Using AppleScript to lock screen

Question

I need an applescript which locks my Mac in the same way pressing shift+ctrl+eject would. I tried two different approaches, but both failed. The first one was to search the internet for a script, which failed. There are only solutions with screensaver or other applications, which I don’t want. I just want to use what I described. The second one was to tell applescript to press the three keys which didn’t work. If someone could tell me how to lock my Mac or how to tell applescript to press three keys, I would be really happy, because I am getting kinda’ frustrated.

Answer 1

Getting information from this answer and this answer:

1. Press the Spotlight button at the top right of the screen (Cmd + Space)
2. Search Keychain Access. Open this
3. Open Preferences (Cmd + ,(comma))
4. Check Show Status in Menu Bar
5. Press the Spotlight button at the top right of the screen (Cmd + Space)
6. Search Automator. Select this
7. Create new Service
8. Search Run Applescript next to the Actions and Variables buttons. Double click this
9. Make sure the checkboxes are Service receives no input in any application
10. Paste this Applescript:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "SystemUIServer"
    tell (menu bar item 1 of menu bar 1 where description is "Keychain menu extra")
        click
        click menu item "Lock Screen" of menu 1
    end tell
end tell

Save this Automator as something like Lock screen (note: code in GIF is different!)

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To make a shortcut:

1. Press the Apple button at the top left of the screen
2. Click System Preferences
3. Click Keyboard
4. Click Keyboard Shortcuts tab
5. Click Services
6. Find the name of the service you just created
7. Click the blank space on the right
8. Type your shortcut in

Use your shortcut in any application!

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OR...:

1. You could buy Alfred
2. You could use Cmd+Shift+Eject

Answer 2

Found this on another answer but an AppleScript that simply contains the following works for me.

 tell application "Finder" to sleep

Answer 3

I have a simple one liner for this. It uses System Events to send the default key combo for the Lock Screen command and works in all versions of OSX from High Sierra (10.13) on. Even Mojave! Though it will prompt for additional Security permissions for the App, in the newer OSX versions

tell application "System Events" to keystroke "q" using {control down, command down}

Answer 4

I use a macro to accept the shortcut Command-L. Having recently switched from Windows to Mac, am easy way to lock my screen was important. In Windows, one merely needs to press the Windows key and L, and, voila, locked.

Using Keyboard Maestro, I created a macro for the shortcut Command-L, being essentially the same (comparing the Command key to the Windows key). The shortcut triggers the function "Login Window", which locks the screen. Easy peasy, at least to me.

(In Keyboard Maestro, the "Login Window" function is under Actions > System Control.)

Answer 5

macOS 10.11, El Capitan, seems to have broken ᔕᖺᘎᕊ's answer using AppleScripts, but I found that if I installed Lock Screen, and made my Automator Service open its "Lock Screen Bundle", the rest of the process worked as intended (provided I called the Service "lock-screen", not "Lock Screen": apparently spaces in the filename break the keyboard shortcut for many macOS users).

See Lock screen shortcut on Mac OS X for an illustrated step-by-step guide.

Answer 6

For High Sierra (10.13),the accepted answer doesn't work as Keychain Access has no Check Show Status in Menu Bar option. But, based on shamelessly looting the source of the Lockscreen App (as mentioned by @Alice Purcell), I've discovered this nifty GUI-scripting workaround:

activate application "SystemUIServer"
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "SystemUIServer" to keystroke "q" using {command down, control down}
end tell

Answer 7

Here's an answer that works on modern macOS (Ventura as of writing this) that is keyboard shortcut agnostic (meaning, you can change your Lock Screen keyboard shortcut and this will still work).

Use the following AppleScript:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "Finder"
    click menu item "Lock Screen" of menu 0 of menu bar 1
end tell