Schedule your Mac to wake or start up at a set time — via SS64
pmset can wake or power on your Mac on a schedule, for example every weekday morning before you sit down, so it's ready and has finished its updates and backups.
Takes effect right away
The easy way
- Days are letters:
M T W R F S U(R is Thursday, U is Sunday). The example wakes or starts the Mac at 7:30 every weekday. - Run
pmset -g schedto see what's scheduled.
Command
Run in Terminal (Applications › Utilities). It uses sudo, so macOS asks for your password.
sudo pmset repeat wakeorpoweron MTWRF 07:30:00Undo
sudo pmset repeat cancelpmset needs administrator rights to change settings; reading the schedule doesn't.
Sources
- pmset — by SS64
- Source reviewed
- 2026-11-02
- Link checked
- 2026-11-02
- Tested hands-on
- Not by Oddbyte.Me
Oddbyte.Me hasn't tried this on every macOS version, so keep the undo handy.