GoKawiilmacOS Tahoe 26.5 was released today for all compatible Macs, and while it’s light on changes, the update does include an interesting new ‘Power control’ setting for Mac desktops.
Power control setting lets you manage your Mac’s power state with third-party accessories
macOS 26.5 is overall a fairly small update for Mac, with bigger changes arriving in iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5.
But the update does have an interesting new setting for Mac desktops.
From Apple’s official release notes:
Power control setting in Energy for Mac mini, Mac Studio, and iMac enables you to power off or restart your Mac using assistive accessories like switches
Assistive accessories are largely intended for accessibility purposes. You can find some of Apple’s recommended accessories here.
But like all accessibility additions, users can benefit from Apple’s features in a variety of ways.
For example, users without mobility challenges may still have reasons why they’d like to control their Mac mini, Mac Studio, or iMac’s power state via an external switch.
If you’re not seeing the new setting in macOS 26.5, it’s possible that it requires your Mac to already have an assistive accessory set up. My Mac mini running macOS 26.5 doesn’t currently show anything new in the Energy section of System Settings.
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