Back to Actions
Updated
How to Wake a Computer with Wake on LAN from Mac
With Actions
- Install Actions, and open it once.
- In the Shortcuts app, click the add button to make a new shortcut.
- Add the “Wake on LAN” action of Actions.
- Enter the MAC address of the computer, like
AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF. For a computer on the same network, keep the default address (255.255.255.255) and port (9). - Run the shortcut.
The computer must have Wake on LAN turned on. A success only means that the packet was sent, not that the computer woke up. To wake it in one click, put the shortcut in the menu bar. The action is only on Mac, as iOS needs a special permission for it.
Get Actions
Additional actions for the Shortcuts app
Free
- Platforms
- macOS, iOS, visionOS
- Requires
- macOS, iOS, or visionOS 26 or later
- Category
- Utilities
- Released
- October 2021
- Privacy
- No personal data collected
- Updated
- June 2026
- Version
- 4.2.0
- Size
- 29 MB
- US App Store rating
- 4.8/5 (529 ratings)
Without an app
macOS cannot send the packet, but it can let a Mac be woken by others:
- Desktop Mac: Open “System Settings › Energy”, and turn on “Wake for network access”.
- Mac laptop: Open “System Settings › Battery”, click “Options”, and choose an option in the pop-up menu next to “Wake for network access”.
Apple’s instructions. Then another Mac on the same network can often wake it when it connects to it, like in Finder or Screen Sharing. If you use Terminal, a tool like wakeonlan from Homebrew sends the packet too.