Frequently Asked Questions

Please check our official tutorial on how to permanently uninstall and remove Wakefy from your Mac.

Yes, absolutely! Wakefy will work out of the box with all Apple Silicon Macs with the new M1 chip that uses the ARM architecture.

The way Wakefy does this is by using the native Rosetta macOS translator for Intel-based apps, but a native ARM version is scheduled in a future release.

Wakefy works on a 24-hour setting, so 7pm for example is 19:00. Hours from 1am to 12pm stay the same. If you're not familiar with military time, check out this resource, which might be of help.

In order to work, Wakefy requires «Full Disk Access» permissions, which need to be granted in the «Security & Privacy» macOS preferences pane. These permissions are critical and Wakefy can't work without them. We'll try our best to explain why these permissions are required, and what do we do to ensure granting Wakefy these permissions is not a threat to you or your Mac computer.

macOS Mojave (macOS 10.14, September 2018) introduced a series of hardened security measures for all apps in order to operate in Mac computers. This means apps in macOS are now more restricted than ever, which makes macOS very secure, because apps are very limited in what they can do. Since macOS Mojave, all apps need to request explicit user permissions to perform certain actions, like accessing files or folders, even the ones in your Desktop or Downloads folders.

In order to trigger the alarm, Wakefy needs to access and edit a system file that is in charge of managing automatic actions in the computer. This file belongs to the macOS Operating System and is stored deep within the OS internal system files. Unfortunately, there's no specific permission to access that one file alone. There's also no specific permission just to access the system folder in which this file is stored. It all falls under 'Full Disk Access' permissions.

We know it sounds a little scary giving an app this level of access, but there's literally no workaround. It's a pain for us too, because we need to tell users to go to the process of granting those permissions, and ask them to trust us. Wakefy is developed and maintained by a single guy: Rameerez. He runs multiple other cool apps, and he's a privacy advocate. He's a reputable creator and has no interest in doing anything shady that would affect his reputation or that of his other apps (you can follow what he's up to on Twitter and Instagram). You can also read why Wakefy is completely safe and what do we do to ensure it doesn't contain any malware or virus.

On a finishing note, many other famous apps (like Backblaze or VS Code) are going through the same problem and also need to require «Full Disk Acccess permissions» in order to operate. We hope Apple improves their macOS permission system in the future so we can be more precise and restrictive in the permissions we ask users to grant to our app Wakefy.

Hi! I'm Javi, Wakefy's creator, developer and only maintainer.

Wakefy started out as a side project I built for myself and just made it public in case anyone found it useful. It was initially free, and I thought it would just fade into the infinity of the internet. Fortunately enough, many people found about it and it quickly started helping lots of people around the world. However, this also came with a lot of added work: my inbox started getting flodded with support requests and it got to the point where I had to spend several hours a day fixing stuff and answering emails. Wakefy started out as donation-based softare, but almost no one donated any money – it didn't even cover server expenses. It started costing me money out of my own pocket to keep the project up and running. So Wakefy started not only taking up a big chunk of my time, but also didn't make sense financially. And most importantly, it was taking my focus off things that pay my bills and food, things that really needed my attention.

Users want Wakefy to be up-to-date and bug-free – and they also want new features and support if any issue arises. These are very reasonable demands, but the only way I can meet them is by charging money for the software. Otherwise, I just can't allocate resources for it. It was either that or taking down the site completely.

Your subscription keeps Wakefy alive, literally. It also helps keeping it independent, ad-free, and enables continued development of the product. Thank you for supporting this project with your membership!

– Javi

Please head over to your personal Wakefy Account Dashboard to edit your billing and payment details or cancel your Wakefy membership.

If you come across the following message in Wakefy: «Sorry, Spotify search is unavailable right now. Here is a selection of playlists. Please restart Wakefy, if the problem persists contact us.» the best workaround is just to close the Wakefy app and open it again. To close Wakefy, please open the main app window and press cmd ⌘ + Q – or right click on the app's icon (in the top menu bar, just by the macOS system clock) and select «Quit Wakefy». The Spotify search within Wakefy should work again after the app has been closed and reopened again.

Please open the main app window and press cmd ⌘ + Q – or right click on the app's icon (in the top menu bar, just by the macOS system clock) and select «Quit Wakefy»

We try to be really straightforward with the current state of the software.

Known bugs:

• There's a bug that prevents the songs/playlists search box from working correctly when the app has been open for a long time. The workaround is to close the Wakefy app and open it again.
• Wakefy might not correctly wake up your computer and fire the alarm the very first time after it's installed. It should work fine after restarting your computer after installing. Please follow the Wakefy tutorial and make sure you always do a first test run before you start using your alarm.

