macos - Lock Mac after N mins of inactivity?

Is there a mac app that can lock the screen after N minutes of inactivity? Preferably N mins after the screensaver has kicked-in.

Locking when the screensaver comes on is annoying - I want my screensaver to do just that: save my screen from burn-in. Mine kicks-in after 3mins. Generally, that's when I've gone to make a drink. Coming back and having to unlock at that point is annoying. However, if I'm away from my machine for, say, an hour I'd like it to lock and require a password to be re-opened.

This needs to work after the screensaver has activated, since watching a movie in Frontrow or in the browser (with the help of Caffeine) means the mac will be "inactive" for a couple of hours.

The machine is usually processing things, so sleeping won't be useful.

Are there any mac apps out there that can do this?

Answer

Use display sleep to save your screen; use the screen saver as a lock.

Let’s say you want to prevent burn-in after 3 minutes and lock the computer after 30 minutes.

1. Go to System Preferences > Energy Saver and set the display sleep time to 3 minutes.


2. Go to System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver and pick a lightweight screen saver (like Flurry). Set it to start after 30 minutes.


3. Go to System Preferences > Security and make sure “Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver” is turned on.

Result:

• After 3 minutes your screen goes blank, preventing burn-in, but the computer is not locked.


• After 30 minutes the screen saver kicks in (although you won’t be able to see it because your screen is blanked) and your computer is locked.