how to clock the screensave time item and set the screensave time after no action

[shermanpan]

i want to not allow the user change screensave time, and how to set this item in jamf .

have a good ideal to me! thanks.

[kerouak]

Create a Configuration Profile, go to the 'restrictions' payload, then check Desktop and Screensaver Box

[JustCallMeAJ · Accepted solution]

You want the Login Window settings in a config profile.
You can then set the Start Screen Saver After ... minutes

[kkeirstead]

@JustCallMeAJ Sorry to dig up a bit of an old post but we have tried to get this working without success. We have the login window screensaver policy set to 15 minutes but on our test Mac its currently set to 20 minutes, if we reboot sometimes the time for the screensaver goes down to 5 minutes and then after another reboot back to 20 minutes. We only have one login window policy set. Do you know of anything that would cause this?

[Surajit]

@JustCallMeAJ & @shermanpan Did you guys find any fix for this ?
Even I am facing the same problem.

[alexthegeekiest]

I too am experiencing issues. What is the limitations on minutes? My client wants 4 hours. I attempted to smaller units of time as well.

[mm2270]

Hmm. I thought I posted on this thread at one time - maybe it was one very similar to it.
The reason the profile being shown above does not work is because it's a LoginWindow profile, meaning exactly what it says. That applies to when the Mac is sitting at the login window, not when someone is logged in. The fact that it works sometimes, and sometimes not is likely just an anomaly. It's inconsistent precisely because it's not being used correctly.

The only way I've found to set this reliably is with a User Level Config Profile that applies settings to the com.apple.screensaver.plist
Here is a screenshot of what mine looks like

I created this by running the following commands in Terminal

defaults write ~/Desktop/com.apple.screensaver.plist askForPassword -bool true
defaults write ~/Desktop/com.apple.screensaver.plist idleTime -int 600

Then I did this to convert the plist into a format Jamf could read

plutil -convert xml1 ~/Desktop/com.apple.screensaver.plist

Keep in mind the integer value needs to be in seconds that corresponds with one of the GUI options you see in the Desktop & Screen Saver pref pane. So mine above is for 10 minutes. If you use something in between I don't know exactly how it responds, so be sure to use something that lines up with those GUI drop down options.

Then I uploaded it into a Custom Settings payload in a profile.
Make sure the profile is set to User Level. Unfortunately this does not work as System Level, at least in my testing.

Scope it and when it installs for the user, the screensaver time should be enforced for them.

This is what it looks like on my Mac after being set.

Good luck.

[alexthegeekiest]

Thanks for the reply. So, essentially you have to stay within the confines of the GUI. So, there is not an option to exceed 1 the hour that is in there.