Old bugs that have already been fixed:

• There was a bug causing the alarm to continue firing even after removing the app. This bug has already been fixed in v2. If you're using an old version of Wakefy and you're facing this problem, here is the solution.
• Some users under macOS Mojave or newer were reporting the app was not working at all (there are several variants of this, like the welcome window being stuck or not being able to successfully go through the installation process). This is related to the new permissions system introduced in macOS Mojave. Wakefy needs special permissions (to wake up your computer at a given time), and these should be explicitly granted. The new version Wakefy v2 ensures these permissions have been granted before launching the app, so this bug has already been fixed in the latest version. However, if you're facing this issue, try the following steps:
  1. Go to your Mac's Security and Privacy settings (click the Apple logo in the menubar on the upper left corner of your screen --> click 'System Preferences...' --> click 'Security & Privacy')
  2. On Security & Privacy settings, click the 'Privacy' tab
  3. On the list on the left hand side, scroll down and select 'Full Disk Access'
  4. Click the lock icon on the bottom left side and enter your computer's password to make changes
  5. Either drag and drop the Wakefy app to the list on the right or click the '+' icon and add the Wakefy app to the list
  If Wakefy is added to the list as shown, you can safely close the window. Wakefy should work now.

If you find any other bug or have any kind of issue, please reach out at [email protected] and we'll reply asap.

No. Please just put your computer to sleep instead of completely turning it off. Wakefy automatically turns off all the active alarms when the app is not running (to prevent unwanted alarms from firing), so it won't work when the Mac is completely turned off.

Every sleep disorder (as DSPS, free-running, non-24...) is a whole different world, and every person has a different degree of severity of their sleep disorder. Wakefy is not intended to be used for medical purposes. Having said that, it can help. Specially if you suffer from a mild disorder or if you don't have any sleep problem at all, and you're just a heavy sleeper. It's definitely worth trying.

Not if you use playlists! That's the whole point: if you set a playlist as the alarm sound, Wakefy will shuffle the songs, so you'll wake up each morning with a different song of your playlist. There are two main benefits to this:

• It prevents you from hating a single song.
• It actually makes you wake up faster, by preventing you from getting used (and thus ignoring) a single alarm ringtone.

Wakefy needs to change the time at which your Mac will turn on. To do this, it requires special permissions. Apple simply won't allow any app in the Mac App Store that requires these kind of permissions.

Wakefy is absolutely safe to use. Wakefy is an app developed by Rameerez, an independent software developer and creator, and it's digitally signed and notarized by Apple to be guaranteed it's completely virus-free and malware-free.

There's absolutely nothing harmful or shady about what Wakefy does: it just automatically schedules your computer wake up time and then plays your selected music as the alarm ringtone. Apple requires these tasks to be password-protected and that's why we ask for permissions and password when the app first installs.

We're addressing these concerns because in the early days some users would complain Wakefy didn't work or didn't uninstall properly. These were known bugs in the first early versions of the app that have already been solved in the brand-new version 2, and we also made a complete guide on how to uninstall Wakefy safely. However, people would still download the app, encounter these bugs and mistake them for harmful behavior. Which is understandable, given that Wakefy needs to ask for permissions and password in order to work, and that can be perceived as shady if the app ends up not working later. We contacted every user having these issues privately via email, explained the situation and helped them fix whichever problems they were facing.

We just wanted to take the time to ensure it's clear to everyone that these were just bugs in the early versions of the code that have already been fixed.

Wakefy does not do anything apart from what is advertised. Wakefy does not gather any personal information or perform any shady marketing tactics. Wakefy does not need to make money that way: it already makes money by the price you're paying. That's why Wakefy is not free. In fact, Wakefy's creator is a reputable creator and privacy advocate, and makes a bunch of other cool apps like Wakefy, and has no interest whatsoever in doing anything shady that would affect his reputation or that of his other apps.

Wakefy does not gather or store any sensible personal information about you or any other user, we always try to restrict our tracking to anonymous and unidentifiable usage data, and in any case Wakefy does not track any of your activity or data outside the Wakefy app. Wakefy does, however, track limited usage activity within the software to ensure the app is working normally and users are getting our free automatic updates. You can learn more about how we respectfully treat user data in our Privacy Policy.

• First of all: it uses your Mac/Macbook, which usually sits far away from your bed, meaning it will force you to actually stand up and walk to turn off the alarm in the morning.
• Couldn't I just achieve that leavning my phone on the table, away from me? Yes, but then you wouldn't be able to use your phone before going to sleep or first thing in the morning. To be honest – we all sleep near our smartphones, we're just that addicted to them. Wakefy allows you to continue using your smartphone as always, while forcing you to get up in the morning.
• Wakefy is pretty useful when you're away from home (travelling, staying over at some friend's...) Your phone might run out of battery or you might just forget your phone at home altogether. Wakefy on your MacBook can save you from these situations.
• Watching Netflix until late in the night? You'll probably fall asleep not having set up any alarm in your phone. Wakefy is always there to rescue you.
• How many Spotify alarm clocks do you even know? How cool is slowly waking up to your favorite Spotify tunes?