Keep Your Mac Awake During Export

Long exports can take several minutes. If your Mac is set to sleep after a few minutes of inactivity, the export would normally stop the moment the system goes to sleep — leaving you with a half-rendered file when you come back.

To avoid this, Highlight Studio can keep your Mac awake automatically while an export is running. The setting is on by default.

Where to find it

Open Settings (⌘ ,).
Click the Export tab.
Under Power, you'll see Keep Mac awake during export.

Switch it on or off here. Whatever you choose is remembered for future exports.

What it does

While an export is running, your Mac will not go to sleep due to inactivity, even if you walk away.
The screen is still allowed to turn off after your normal display-sleep timeout. The Mac keeps working underneath, so the export continues progressing — wiggle the mouse and the screen wakes back up to show the progress bar.
The moment the export finishes (or you cancel it), the setting releases automatically and your Mac returns to its normal sleep behavior.

When you might turn it off

You're on battery and want the Mac to sleep on its usual schedule even mid-export.
You're doing many short exports and don't mind interrupting any one of them by walking away.

For most users — especially anyone exporting longer videos — leaving this on is the right call.