Here’s an interesting and informative take on your subject: "Does Mac continue download in sleep?" You’ve just started a massive 50 GB download. It’s late. The progress bar says “2 hours remaining.” You close the lid, expecting sweet silence — and sweet progress. But when you wake your Mac in the morning, the download is frozen at 14%.

Not exactly. It just followed orders you didn’t know you gave. The Short Answer By default: No. When a Mac enters normal sleep (lid closed or idle sleep timer triggered), the network hardware powers down. The download pauses.

So next time, plug in, disable sleep, and let your Mac work through the night. Or accept the pause — and the quiet.