Your Mac, locked in for the show.
ShowMode is a menu-bar switch that puts your Mac into one protected state for a live show — no sleep, no app-nap, no notifications, no surprise beeps — and shows you exactly what's protected at a glance. One press to arm it, a deliberate hold to stand down.
It's built for live production — wherever a Mac is running the show. If a sleeping screen, a stray notification or a system beep at the wrong moment would matter to you, ShowMode is for you, whatever the discipline.
What ShowMode does
ShowMode lives in the menu bar. When you enter Show Mode it engages a set of system protections at once, holds them for the length of the show, and reverses every one of them when you exit. The menu-bar icon and a small popover tell you, honestly, what is and isn't protected right now.
It's made for anyone running a live show from a Mac, in any discipline. If a sleeping display, a stray notification or a system beep at the wrong moment would matter to your audience, this is for you.
Five automatic protections, plus an optional Spotlight control
Entering Show Mode holds a sleep-prevention lock, disables App Nap, keeps the display, system and disk awake, silences the alert (beep) volume, and turns on Do Not Disturb. Disabling Spotlight is separate — an optional control you set in Settings — and appears alongside the five as a status row.
Honest status
A pre-flight check and a live status list show a green ✓ or red ✗ for each protection. ShowMode reads real system state — it never claims something is on when it can't confirm it.
Hard to end by accident
You arm a show with one press, but ending it — or quitting the app while a show is live — takes a deliberate 3-second hold and a confirmation. A show can't be dropped by a stray click.
It cleans up after itself
Everything is reversed on exit. And if the app ever quits uncleanly mid-show, it recovers on next launch: it clears the leftover protections and restores your alert volume.
ShowMode never changes anything permanently behind your back. The only setting that persists between shows is one you turn on yourself in Settings — disabling Spotlight indexing — and ShowMode shows its live state and lets you switch it back any time.
Requirements
- A Mac running macOS 13 (Ventura) or later.
- For the Do Not Disturb step, three small macOS Shortcuts that ShowMode installs for you on first run (see First run). Everything else works without them.
- An administrator password only if you choose to disable Spotlight indexing in Settings — a one-time, optional step.
- An internet connection the first time you start a trial or activate a license. After that, ShowMode runs offline at show time.
ShowMode is a notarised, Developer ID-signed app. It runs outside the App Sandbox because it uses standard macOS tools (caffeinate, mdutil and the Shortcuts runner) to hold the Mac awake and quiet during a show.
First run & Shortcuts setup
The first time you open ShowMode you'll see the Set Up ShowMode screen. This is where the Do Not Disturb step gets wired up, using three macOS Shortcuts.
The screen explains it plainly:
"ShowMode silences Do Not Disturb during a show using three macOS Shortcuts. Install them once and you're set — macOS will ask you to add each one."
- Click Install Shortcuts. macOS adds each of the three Shortcuts and may ask you to confirm. They're named Show Mode On, Show Mode Off, and Show Mode Status.
- Choose "Always Allow" when macOS asks permission. The first time ShowMode runs a Shortcut, macOS asks whether to allow it. Pick Always Allow so it never interrupts you mid-show.
- You're done. The screen confirms with "Setup complete" and returns you to the app.
As the setup screen says: "The first time Show Mode runs a Shortcut, macOS will ask permission — choose Always Allow so it doesn't ask again mid-show." If you pick Allow Once instead, macOS keeps re-asking — and ShowMode shows a one-time banner: "It looks like Show Mode may only have one-time permission to run Shortcuts. For reliable shows, set it to Always Allow." with an Open Privacy Settings button (and Dismiss).
Share Across Devices & Focus
The setup screen includes a section, "Keep your shows protected", with one important tip:
"If Focus is shared across your devices, changing Focus on your iPhone can turn off Do Not Disturb on this Mac mid-show. For reliable shows, turn off Share Across Devices in Focus settings." Tap Open Focus Settings to do it now.
