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How can I change my Mac OS X Snow Leopard "Ask for password after screensaver" delay?

I've tried:

defaults -currentHost write com.apple.screensaver askForPasswordDelay -int 3600

but won't work. I want to do this through Terminal or AppleScript.

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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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defaults write com.apple.screensaver askForPasswordDelay -int 3600

Works for me -- it'll show up as "1 hour" in the preference pane, while 14400 will be "4 hours". You need to consider that the selection in System Preferences uses hard-coded selection values, and always uses the next higher value: 61 seconds will show as 5 minutes.

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  • Thanks, the problem was -currentHost.
    – Fábio Perez
    Commented Mar 11, 2011 at 22:57
  • Only two files get written by System Preferences when changing the value in there: One is com.apple.screensaver.plist, the other is the host-specific counterpart in the ByHost directory, that contains only settings such as the idle time for the screensaver.
    – Daniel Beck ♦
    Commented Mar 11, 2011 at 22:57

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