How to Turn On Night Shift on a Mac (and Off Again)

Last Updated: September 2026

To turn on Night Shift on a Mac, open the Apple menu, choose System Settings (or System Preferences), click Displays, then click Night Shift. From there you can turn it on by hand until sunrise or the scheduled time, schedule it to run from sunset until sunrise, or set a custom schedule. The same panel is where you turn it off again.

A lot of people search for "night mode" when they mean Night Shift, so this guide uses both names. It follows Apple's support page for Night Shift on the Mac step by step, and it works the same way on a MacBook as on any other Mac that supports the feature.

How to Turn On Night Shift on a Mac

Night Shift lives in the Displays section of System Settings, and it takes three steps to reach.

1. From the Apple menu in the top-left corner of the screen, choose System Settings. Apple lists System Preferences as the other name for the same place.
2. Click Displays.
3. Click Night Shift.

From the Night Shift panel you can switch it on by hand. Apple says a manual switch lasts until sunrise or until the scheduled time, so it is a way to try the feature tonight without committing to a schedule.

If you do not see Night Shift, your Mac may not support it. Apple says the option is available only on Mac computers that support Night Shift, which it lists as Macs introduced in 2012 or later and Mac Pro computers introduced in 2013 or later, running macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later.

How to Schedule Night Shift on a Mac

In the same Night Shift panel you can either schedule Night Shift to turn on automatically from sunset until sunrise, or create a custom schedule with your own times.

The sunset schedule is the hands-off choice. Apple says Night Shift uses your Mac's clock and geolocation to work out when it is sunset where you are, shifts the display's colours to the warmer end of the spectrum after that, and returns the display to its regular settings in the morning.

A custom schedule suits you better if your evenings do not follow the sun, for example if you work late in summer when sunset comes after your wind-down has started, or if you want the change at the same clock time all year.

Whichever you pick, the manual switch still works on top of it. Apple says you can turn Night Shift off or on by hand until sunrise or the scheduled time.

How to Turn Off Night Shift (Night Mode) on a Mac or MacBook

To turn off Night Shift, go back to Apple menu, System Settings (or System Preferences), Displays, Night Shift, and switch it off there.

Keep in mind what Apple says about the manual switch: turning Night Shift off by hand lasts until sunrise or the scheduled time.

There is one more thing people call night mode. Apple notes that if your Appearance setting is set to Auto, your Mac switches from light to dark appearance based on the Night Shift schedule you set, so when Night Shift is on, the appearance is dark.

How to Make Night Shift More or Less Warm

When Night Shift is on, the Night Shift panel lets you make the colour temperature more or less warm. Apple describes the result plainly: warmer colour temperatures show more yellow and less blue.

Apple describes this setting only as more or less warm and gives no number for it. If the screen looks too yellow to work at, set it toward less warm. If it still looks white in the evening, set it toward more warm.

Night Shift on External Displays

Apple says Night Shift performance on external displays depends on the characteristics of the display.

What Night Shift Changes, and What It Does Not

Night Shift changes the colour of the light your screen gives off, moving it toward the warmer, yellower end with less blue. It is a colour setting. For a comparison, our guide to Dark Mode vs Night Shift vs True Tone goes through what each one does.

Apple explains the feature in terms of evening blue light and circadian rhythms. The studies we cite on this topic are collected on our science page, and this guide makes no claim about sleep either way. What Night Shift does, and what you can check with your own eyes, is make the screen warmer.

An Example Evening in Sundown

Apple describes Night Shift's warmth only as more or less warm. Sundown, our Mac app, sets the screen's colour temperature by the number, from 6500 K down to 500 K in 100 K steps, so you can step the evening warmer as it goes on.

Here is one example of what that can look like. It is an example, not a prescription, and the numbers are yours to change.

Each step is a lower Kelvin number, which means a warmer white point with less of the short-wavelength end of the spectrum at the same brightness. Brightness is a separate control, and turning it down cuts the total amount of light as well.

You can set each step by hand from the menu bar, or build a custom schedule in Sundown by time of day. If you use a schedule, check that it has applied at the time you set before you rely on it. For a closer look at how Sundown and Night Shift differ, see Sundown vs Night Shift, and if you are weighing other options too, our roundup of Night Shift alternatives for Mac covers them.

If Night Shift is on and you want the evening by the number instead, try Sundown and pick the Kelvin yourself.