You can skip it
Setup is never required. Use Skip for now (or Continue without setup) to go straight to the app. ShowMode still works — only the Do Not Disturb step stays off until the Shortcuts are installed. You can return to setup any time from a status row or a recovery prompt.
Quick start
If you just want to run your first show, this is the short path. Each step is expanded later in the guide.
- Open ShowMode from the menu bar. It shows a white padlock icon when idle.
- Install the Shortcuts on first run (or skip — see above).
- Glance at the Pre-flight Check in the popover. Expand it to confirm each protection is ready.
- Press Enter Show Mode. The icon changes to a red SHOW and every protection engages.
- Run your show. If anything needs attention, the icon turns orange and the popover tells you what.
- When you're done, hold Exit Show Mode for 3 seconds and confirm. Everything is restored.
The menu-bar icon
The icon is your at-a-glance status. You can read the state of the show without opening anything.
Click the icon any time to open the popover. The top of the popover shows a quick read-out — whether you're on mains power or battery, a Low Power Mode notice if it's on, and your current Uptime and Free disk. This glance is there both while idle and during a live show, just above the status list — so a slipping battery or filling disk never catches you out mid-show.
Entering a show
With Show Mode off, the popover shows a single primary button.
- Press Enter Show Mode. ShowMode engages all five automatic protections at once and the icon switches to a red SHOW.
- Watch the status list confirm. Each protection reports in. Do Not Disturb may read “Checking…” for a moment until ShowMode verifies the Shortcut ran.
The five automatic protections
| Protection | What it does for you |
|---|---|
| Sleep prevention | Holds a system lock that prevents the Mac from sleeping. |
| App Nap disabled | Stops macOS throttling background apps that your show may depend on. |
| Caffeinate | Keeps the display, system and disk awake — even on battery — for the whole show. |
| Alert volume silenced | Saves your current alert (beep) volume and sets it to zero, then restores it on exit. |
| Do Not Disturb | Turns on Focus / Do Not Disturb so notifications don't appear on screen. |
A sixth status row — Spotlight — sits alongside these in the list, but it isn't engaged automatically. It only reflects the optional Spotlight choice you make in Settings. So the status list shows six rows, of which five are the automatic protections.
If your trial or license has lapsed, the button reads Activate a license to continue and takes you to Settings → License. Spotlight is not touched on entry — it's a separate, optional step in Settings.
Pre-flight check
Before you go live, the Pre-flight Check section lets you confirm everything is ready without entering Show Mode. It's collapsed by default — click it to expand the full status list.
A single dot summarises the result:
The same status list appears while a show is active, so you can re-check at any point during the show.
Status read-outs
The status list shows six rows — the five automatic protections plus Spotlight. Each reads live system state and shows ✓ when on, ✗ when off, or a small dot while it's still checking. Only the first five are engaged by Show Mode; Spotlight just reflects your optional Settings choice.
| Row | Reads on as | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Caffeinate | “Caffeinate active” | “Display, system & disk won't sleep — even on battery.” If it couldn't start, you'll see “Caffeinate failed to launch”. |
| App Nap | “App Nap disabled” | Background apps won't be throttled. |
| Sleep prevention | “Sleep prevention active” | The system-sleep lock is held. |
| Do Not Disturb | “Do Not Disturb on” | Focus is on and hiding notifications. See the special cases below. |
| Alert volume | “Alert volume silenced” | The beep volume is at zero. If not, it shows the current percentage, e.g. “Alert volume not silenced (40%)”. |
| Spotlight | “Spotlight disabled” | Indexing is off (only if you disabled it in Settings). Otherwise reads “Spotlight indexing active”. |
The Do Not Disturb row, in detail
Because Do Not Disturb relies on macOS Shortcuts, its row is the most talkative — and the most honest. It can show:
Notifications popping up mid-show is exactly what ShowMode exists to prevent — so it never reports Do Not Disturb as “on” unless a Shortcut confirms it. An honest “could not verify” is better than a false green.
Exiting a show
Ending a show is deliberately a two-part action so it can't happen by accident.
