HomeKit Locking Mac when away from Home automation

[jedimasterkyle]

Does anyone know if it's possible to run an automation from either my iPhone or Mac that says "If I'm away from home, lock my Mac"?.

I was walking my dog just now for about 20 minutes and when we came back, I realized that my Mac was not locked. Now, I realize it would have taken me 2 seconds to just click on "Lock Screen" before we left but I didn't think about it and honestly, I rarely do until today.

Then I got to thinking that it makes sense to have an automation run when I'm not at home to lock my Mac but I dont even know where to begin with that so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mods: If this question is in the wrong spot, apologies and please move to appropriate section if needed.

 

[PhoenixDown]

On your Mac, use Lock Screen settings to protect your Mac from malware and tampering. To change these settings, choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Lock Screen in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.) Choose how long your Mac can be inactive before the screen saver starts.

Just change your settings to something reasonable like 5 or 10 minutes. It will auto lock for you without having to worry about the home automation aspect of this.

 

[PhoenixDown]

Some other suggestions found while I was google searching

https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/zv0b6a

 

[jedimasterkyle]

Just change your settings to something reasonable like 5 or 10 minutes. It will auto lock for you without having to worry about the home automation aspect of this.

I mean...there's that too 😅

 

[jbn858273]

Control + Command + Q will lock the screen immediately. I have no idea how many years it has taken before I read that somewhere - most likely here at Macrumors a week or two ago!

You can even do it one-handed.

I find that I need to press Escape afterwards to blank the screen immediately rather than wait for a timeout that seems not to happen, but that might be my settings or my 2017 iMac stuck on Ventura. Your mileage may vary.

 

[flynz4]

Control + Command + Q will lock the screen immediately. I have no idea how many years it has taken before I read that somewhere - most likely here at Macrumors a week or two ago!

You can even do it one-handed.

I find that I need to press Escape afterwards to blank the screen immediately rather than wait for a timeout that seems not to happen, but that might be my settings or my 2017 iMac stuck on Ventura. Your mileage may vary.

I also use Control + Command + Q to lock my Mac Stdio. It has been programmed into my muscle memory.

I also use the Amphetamine app which will allow the screen to blank while sleeping and help me manage keeping it awake when I want. It replaced Caffeine when it become unsupported.

I like my machine to be on but locked almost continuously. With ICloud, everything syncs back to the Mac and my Mac is backed up continuously to the cloud via Backblaze and to Time Machine locally. I’ve been amazed how good iCloud has become... but it is NOT backup, it is really only a syncing service. Too many people seem to have the false impression that it is backup.