On The Go Helper
Closing the lid puts a Mac to sleep. The helper lets On The Go keep your Mac awake with the lid closed while the mode is on, and turns normal sleep back on as soon as it turns off.
You don't need the helper to use On The Go. Everything else (keeping your Mac awake with the lid open, the battery, heat and time limits, Leaving Now) works without it. At a desk with the Mac plugged in and an external display, keyboard and mouse, macOS already keeps it working with the lid closed.
Why a separate download?
Apps from the Mac App Store run in a sandbox, and the sandbox doesn't let them change what happens when you close the lid. That takes a small background service with administrator rights, which Apple only allows outside the store. So it's a separate, free app that you install once, and you can remove it any time.
On The Go never downloads or installs the helper for you. It only links to this page.
Install it
- Download it and move it to Applications.
Open the download, then drag On The Go Helper into your Applications folder. It won't install from anywhere else.
- Open it.
Double-click On The Go Helper in Applications. A small window opens.
- Click Install.
The window then says it's waiting for your approval.
- Approve it in System Settings.
Open System Settings → General → Login Items (on macOS 15 and later, Login Items & Extensions), and turn on On The Go Helper under Allow in the Background. The helper's Open Login Items… button takes you there.
- Check it in On The Go.
In On The Go's Settings, the Lid Closed section now says On The Go Helper is installed.
Let it breathe. A Mac that's running with its lid closed still makes heat. On The Go turns the mode off if it gets too hot, but you're the one who decides where it goes: a sleeve or an open bag is better than a closed backpack, and check on it when you arrive.
What it can and can't do
The helper does one job: it lets On The Go switch lid sleep off while the mode is on and back on afterwards. It never connects to the internet, collects nothing and has no settings of its own.
Advanced: exactly what the helper is allowed to do
The helper installs a background service (a launchd daemon registered with SMAppService) that runs as root. It only ever runs pmset: it reads the current setting (pmset -g), and it can make exactly these three changes, nothing else:
pmset -a disablesleep 1: the Mac doesn't sleep when the lid closes.pmset -a disablesleep 0: normal sleep is back.pmset displaysleepnow: turns the built-in screen off behind the closed lid.
Who may talk to it. Before any request gets through, the connection is checked by code signature in both directions. The service accepts only On The Go from the Mac App Store (dev.onthego.OnTheGo.lite, signed by Apple or by On The Go's developer team), and On The Go accepts only a helper signed by that same team. Other apps can't use it.
It turns normal sleep back on by itself (pmset -a disablesleep 0) when:
- On The Go turns the mode off;
- On The Go quits or crashes, so the connection drops;
- On The Go hasn't checked in for 3 minutes (it checks in every 30 seconds while the mode is on);
- the service is stopped: you click Remove, or the Mac shuts down;
- the service starts and finds it stopped last time while sleep was off.
The only file it keeps is a marker in /Library/Application Support/On The Go Helper/ that records whether sleep is currently off, for that last case.
Remove it
- Open On The Go Helper and click Remove.
The background service stops and normal sleep is turned back on.
- Move it to the Trash.
Drag On The Go Helper from Applications to the Trash. On The Go keeps working, with the lid open.