- Press and hold Exit Show Mode for 3 seconds. The button shows “Hold 3s to exit”.
- Confirm. A dialog asks “Exit Show Mode?” — choose Exit Show Mode to stand down, or Cancel to stay live.
- Everything reverses. Sleep locks release, App Nap returns to normal, Do Not Disturb turns off, and your alert volume is restored. The icon returns to the white padlock.
Quitting the app
ShowMode protects you from quitting mid-show too:
- While a show is active, the Quit control needs a 3-second hold. It then asks “Quit ShowMode?” and warns: “Show Mode is still active. Quitting will disable all show protections.”
- If you press ⌘ Q during a show, ShowMode catches it and asks “Quit ShowMode?” — “This will end your show protection.” — before allowing it.
- While idle, Quit is a single click, no hold.
However ShowMode is told to quit, it always reverses every protection on the way out — so the Mac is never left awake or silenced because the app closed.
Power & Low Power
A show is the worst time to discover you're on battery. ShowMode keeps an eye on power and warns you, once, when it matters.
On battery
The popover reads “Running on battery” with a pulsing red marker. If a show is active and you switch to battery, ShowMode shows an alert titled “Running on battery”: “Show Mode is active and your Mac is on battery power. Connect mains power to avoid interruption.” — with an OK button.
Low Power Mode
If Low Power Mode is on, the popover shows “Low Power Mode on — may affect performance.” During a show you'll get a one-time alert titled “Low Power Mode is on”: “Show Mode is active and your Mac is in Low Power Mode, which throttles the CPU and may affect performance. Open Battery settings to turn it off.” — with Open Battery Settings and OK buttons.
Each alert fires once per episode, not repeatedly — enough to tell you, not enough to nag you mid-performance.
If Do Not Disturb sticks
Do Not Disturb is the one protection that depends on macOS Shortcuts, so it's the one ShowMode watches most carefully on the way out. If it can't confirm Do Not Disturb turned off, it tells you clearly rather than leaving you guessing.
You'll see, in order
- The menu-bar icon changes to an orange ⚠ DND — and stays, even after the show ends, until it's cleared.
- An alert titled “Do Not Disturb may still be on”: “ShowMode couldn't confirm Do Not Disturb turned off — the ‘Show Mode Off’ shortcut may be missing. Turn Do Not Disturb off manually (Control Center → Focus), or reinstall the ShowMode shortcuts.” — with Reinstall Shortcuts and OK buttons.
- An in-popover banner offering Reinstall Shortcuts, Re-check, and Dismiss.
How to clear it
- Turn Do Not Disturb off manually from Control Center → Focus.
- Click Re-check in the banner. Once ShowMode confirms it's off, the warning clears.
- If it keeps happening, use Reinstall Shortcuts to repair the three Shortcuts.
If the same issue shows up at the start of a show, you'll see “Couldn't turn on Do Not Disturb — the ‘Show Mode On’ shortcut may be missing or didn't run.” The fix is the same: reinstall the Shortcuts, and make sure ShowMode has Always Allow permission to run them.
My Show Apps
ShowMode keeps three app lists, each with a different job. The first is your pre-show checklist. Find it in Settings → My Show Apps.
"Apps essential to your show. Check they're running before you start." Add the apps you can't go live without — your playback software, audio tools, streaming app — and ShowMode shows you, at a glance, whether each one is running, and launches any that aren't.
- Click Add… and pick an app from the list of installed apps.
- Check status before the show. Each app shows “Running” (green) or “Not running”. For anything not running, click Launch to start it.
- Remove an app with the minus button; you'll confirm with “Remove [app]?” → Remove.
Any app you add to My Show Apps is automatically added to Protected Apps, so a show-critical app can never be force-quit by ShowMode — even if it also appears on your Quit List. Use the refresh button (top-right) to re-read what's running.
Quit List
The opposite list: apps you want gone before you go live. Find it in Settings → Quit List.
"Apps to quit before a show. Only running apps are quit; protected apps are skipped." Add the distractions — browsers, mail, chat — and quit them in one move so they can't notify you mid-show.
