect

The developer's Power Protect page says that on Apple Silicon Mac laptops, Closed-Display Mode may not work as expected after connecting or disconnecting an external power source, including a display with power delivery. Power Protect is a script plus a configuration file that fixes this. The developer says Apple does not allow Amphetamine to install them directly, so it is a separate download.

1. Download the Power Protect installer from the developer's page and run it.
2. Authenticate once with Touch ID or an administrator password. After that, the page says no password is needed.
3. End any running Closed-Display Mode session and start a new one, so Amphetamine picks it up.

For transparency, the page lists what it installs: a script in ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.if.Amphetamine/ and a configuration file in /private/etc/sudoers.d/. If you used the older Amphetamine Enhancer for its Closed-Display Mode fail-safe, note that open issues (#25, #27) report that option missing on M2 MacBooks. Power Protect is the newer route.

3. Timed session with no external display? Try Indefinitely

An open issue on Amphetamine's GitHub repository, filed in August 2026 on Amphetamine 5.3.2 with Power Protect on an M1 Pro MacBook Pro, reports a specific pattern. With no external display attached, an Indefinitely session kept the Mac awake with the lid closed on battery. A timed session (minutes or hours) did not: the reporter measured SleepDisabled going back to 0 about 70 seconds after the session started, and the Mac slept at lid close while the menu still showed time remaining.

The reporter's workaround: use an Indefinitely session when no external display is attached, and end it by hand. You lose the automatic end time, so set yourself a reminder.

4. Check what is actually applied: SleepDisabled

The reports above check one value, and so can you. While a Closed-Display Mode session runs, open Terminal and run:

pmset -g | grep SleepDisabled

In those reports, a working session showed SleepDisabled 1, and a session that had silently dropped protection showed 0 while Amphetamine still looked active. If you see 0 during a session, end it and start an Indefinitely one, then check again.

If the value flips on its own even in an Indefinitely session, look for another app that manages sleep. A BatFi issue (closed as of October 2026) reported that app's helper resetting SleepDisabled to 0 within minutes, which made a lid-closed setup fail until BatFi was quit. An older Enhancer issue reports SleepDisabled sometimes dropping to 0 with no cause found.

The display stays on with the lid closed

That is a different symptom: the Mac stays awake but the built-in display keeps glowing behind the lid and drains the battery. In Amphetamine issue #1, the developer explained a 5.3 display-sleep change, and users were still reporting in 2026 that the display does not turn off right away with the lid closed.

• Turn on Allow display sleep for the session, and shorten the display sleep time.
• Force it off. One commenter in that issue runs sudo pmset displaysleepnow, which the pmset manual says puts the display to sleep immediately.

Amphetamine on macOS Tahoe

As of October 5, 2026, the Mac App Store lists Amphetamine 5.3.2, released November 10, 2023, as the latest version. We found no source saying Amphetamine is broken on macOS Tahoe, so do not assume the OS is the cause before working through the checks above.

There is one Tahoe-specific report to know about. Issue #16, open since May 2026, describes intermittent black screens on wake from overnight deep sleep on a MacBook Air running macOS 26.4.1 with Power Protect installed. Its author says the suspected mechanism is their own inference, not a confirmed cause. If you see the same thing, adding your details there helps the developer.

When Clamshell is the better fit

Stay with Amphetamine if it works for you. It is free, it has far more triggers, it handles lid-open keep-awake too, and it runs on Intel Macs. Clamshell for Mac is narrower: it only covers the lid closed with no external display, on Apple Silicon MacBooks with macOS 14 or later. It fits when that one job keeps failing, or when you would rather not install scripts or a sudoers file.

• No sudo or admin password, no kernel extension, privileged helper, script or sudoers file. It does not use pmset disablesleep and never changes SleepDisabled.
• Power changes are handled. It works on AC and battery and survives plug and unplug transitions.
• The built-in display stays black while the lid is closed. The Mac stays on the network for SSH and screen sharing.
• Clear arming. The menu bar menu arms for the next close only. Holding Option while closing is a one-close action on a MacBook Air M2 (2022) or later or a 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro (2021) or later. Shortcuts and right-click arming last until you disarm.
• Safety stays on. At serious or critical thermal pressure it disarms toward normal lid sleep. Disarm or quit and normal lid sleep is restored, and the lid change is never saved across a restart.

One difference to know: Clamshell pauses while an external display is connected, so it is not a desk-with-monitor tool. Amphetamine's external-display trigger, or Apple's own closed-display mode, covers that case.

Clamshell keeps your Mac awake with the lid closed. Free for 7 days, then $9.99 once for one Mac. 14-day money-back guarantee.

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Sources checked October 5, 2026: the Amphetamine Mac App Store listing, the Power Protect install page, the Amphetamine Enhancer README, Amphetamine GitHub issues #1, #16 and #19, Amphetamine Enhancer issues #25, #27 and #42, BatFi issue #148, the macOS pmset(1) manual and Apple's closed-display guidance. Clamshell behavior is described from its changelog and FAQ. Clamshell is the publisher of this guide and is not affiliated with Amphetamine. Product names belong to their respective owners.