Hands-On Mac 178: Using a UPS With macOS - All TWiT.tv Shows (Audio)

Summary

Hands-On Mac Episode 178: Using a UPS With macOS
Released on April 17, 2025
Host: Micah Sargent

Introduction

In episode 178 of Hands-On Mac, Micah Sargent delves into the practicalities of using an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) with macOS. Aimed at both casual users and tech enthusiasts, the episode provides a comprehensive guide on integrating a UPS with your Mac to ensure data safety and system stability during power outages.

Understanding Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS)

Micah begins by explaining the fundamental purpose of a UPS. He describes it as a battery-powered system designed to provide backup power, allowing users to gracefully shut down their machines during power outages instead of experiencing an abrupt shutdown.

Micah Sargent [02:15]: "A UPS is something that I recommend to honestly everyone but in particular anyone who does anything like what we're doing here in the event of a power outage at my house... it instead does get a little bit of extended time."

macOS Integration with UPS

The discussion transitions to how macOS interacts with a UPS. Micah highlights that when a supported UPS is connected to a Mac, the operating system recognizes the device and provides additional functionalities to manage power settings effectively.

Micah Sargent [02:30]: "When you connect a supported UPS to your Mac, macOS notices that and provides you with some functionality to control the UPS."

System Information Insights

Micah demonstrates how to verify if macOS has detected the UPS by accessing the System Information tool. He guides listeners through navigating to the hardware section and specifically the power details to confirm UPS integration.

Micah Sargent [03:10]: "If you have a UPS installed and you check the system information utility and UPS installed says no, then you know you've got an issue."

System Settings and Energy Tab

Moving to the System Settings app, Micah focuses on the Energy section. Here, users can monitor the UPS battery level and adjust settings related to sleep behaviors and automatic restarts post power failure.

Micah Sargent [04:05]: "At the top of that Energy tab that it shows UPS level with a colon and then 100%. So I know that the battery power of the UPS is currently at 100%."

UPS Options and Configuration

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to configuring UPS options within macOS. Micah explains the various settings available, such as shutting down the Mac when the UPS battery reaches a certain time or percentage. He emphasizes the importance of aligning these settings with the UPS manufacturer's software to prevent conflicts.

Micah Sargent [06:20]: "macOS itself now knows that when the remaining battery life on the UPS is 10%, go ahead and shut down my Mac. That way I know that it's going to gracefully turn off and I won't have any loss of data."

Practical Demonstration

Using his CyberPower UPS as an example, Micah walks through the setup process. He accesses the Powerpanel Personal application to adjust the shutdown timer and ensures that macOS settings mirror the UPS software preferences.

Micah Sargent [07:45]: "I'm going to set it though here to 10 and click done. So what that does is macOS itself now knows that when the remaining battery life on the UPS is 10%, go ahead and shut down my Mac."

Tips and Best Practices

Micah shares valuable tips for users considering a UPS:

Consistency in Settings: Ensure that macOS and UPS software settings are synchronized to avoid discrepancies in shutdown protocols.
Software Necessity: Depending on the UPS model, users might not need additional software beyond macOS capabilities. It's essential to evaluate based on personal comfort and the specific UPS features.
Menu Bar Indicators: Users can monitor UPS status via the menu bar icon, which indicates battery levels and power sources.

Micah Sargent [09:30]: "Depending on the software that you have installed and what you are set in the application itself, you may notice that they kind of disagree with each other, and so you want to make sure that they are set to the same if you decide to go with that."

Conclusion

Micah wraps up the episode by reiterating the importance of using a UPS to protect Macs from unexpected power losses. He encourages listeners to reach out with questions and highlights the benefits of joining the TWiT.tv Club for additional resources and ad-free content.

Micah Sargent [11:15]: "Many of you out there have at times either considered getting a UPS or have indeed installed a UPS for your machine and maybe you're curious about what all you're able to do. So I want to give you a nice look into that."

Key Takeaways:

Essential Protection: A UPS provides critical backup power, allowing Macs to shut down gracefully during outages, thereby preventing data loss.
macOS Compatibility: macOS seamlessly integrates with supported UPS devices, offering user-friendly controls and status monitoring.
Configuration Sync: Aligning settings between macOS and UPS-specific software is crucial for effective power management.
User Empowerment: Understanding and utilizing UPS features can significantly enhance system reliability and user experience.

For anyone looking to safeguard their Mac against power interruptions, Micah Sargent’s detailed walkthrough offers both the knowledge and practical steps needed to implement an effective UPS solution.

Transcript

Micah Sargent (0:00)

Coming up on Hands on Mac. Let's take a look at what you can do when you use a UPS an uninterruptible power supply on macOS. Stay tuned.

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Micah Sargent (2:09)

Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is TWIT Foreign welcome to Hands On Mac. I am Micah Sargent and today we are taking a look at using an uninterruptible power supply, the battery powered system that lets you sort of gracefully shut down your machine in the event of a power outage. It is something that I recommend to honestly everyone but in particular anyone who does anything like what we're doing here in the event of a power outage at my house, instead of everything just shutting down immediately because there's no more power available to the device, it instead does get a little bit of extended time. It is a battery that is surrounded by a place to plug stuff in. And in some cases they have power conditioners and other tools that kind of help you to manage your system. And when you connect a supported UPS to your Mac, macOS notices that that's done and provides you with some functionality to control the ups. So let's head over to macOS and take a look. All right, here we are on macOS and the first thing that I want to mention is that if you have installed and installed the software for a UPS and you've connected it to your machine, then you will be able to determine that macOS recognized that you have a UPS installed in a few places. The first place I want to mention is system information. So system information is a tool that lets you kind of get an idea of what is installed on your machine. And in this case the text can be kind of hard to see on the screen. But I have gone in the left column under the hardware section to power and the first thing you'll see is depending on if you have a Mac laptop or if you have a desktop, you may see AC power here, you may see battery here, but the first thing will be AC power. This is just the stuff that is built in to your system. I'm running a Mac Studio. So I can see with AC power that I have sleep on power button turned on, automatic restart on power loss turned off wake on land turned on current power source. Meaning is there a current power source? Yes. And then prioritize network reachability over sleep is set to no. Right below that is UPS power. And that is how I know that this machine has officially recognized my ups. It has some of the same information. Display sleep timer, sleep on power button, automatic restart on power loss, wake on. Basically, if this machine, the Mac Studio, is running on UPS power instead of AC power, what is it able to do? What is it allowed to do for those settings? And then under hardware configuration, I can also see that it has an option that says UPS installed. Mine says yes. If you have a UPS installed and you check the system information utility and UPS installed says no, then you know you've got an issue. You can access system information simply by holding down the command key, hitting the space bar and typing in system space INF is usually enough. At which point it'll know that you're talking about system information. Hit Enter and it launches system information. That is the first place that we're going to go. The next place we're going to go is the most important place. So I will downsize that and I'm going to Open up the System Settings app, which used to of course be called System Preferences. And in the System Settings app, I will choose Energy. So typically you're going to open up to the general page, I will choose Energy. And immediately I can tell that this Mac has recognized that I do indeed have a UPS installed. So let's take a look at what that means with the UPS installed. I can see immediately up at the top of that Energy tab that it shows UPS level with a colon and then 100%. So I know that the battery power of the UPS is currently at 100%. Now, if I look at these options, these options are going to be related to what we saw in the System Information page. Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off. Wake for network access, which says while sleeping your Mac can receive incoming network traffic such as imessages and other icloud updates to keep your application up to date and then start up automatically after a power power failure. So what that means is if there's a power failure, immediately attempt to try and turn on if the OR once the power is restored. So that is something that you might toggle on if you want to make sure that as soon as the power is returned, turn that machine back on. Especially if you have SC that run in the background right when you are away from your machine. You don't want to not be able to access the device because there's no power or because there wasn't power and then there suddenly was. So that is something that you can toggle on. But you'll notice that if you have a UPS a supported UPS installed, there's a new option beneath that says UPS options. If we click on that now, I can see a few things. First and foremost, I can see that it has recognized the model of UPS that I have. I have a CY Power 1500 AVR LCD3. And beneath it are these options that we talked about before. Shut down your Mac after using the UPS battery for X amount of time, shut down your Mac when the time remaining on the UPS battery is blank, and then shut down your Mac when the UPS battery level is below blank. These options give you the ability to work in concert with the software provided by your UPS to make sure that the machine shuts down gracefully while you are connected. You'll notice I have none of these toggled on and that's because we're going to do this together. So there are three different options here and I want to use the option that says shut down your Mac when the time remaining on the UPS battery is First I'm going to go to the Powerpanel Personal application, which is the means of controlling my cyberpower ups. And currently the cyberpower UPS is plugged in via USB to this machine. That's how it's communicating with it and knows what's going on. And what we want to do is take a look at the settings for this. So I'll go into our Energy Reporting and Energy settings option, or rather go into the settings pane and take a look at the different options. And we want to go into runtime. So this says shut down this computer when remaining battery runtime is only 5 minutes. Use this option to extend operating time while on battery power. So what this does is Powerpanel Personal has its own rules for how long the machine stays running. So I want to make sure that my settings via Mac OS are close to, if not identical to, that setting. So in this case I would choose to toggle on the second option. Shut down your Mac when the time remaining on UPS battery is. And we've got it. Five here, five here. I'm actually going to set it though here to 10 and click done. So what that does is macOS itself now knows that when the remaining battery life on the ups is 10%, go ahead and shut down my Mac. That way I know that it's going to gracefully turn off and I won't have any loss of data simply because I have lost power. And that is everything that you have within the UPS options. Now, depending on the software that you have installed and what you are, what you've set in the, in the application itself, you may notice that the two will kind of disagree with each other, and so you want to make sure that they are set to the same if you decide to go with that. Now, depending again on the supported ups, you may find that you don't need to install the software provided by the company, like cyberpower in this case, and that you can do everything you need to do with just macOS, that's completely up to you. So it's just a matter of what you're more comfortable with, what makes sense to you. And I wanted to mention the last place that you will notice your UPS is in the menu bar at the top you may see a sort of electric bolt icon where you once saw power, and it will give you quick information about the fact that it's currently running and that the power is coming from the power adapter. But The UPS has 100% battery life, so a few different places where you can take a look at your UPS settings and make changes to them based on what you are aiming to do. Folks, that is going to bring us to the end of this episode of Hands On Mac. I know many of you out there have have at times either considered getting a UPS or have indeed installed a UPS for your machine and maybe you're curious about what all you're able to do. So I want give you a nice look into that. As I always mentioned, feel free to reach out to me. Micahwit TV I want to remind you about our club. Club Twit. Twit tv Club Twit. We do offer a monthly plan and now we've returned the yearly plan as well. Very exciting, so be sure to check that out. $7 a month and we have a two week free trial. I look forward to seeing you in the club where you'll get ad free episodes of all of our shows, access to the Twit plus Bonus bonus feed, and access to the Members Only Discord Server. Thank you so much for your support. I'll catch you again next week for another episode of Hands On Mac. Bye.