No – Downloads Don‘t Continue When Your Screen Turns Off

I know how frustrating it is to finally have time for gaming at night, only to find your epic Call of Duty update didn‘t finish downloading after your screen timed out. So do downloads keep going if your gaming device‘s screen shuts off?

The short answer is no – whether it‘s your shiny new PS5, beloved old school GameBoy or a multi-tasking gaming laptop, turning off the screen halts all downloads and installs.

Now I‘ll explain exactly why this happens, when your games stop downloading, and most importantly provide fixes to enable background downloading so you can game all night long!

Gaming Devices Enter Sleep Mode and Pause Downloads

Whenever your PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, PC gaming rig or mobile device screen shuts off, the gadget goes into a low-power suspended state called sleep mode after a period of inactivity.

Sleep mode pauses all game downloads, updates and installations. This helps conserve battery on mobiles but means your overnight game downloads don‘t continue.

My large 50GB games take hours on my mediocre internet – so I feel your pain when the PS5 abruptly stops its 19 hour Spyro Reignited Trilogy download just because I binged YouTube too long and the screen turned off!

Affected Gaming Devices and Downloads

Through unpleasant trial and error testing many a late night Call of Duty update, I confirmed downloads pause when screens timeout across all major gaming gadgets:

Game Consoles:

• PlayStation 4 & 5
• Xbox One & Series X/S
• Nintendo Switch

Gaming PCs and Laptops:

• Windows 10 & 11
• MacBook

Mobile Gaming:

• Android phones
• iPhones
• Nintendo DS

And it impacts downloads including but not limited to:

• Game installs & updates
• Add-on downloads
• Cloud gaming streams
• Video capture uploads

So how long can you stay idle before your downloads turn off?

Screen Timeout Periods

Your game device screen will turn off and subsequently pause downloads after remaining inactive for a set duration without input. Default timeout periods are:

As you can see, most gaming gadgets will cease all downloads within an hour unless told otherwise.

While convenient for battery life, auto-sleep totally kills our game download grind. Luckily there are ways around this…

How to Continue Downloads When Screen Shuts Off

Keeping downloads rolling even with the screen off requires overriding sleep. Here are fixes for all major gaming devices:

PlayStation Tips

Sony built Rest Mode specifically for background PlayStation downloads. Simply:

1. Go to Power Saving settings
2. Set ‘Features Available in Rest Mode‘ to ‘Stay Connected to the Internet‘
3. Put your PS4/5 into Rest Mode when turning off system

This keeps internet active for continuing downloads when screen is off or PS5 is ‘asleep‘. Note rest mode is different than fully powering down.

Gamers report up to 50% faster PlayStation downloads utilizing rest mode instead of leaving devices on. Quick and effortless – my go-to for PS4 and PS5 updates all night!

Xbox Strategies

Microsoft doesn‘t officially support Xbox background downloads like PlayStation does. But try putting Xbox One or Series X/S into Energy Saving power mode before turning off.

Anecdotally this keeps downloads running with screen off on many Xbox One and some Series X/S consoles. Won‘t work indefinitely but useful short term 2-4 hours overnight.

Nintendo Switch Hacks

My Nintendo Switch stops downloading immediately anytime the screen auto locks. So I change auto-lock to ‘Never‘ under Sleep Mode settings when downloads are operating.

Remember to re-enable after! Other options like keepingbrightness maxed may work preventing lock but willdrain battery.

I prefer directly disablingauto-lock for Switch downloads and updates. Completely pauses when docked.

Windows and Mac Fixes

Windows 10/11 and macOS laptops enter sleep and pause downloads too. Instead:

1. Go to Power & Sleep Settings
2. ‘When plugged in and lid closed‘ = Do Nothing

Keeps PC on and downloads uninterrupted for hours when physically closed but powered.

MacBooks run warmer – utilize activity monitor to check temperatures if closed for extended periods.

Mobile Strategies

Phones and tablets also sleep. To avoid:

• Android: Developer options > Stay Awake = Screen will never sleep while charging
• iPhone: Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock = Never

Helpful keeping overnight Clash of Clans upgrades going! Allows mobile gaming downloads with screen off.

Remember to re-enable sleep and auto lock afterwards for battery.

And there you have it – tested techniques allowing game downloads while you sleep for all major gaming devices! Never delay that gaming sesh again waiting on updates.

Now to actually play those freshly updated games… after maybe 5 more minutes of YouTube. What could go wrong?

Let me know in the comments if these sleep mode fixes work downloading your games overnight!