How do you extend the time required to trigger hot corner actions?

I do not know how do delay the triggering, but you can add modifier keys to the hot corners in order to avoid accidental activation:

Hold down ⌘,⌥,⇧ or ctrl while selecting an option from the list.

• 5
  Curse you gentmatt! I was just writing the same answer! :( (Related: SE's "new answer posted" notice is really helpful. I ultimately didn't waste the time on an answer someone else already gave.)

  – Jason Salaz

  Feb 13, 2012 at 18:46
• Haha! There will be more races for the first answer in the future... :)

  – gentmatt

  Feb 13, 2012 at 18:49
• Not intuitive or discoverable at all. Also if I wanted to use the keyboard, I'd just use a keyboard combo for locking. Still looking for a way to configure a delay. Maybe we can swap out the locker?

  – stewSquared

  Sep 20, 2019 at 17:22

a bit late, but I guess relevant...

I was stuck with the same issue of adding a delay, NOT a modifier key.

Well, there's a workaround.

In the corner you want to use as a lock after a short delay, put Start Screen Saver in the Hot Corners dialogue, instead of Lock Screen. Then go to Security & Privacy and under General, set 5 seconds delay in Require Password after...

And you're done!

• Thanks! I know this is beside the point...but I just needed to vent that unfortunately 5 seconds is not small enough. I just want to prevent the accidental activation of the hot corner (like 1 second needed...maybe 2 max). Now, I have to wait 5 seconds to make sure my screen saver stays on before walking away so someone doesn't "accidentally" bump my mouse and have access to my machine.

  – jbobbins

  Jul 4, 2019 at 1:12
• @jbobbins you can set it as immediately

  – Charlestone

  Mar 15 at 12:55
• @Charlestone immediately does not give me any buffer whatsoever to make a "mistake". If I accidentally move the mouse down to a hot corner (which happens fairly often), I don't want it immediately activating. I need a second, maybe two, of buffer time (but not 5 seconds for reasons I explained).

  – jbobbins

  Mar 15 at 16:52
• The hot corner does not immediately activate - it takes like 1-2 seconds. The "immediate" lock screen is after screensaver is activated after 1-2s after hot corner ;) just try it! :D

  – Charlestone

  Mar 15 at 19:36
• I can confirm that this creates a desirable behavior!

  – user1982118

  2 days ago