How SleepFade decides when to fade
What SleepFade watches, when the fade starts, and what happens with videos that don't report their length.
During your sleep hours, SleepFade checks what’s playing every couple of seconds using macOS Now Playing, the same information you see in Control Center.
When the fade starts
When the episode or video gets close to its end, SleepFade starts lowering the volume. By default:
- The fade starts 8 minutes before the end.
- It takes 8 minutes, so the volume reaches its lowest point right as the episode ends.
- It fades down to 0% volume.
All three can be changed in Settings > Fading.
Once the volume is all the way down, it stays down for the rest of the night, even if autoplay starts the next episode.
When the length is unknown
Some apps and live streams don’t tell macOS how long they are. For those, SleepFade uses If length is unknown in Settings:
- Fade after 90 min (the default) fades once that much time has passed since it started playing.
- Don’t fade leaves those alone.
The moon menu tells you which case you’re in. It shows “Fades in 12m” when it knows the length, or “Length unknown” when it doesn’t.
In the morning
When your sleep hours end, SleepFade puts the volume back to where it was before the fade.
What SleepFade can see
SleepFade only uses the title, app and timing of what’s playing, and only on your Mac. Nothing about what you watch is sent anywhere.
Still stuck? Ask the assistant or email us.