Does Playing a Video Keep Your Computer Awake? Yes, With Limits

Yes, playing a video keeps your computer awake while it plays. Chrome, Edge, Safari, Firefox and player apps such as Netflix, VLC and Media Player ask Windows or macOS for a wake lock during playback. That stops the display from turning off and the computer from sleeping. The lock ends when the video pauses or ends. In Chrome and Edge it also ends for a muted video in a hidden tab. An animated GIF never takes one. A video also creates no keyboard or mouse input, so Slack and Microsoft Teams still show you as away.

What a video keeps awake, case by case

"Counts as activity" means keyboard or mouse input. Apps that show your status, and many company idle policies, look for input, not for a wake lock.

Why a video keeps the screen on

When a video starts, the browser or player sends the operating system a request to keep the display on. Windows calls it a power request and macOS calls it a power assertion. While the request is active, the display sleep and system sleep timers do not run. When the video pauses, the request is released and the timers start from zero.

Chrome and Edge label theirs "Video Wake Lock". Since 2020, Chromium has skipped the lock for muted videos that are out of view, per Chromium issue 40694475, because a user would not notice them. Audio-only playback is different. On Windows an open audio stream usually keeps the PC from sleeping, but it does not keep the screen on, so the screen still turns off and locks.

Check whether a video is holding your computer awake

On Windows, open Command Prompt as administrator while the video plays and run:

powercfg /requests

Under DISPLAY: you should see the browser, for example [PROCESS] \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe followed by Video Wake Lock. Pause the video and run it again: the line is gone.

On a Mac, open Terminal while the video plays and run:

pmset -g assertions | grep -i 'wake lock'

We ran it on 2 October 2026 on macOS 26.5.2, with a muted, looping MP4 playing in a visible tab of a Chromium-based browser (Aside). The output named the browser's process:

pid 16513(Aside): [0x00038db40005948d] 00:00:01 NoDisplaySleepAssertion named: "Video Wake Lock"

NoDisplaySleepAssertion is the per-app name for what the summary at the top of pmset -g assertions counts as PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep. Being muted did not stop the lock while the tab was on screen. Other apps can hold the same kind of lock: on our Mac, Amphetamine held PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep for the whole test, so check the per-app lines, not only the total.

Does YouTube keep your screen awake?

Yes, while the video plays in a visible tab or the YouTube app. That is why "keep screen awake" videos on YouTube, often 10 hours of a black screen or a slow animation, work. They stop working the moment the video ends, autoplay stops, or a "Video paused. Continue watching?" prompt appears after a long idle time. The prompt pauses the video and releases the lock. "Mouse jiggler" videos are a different trick, covered in the next section.

Mouse jiggler videos: a phone under an optical mouse

A mouse jiggler video is a long YouTube video, usually 2 to 12 hours, of a moving pattern on a dark background. It is meant to play on a phone or tablet with an optical mouse resting on the screen. The mouse stays plugged into your computer, its sensor reads the moving pattern as motion, and the pointer on your computer twitches. Played on the computer itself, the video moves nothing; it only holds the Video Wake Lock shown above, so the screen stays on and Slack and Teams still go away.

On 28 September 2026 the top YouTube results for "mouse jiggler video" were:

The uploader of the 8.5-hour video gives these steps in its description:

• Pick a video longer than the time you will be away. When it ends, the pointer stops.
• Play it full screen on the phone, turn auto-brightness off and set brightness to maximum ("very important!"). Plug the phone in.
• Set the mouse flat in the center of the screen. The same uploader found edge and corner placements did not work.
• Check the pointer on your monitor. It can take five or more tries of lifting the mouse and setting it back down.

When it fails, the usual cause is a dim screen, a mouse that cannot track on glass (the uploader suggests an older laser mouse), a mouse at the edge, or a video that paused for an ad, buffering or "Video paused. Continue watching?".

When the pointer does move, your computer receives ordinary mouse input. Microsoft Teams counts input anywhere, so it stays Available. The Slack desktop app also counts input anywhere on the computer (Slack desktop 4.52.178 code, checked 7 Oct 2026), so it stays active too, while the screen is unlocked. Monitoring software sees tiny moves on a steady rhythm with no typing, the same pattern as any jiggler; see can a mouse jiggler be detected. An app or a USB jiggler works every time, compared in the best mouse jigglers. For only the screen, the free online mouse jiggler asks the browser for the same kind of wake lock without a video and shows whether the browser granted it.

Does a GIF keep your screen awake?

No. A GIF is an image, and browsers do not request a wake lock for images. Some sites serve "GIFs" as short muted videos. Those hold the lock only while they are playing and on screen. A GIF is not a reliable way to keep a screen on.

Does Netflix keep your computer awake?

Yes, during playback in the Netflix app or in a browser. After several episodes with no input, Netflix asks "Are you still watching?" and pauses. The computer can then sleep on its normal timer.

A video is a poor keep-awake tool

A video uses battery, network and CPU to do what one setting or one command does. It fails on a pause prompt, and it never counts as input. Better options:

FAQ

Does a muted video keep the screen on?

In a visible tab, yes: our muted test video held the lock. In a hidden tab or a minimized window, Chromium's rule is to drop the lock for muted videos; we could not hide our test tab, so that case is untested here.

Does a video keep me active on Teams or Slack?

No. Both look for keyboard or mouse input, and a video creates none. See does playing a YouTube video keep Slack active.

Will a company lock policy still lock my screen during a video?

It can. Some company policies lock the screen after a fixed idle time based on input, not on the display timer.

Does a mouse jiggler video work on a laptop?

Only as a screen-on video. It moves the pointer only when it plays on a phone with an optical mouse resting on the screen.