- Add apps with Add….
- Quit one app with its Quit button, or quit them all with Quit All at the bottom. You'll confirm first.
- ShowMode asks each app to close gracefully (a normal quit, so it can save), waits about 1.5 seconds, and only force-quits if it's still running. It reports honestly whether each app actually closed.
Each row tells you its state: “Running” (with a Quit button), “Not running”, or “Protected — can't quit” for anything on your Protected list. Protected apps, apps that aren't running, and ShowMode itself are always skipped — including by Quit All.
Protected Apps
Your safety net: "These apps will never be force-quit by ShowMode." Find it in Settings → Protected Apps.
Anything on this list is excluded from every quit action — the Quit List, Quit All, and the Active Apps force-quit. ShowMode itself is always protected. Add your critical audio engine, your show-control software, anything that must stay up no matter what.
- Add with Add…; apps already protected show a checkmark.
- Remove with the minus button and confirm. Removing here doesn't touch your other lists.
- Apps you add to My Show Apps land here automatically.
My Show Apps = things to launch. Quit List = things to close. Protected Apps = things to never close. Protection always wins: if an app is on both the Quit List and the Protected list, it's left running.
Active Apps
Reached straight from the main popover, Active Apps is your in-the-moment view of everything running right now — useful when an app misbehaves mid-show and you need it gone.
- Search the list with the “Search apps…” field.
- Force-quit any app with its red Quit button (it asks first). ShowMode tries a graceful close, then forces it if needed.
- ShowMode and your Protected Apps never appear here, so you can't accidentally take down something critical.
Use the refresh button to re-read the running list at any time.
Show-machine optimisations
Open Settings with the gear in the popover. Beyond the app lists, Settings holds a few one-time tweaks that make a Mac a calmer show machine. Unlike the five automatic show-time protections, these persist until you change them back.
Spotlight
Spotlight indexing can spin up the disk and CPU at the worst moment. You can turn it off here. The section shows its live state — “Disabled”, “Indexing enabled”, or “Checking…” — and a button to switch it.
- Click Disable Spotlight (or Re-enable Spotlight).
- Confirm. “This will disable Spotlight indexing on this Mac. You will be asked for your administrator password.”
- Enter your admin password when macOS asks. ShowMode never stores it; macOS handles the prompt.
Spotlight stays off until you re-enable it — it isn't tied to a single show. ShowMode's status list reminds you whether it's currently on or off.
Time Machine
A Time Machine backup kicking off mid-show is disruptive, but macOS won't let an app disable Time Machine reliably. ShowMode is honest about this: “Time Machine must be disabled manually before a show. ShowMode cannot reliably disable it due to macOS permission requirements.” Use Open Time Machine Settings to turn it off yourself before a show.
Launch & Dock
These live under Settings → System, alongside the Spotlight and Time Machine controls.
Launch at Login
Turn on the Launch at Login toggle so ShowMode is always there when you boot the show machine.
Show ShowMode in…
The Show ShowMode in picker chooses where the app lives: Menu Bar only (the default), or Menu Bar & Dock if you'd rather have a Dock icon too.
With Menu Bar & Dock on, clicking the Dock icon opens the same popover, and the popover can appear over full-screen apps — handy when your show software runs full-screen and you still need to glance at ShowMode.
Global shortcut
Turn on “Global shortcut ⌃⌥⌘M” in Settings → System (just under Launch at Login) to enter Show Mode from anywhere, without reaching for the menu bar — handy when your hands are already on the keyboard at showtime.
- The shortcut is ⌃ ⌥ ⌘ M (Control-Option-Command-M).
- It only enters Show Mode. Exiting always uses the deliberate 3-second hold — by design, so a stray keystroke can't end your show.
- It's off by default. If another app already owns that combination, turn the toggle off and use the menu bar instead.
Reset to defaults
The Reset to Defaults button returns ShowMode's own settings and lists to how they started.
