App · Google Chrome (browser)

Why Google Chrome keeps your Mac awake

Google Chrome keeps the Mac awake while a tab needs it, and names the reason: “Playing audio” while a tab plays sound, “Video Wake Lock” while a video plays or a page asks to keep the screen on, “Capturing” while a tab uses the camera, microphone or screen, and “Download in progress” while a file downloads. The sound itself also shows up under coreaudiod, created for a “Google Chrome Helper” process.

Checked on macOS 27.2.1 on a MacBook Pro with Apple silicon, 11 November 2026.

What you’ll see

Check it on your Mac

Open Terminal (in Applications › Utilities) and run:

pmset -g assertions

Real output from the Mac we checked:

   pid 1855(Google Chrome): [0x0000595500018f15] 00:00:34 NoIdleSleepAssertion named: "Playing audio"
   pid 1855(Google Chrome): [0x0000595500058f14] 00:00:34 NoDisplaySleepAssertion named: "Video Wake Lock"

Activity Monitor shows the same thing without Terminal: open its Energy tab and look at the Preventing Sleep column.

What to do

1. Look for the speaker icon on Chrome’s tabs: that tab is playing sound.
2. Close the tab, or the video or call in it. Pausing a video often leaves the audio stream open.
3. For “Capturing”, look for the camera or microphone icon in the address bar and close that tab.

See it without Terminal

SleepPilot, a menu bar app, lists every app that is keeping your Mac awake right now by name — audio through coreaudiod is shown under the app that plays it — and warns you when one holds the Mac awake for too long while nobody is using it. Each morning it can show what kept the Mac awake overnight.

Questions

Other things that keep a Mac awake

• coreaudiod — Keeps the Mac awake while any app plays or records sound, even silence.
• Electron — An app built with Electron asked to stay awake; the assertion is named just “Electron”.
• cameracaptured — Keeps the Mac awake while an app uses the camera.
• All of them
• Guide: why won’t my Mac sleep?