Keep Drive Spinning for Mac
Makes sure that a connected drive never goes to sleep.
Free
In English
Version 3.0When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission
Keep Drive Spinning overview
Keep Drive Spinning ensures that a connected drive never goes into low-power mode. Normally this can be controlled using the Energy Saver preference pane in System Preferences, and that should be your first resort in dealing with the problem, rather than this or any other third party software. However, some external drives do not respect the System Preferences settings, so for them an alternative like this is needed.
This applet simply creates a launch agent that tells OS X to update a hidden file on the selected drive once every minute so that the drive stays awake. Launch agents are built-in OS X technology and persist across reboots, etc., so you can run this once to set-it-and-forget-it. You can find the launch agents made by Keep Drive Spinning in the LaunchAgents folder of your user's Library folder.
Users on OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and OS X 10.5 (Leopard) need to run the AppleScript source code directly. This source code is included, and only requires opening the file and then clicking the big, friendly Run button.
What’s new in version 3.0
Version 3.0:
- Compatibility with macOS 10.15 (Catalina)
- Streamlines the user interface a bit
- Uses one launch agent for all drives
- Supports storing the hidden file in custom locations (not just the root folder of a drive)
- Diagnostic tool is built into the main app
Keep Drive Spinning for Mac
Free
In English
Version 3.0
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Comments
User Ratings
Sep 9 2022
Version: 3.0
This software has been discontinued. I recommend the app Amphetamine as an alternative: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/52683/amphetamine
Jul 10 2022
Version: 3.0
Any plans for an update? I was referred here to overcome the disk sleep issue of my Orico 5-bay Rip Van Winkle enclosure.
Jul 26 2020
Version: 3.0
Program does not work on Catalina. Too bad since I hate my hard drives constantly starting and stopping.
Feb 6 2019
Version: 2.6.2
Two questions:
1. If I uncheck "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" in Energy Saver, will that leave my drives spinning even when the computer is sleeping?
2. If so, then will Keep Drive Spinning also do that?
I would rather drives slept while the computer is asleep.
