Jon Stovell
Q: Keep Drive Spinning won't open for me! How do I get this to run?
A: Right click on it and select “Open” from the context menu.
Your computer is probably set not to allow unsigned applications to run. To sign Keep Drive Spinning would require me to pay Apple $100/year for a code signing certificate. I’m not going to do that in order to distribute free software. Thus, macOS’s security preferences may complain about it.
You can do one of three things to work around this:
- Right click (or click while pressing Ctrl, or do a two-finger tap on your trackpad) on Keep Drive Spinning, and select Open from the contextual menu that appears.
- Temporarily set the Security & Privacy preference pane in System Preferences to allow applications from anywhere, and then run Keep Drive Spinning. You may revert to your previous setting once you've done this.
- Open the file named Keep Drive Spinning.applescript in the Source folder that came with the application. Once it opens up in Script Editor, use File > Export… to save it as an application, and then run that. (It’s probably easier to do one of the other options, though.)
Q: Will Keep Drive Spinning keep my computer awake?
A: No.
Keep Drive Spinning keeps drives awake, not computers. If your computer falls asleep, the drive will be free to go to sleep, too.
Q: Do I need to keep running Keep Drive Spinning after I've set it up?
A: No.
Once you have selected the drives you want to keep awake, just click the Done button. Your drives will be kept awake using a background process.
Q: Do I need to run Keep Drive Spinning every time I connect my drive?
A: No.
Keep Drive Spinning will remember your drive. Even if you connect it once using USB and later via network sharing, Keep Drive Spinning will see it and keep it awake for you.
Q: What if I change the name of my drive?
A: Run Keep Drive Spinning’s setup process again for the renamed drive.
If you change the name of your drive, Keep Drive Spinning won’t recognize it and won’t try to keep it awake unless you do the setup again using the new name.
Q: Keep Drive Spinning said it would keep my drive awake, but now I don’t see anything happening. How can I tell if it is really working?
A: Keep Drive Spinning is completely invisible when operating.
Menu bar icons or other visual indications would just be a waste of system resources and screen real estate for a task like this. Once you configure a drive to be kept awake, you can safely assume that it is working. If you ever want to let a drive go to sleep, just run Keep Drive Spinning again and click the “Let a drive sleep” button.
If you are really curious, you can check for yourself. Open Keep Drive Spinning, click the More… button, and select “Run diagnostic” from the menu.
Q: Does Keep Drive Spinning work for network drives? Firewire? Thunderbolt?
A: Yes.
Keep Drive Spinning doesn’t care about how you connect your drive to your computer. USB, Firewire, Thunderbolt, network sharing, whatever; it’s all the same to Keep Drive Spinning.
Q: Does Keep Drive Spinning work for read-only drives?
A: No.
Keep Drive Spinning does its work by periodically updating a hidden file on the drive. Files can’t be updated on read-only drives, so read-only drives can’t be forced to stay awake this way.
Q: Will Keep Drive Spinning affect the lifespan of my hard disk drive?
A: No.
Hard disk drives (HDDs) are designed to handle frequent read and write operations. The reason some HDDs spin down into low power mode is to save electricity, not to extend drive lifespan. So using Keep Drive Spinning on a drive will affect an HDD no more than pressing “Save” once per minute in a open file.
If you use a solid state drive, see the next question.
Q: Should I use Keep Drive Spinning on a solid state drive (a.k.a. a flash drive)?
A: No.
Using Keep Drive Spinning on a solid state drive (SSD) would be pointless. SSDs don’t have internal disks that spin up, so there are no delays reading or writing to an SSD.
Moreover, the lifespan of an SSD can be affected by the amount of read/write operations it performs. Although Keep Drive Spinning’s operations would be a drop in the bucket for an actively used SSD, it would be a (small) contributor toward eventually wearing out an SSD. Since there’s no benefit to be gained anyway, using Keep Drive Spinning on an SSD is not recommended.
Q: Why did Keep Drive Spinning ask for my admin password?
A: You tried to configure a drive that you don't otherwise have write permissions for.
Keep Drive Spinning puts a tiny hidden file on a drive that is supposed to stay awake. If you do not have permission to create or modify this file, you will receive an error message and will be asked if you want to try again using administrator privileges. If you click the "Retry" button, you will be asked for your administrator password.
Q: Something isn’t working properly. What should I do?
A: Follow the steps in the troubleshooting guide.
Following the steps in the troubleshooting guide will either fix your problem or at least help to identify where the problem lies.
Q: I followed the steps in the troubleshooting guide and Keep Drive Spinning is set up properly, but my drive still has problems. Why?
A: Your drive may be malfunctioning.
Keep Drive Spinning does not fix malfunctioning drives. It just prevents healthy drives from falling asleep. If your drive falls asleep anyway, or disconnects itself from Finder, or loses data, or anything like that, Keep Drive Spinning cannot help you. You may need to repair or replace the drive.
Q: This is awesome! How can I thank you?
A: Go do something selfless for someone else today.
Love and generosity make the world a better place. So, go do some unexpected good deed for someone else, and we'll call it even.