I would like the screen saver (which shows family photos) to launch each morning when the computer wakes in the morning. I used the Energy Saver option to sleep the computer each night and to wake it each morning. But instead, each morning I find a blank screen and am forced to login to start the screen saver. I am wondering if someone can recommend a way for the screensaver to start automatically each morning, without needing to login. This is for a computer at my (elderly) parents house where they love to watch the photos, but don't quite understand why they would need to log in to see them each morning. The only solution I have is to completely turn off energy save mode and leave the computer/screensaver on in perpetuity. Ideas? System = iMac 27/2013 with OSX 10.9.1 (also 10.8)


It looks like running the following command in Terminal, or supposedly through a script, will start the screen saver:


You could then schedule the screen saver to run a couple of minutes after the time the computer is scheduled to turn on. See this SuperUser question for some alternatives for task scheduling in Mac OS X.

  • Great answer. Tried it and it works great. I have been looking for a simple solution like this some time. Thanks! – Hephaestus Dec 30 '13 at 19:13

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