The confirmation says it plainly: “This won't change your Mac's system settings, your installed Shortcuts, or macOS permissions.” Your Spotlight choice, the Shortcuts, and macOS permissions are left exactly as they are.
You can't reset while a show is live. ShowMode blocks it with an alert titled “Can't reset defaults while in Show Mode” — “Please exit Show Mode first.” You'll confirm the reset with a Reset button.
Trial & licensing
ShowMode opens with a free 14-day trial. After that, a one-time perpetual license keeps Show Mode available. The License section in Settings always shows where you stand:
Starting a trial or activating
- Start a trial with Start free trial — ShowMode fetches and activates a trial key for you. If the trial service can't be reached you'll see “Couldn't reach the trial service. Enter a license key instead.”
- Or enter a key. Type it into “Enter license key” and click Activate. You'll see “Activating…”, then “Activated.”
If activation can't complete, ShowMode tells you why:
- “This license has expired.”
- “This license is already active on another Mac.”
- “Invalid license key (CODE).” — the CODE helps support pinpoint the problem.
- “Couldn't reach the licensing server. Check your connection.”
A license activates ShowMode on the one Mac you enter it on. If you've reached that limit, you'll see “This license is already active on another Mac” — manage your activation from your Remember Live account. After activation, ShowMode verifies offline: it re-checks at launch, with no periodic phone-home, so you never need internet at show time.
When a trial or license lapses
ShowMode never traps you or your settings. If the trial expires or no license is active, the app simply becomes view-only — you can still open everything, read every status, edit your lists, and quit the app. Only the five actions that do something to your Mac are disabled:
- Enter Show Mode (the button reads Activate a license to continue with a lock icon) — and the global ⌃⌥⌘M shortcut.
- Quit and Quit All in the Quit List.
- Force-quit in Active Apps.
- Launch in My Show Apps.
Settings, the License screen, viewing and editing your lists, and quitting ShowMode all stay available. And if a show is somehow running, exiting it is never blocked — your protections can always be stood down, license or not.
Updates
In Settings → About, click Check for Updates. ShowMode fetches its update manifest and reports back:
- “Checking…” while it looks.
- “You're up to date” if you have the latest.
- “Version N available” with a Download button if there's a newer build.
- “Couldn't check for updates — try again later” if it couldn't reach the server.
Troubleshooting
The icon is orange during a show
One of the five automatic protections — Do Not Disturb, Caffeinate, Sleep prevention, App Nap or Alert volume — is failing or unverified. Open the popover: the status list shows which row is red. (Spotlight never triggers the orange state.)
Do Not Disturb won't turn on (or off)
This means the macOS Shortcuts are missing or lack permission. Reinstall them from the prompt or first-run setup, and make sure you chose Always Allow when macOS asked. See If Do Not Disturb sticks.
macOS keeps asking permission to run Shortcuts
You likely picked Allow Once. ShowMode warns: “It looks like Show Mode may only have one-time permission to run Shortcuts. For reliable shows, set it to Always Allow.” Use Open Privacy Settings to go to Privacy & Security → Automation and switch it to Always Allow.
“Caffeinate failed to launch”
The keep-awake helper didn't start. Exit and re-enter Show Mode. If it persists, restart the Mac before your show.
The app quit mid-show — is my Mac stuck awake or silent?
No. On next launch ShowMode recovers automatically: it clears the leftover keep-awake state, turns Do Not Disturb off, and restores your alert volume.
An app on my Quit List won't quit
Check whether it's on your Protected Apps list — protected apps are deliberately skipped and show “Protected — can't quit”. Remove it from Protected first if you really want it closed.
Spotlight still shows as active
Disabling Spotlight needs your admin password and applies system-wide. Open Settings → Spotlight, click Disable Spotlight, and complete the password prompt. The status updates once macOS confirms.
About
ShowMode is made for the people running the show — built to be calm, honest about what it's doing, and impossible to trip over at the worst moment.
Designed and programmed by Remember Chaitezvi.
© RememberLive 2026 · rememberlive.africa