Amphetamine | Toothpicks Support Portal

About Amphetamine

Amphetamine is a macOS utility that can keep your Mac awake during times or situations you define. Amphetamine is highly customizable, allowing you to keep your Mac awake for a specified duration, or when conditions are met like a certain app running, while a file is downloading, or while a USB device is connected. 

The Basics

Where is Amphetamine?

Amphetamine runs from your system menu bar. It can also present its icon in the Dock, but many people choose to hide the Dock icon. This option can be managed in Amphetamine’s Preferences.

Amphetamine’s default icon in the system menu bar is a round segmented pill. Clicking on this icon will cause Amphetamine’s menu to show. From the menu you can manually start or end a session, quickly change some of Amphetamine’s many preferences/settings, contact support, and quit the app. Speaking of sessions…

Amphetamine's menu

What is a Session?

When Amphetamine is keeping your Mac awake, this is referred to as a “session.” You can start and end a session, either manually or automatically. Automatic session start/end is done through the Triggers feature. Manual session start is done by selecting a duration from Amphetamine’s menu in the system menu bar, or by using hot keys. Manual session end is done by selecting End Current Session from Amphetamine’s menu, or by using a hot key.

How Do I Use Amphetamine?

At its most basic, Amphetamine is an on/off utility. Right-click Amphetamine’s icon in the system menu bar to start a session that will run using your default duration (indefinitely by default; change in Preferences → Sessions → Non-Trigger Sessions). Right-click Amphetamine’s icon in the system menu bar again to end the session. Alternatively, you can choose any of the predefined session durations in Amphetamine’s menu by clicking Amphetamine’s icon in the system menu bar and selecting a duration, app-based session, or file-download-based session.