Mad-Hias

Q: Power Nap not working correctly

Good Morning everyone!

 

Yesterday I installed a firmware update that brought the Power Nap feature to my Retina MacBook. Now when I plug the MBP into the external power supply it should make TimeMachine backups while sleeping. But that didn't happen.

 

The configuration is:

MacBook Pro Retina

OS X Mountain Lion (Power Nap firmware update installed)

External hard drive was plugged in all night long

 

Has anyone experienced that, too? Did I overlook anything?

 

Thanks for any help on this!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 29, 2012 12:57 AM

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Q: Power Nap not working correctly

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  • by Mad-Hias,

    Mad-Hias Mad-Hias Jul 29, 2012 9:15 AM in response to Mad-Hias
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 29, 2012 9:15 AM in response to Mad-Hias

    Does anyone know if Power Nap backups only work with Time Capsules? I tried using a standard external hard drive, maybe that's the problem. Any suggestions on this?

  • by Therabyte,

    Therabyte Therabyte Jul 29, 2012 9:21 AM in response to Mad-Hias
    Level 4 (1,070 points)
    Jul 29, 2012 9:21 AM in response to Mad-Hias

    I don't know about TM backups during Power Nap, but apparently Power Nap on the rMBP doesn't work at all if the screen is closed. Mine doesn't even get mail if I leave it closed.

  • by Mad-Hias,

    Mad-Hias Mad-Hias Jul 29, 2012 9:26 AM in response to Therabyte
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 29, 2012 9:26 AM in response to Therabyte

    Have you installed the firmware update that brought the Power Nap feature to the Retina MBP?

    I didn't realize if my MBP got mail while sleeping...

  • by Therabyte,

    Therabyte Therabyte Jul 29, 2012 9:27 AM in response to Mad-Hias
    Level 4 (1,070 points)
    Jul 29, 2012 9:27 AM in response to Mad-Hias

    Of course I did. There's no power nap option if that firmware update is not installed.

  • by Mad-Hias,

    Mad-Hias Mad-Hias Jul 29, 2012 9:30 AM in response to Therabyte
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 29, 2012 9:30 AM in response to Therabyte

    Sorry, just wanted to be sure

    So it seems that the whole thing isn't working correctly at all. Has anyone here a Retina MacBook with Power Nap working?

  • by Tim Lorenzen,

    Tim Lorenzen Tim Lorenzen Jul 29, 2012 10:27 PM in response to Mad-Hias
    Level 4 (1,982 points)
    Jul 29, 2012 10:27 PM in response to Mad-Hias

    Doesn't seem to work for me either. According to Apple, it's supposed to "periodically" update information and perform TimeMachine backups. But last night, none of this happened.

     

    I also have an external Thunderbolt drive connected. Maybe this has something to do with it? If Power Nap activates and wakes the Mac, it would have to power up the drive as well, otherwise some applications might not be able to access data on the drive and crash or throw an error message. But an external hard drive would make some noise and probably light up an LED when it powers up... which is what Apple does not want Power Nap to do.

     

    I'm not saying it makes sense, but maybe Apple just disabled Power Nap in case an external hard drive is connected?

  • by Mad-Hias,

    Mad-Hias Mad-Hias Jul 29, 2012 10:38 PM in response to Tim Lorenzen
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 29, 2012 10:38 PM in response to Tim Lorenzen

    Sounds exactly like I experienced it. But I used USB3, not Thunderbolt.

    So it seems Apple should at least give their users some detailed information about how exactly that feature works.

  • by Tim Lorenzen,

    Tim Lorenzen Tim Lorenzen Jul 30, 2012 1:59 PM in response to Mad-Hias
    Level 4 (1,982 points)
    Jul 30, 2012 1:59 PM in response to Mad-Hias

    Today I intentionally left my Thunderbolt drive disconnected while I was away and my MacBook Pro was sleeping, but no Time Machine backup has occured in the last 14 hours. So it seems like Power Nap does not work properly, no matter whether an external drive is connected or not.

     

    I've come across this support article from Apple:

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5394

    ... where it says, among other things:

    << Time Machine backups are attempted hourly until a successful backup has been completed >>

     

    But anyway, the sense of having Time Machine backup my Mac every hour while it's sleeping when a current backup is already on my Time Capsule escapes me. Maybe Power Nap is working as designed and is only supposed to complete backups that were underway when the Mac was put to sleep...

  • by Mad-Hias,

    Mad-Hias Mad-Hias Jul 30, 2012 2:07 PM in response to Tim Lorenzen
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 30, 2012 2:07 PM in response to Tim Lorenzen

    But anyway, the sense of having Time Machine backup my Mac every hour while it's sleeping when a current backup is already on my Time Capsule escapes me.

    For me that would really be a great feature as I don't have a Time Capsule and don't want to carry around my external drive all day. I thought I would just plug in the power cable and let the Mac do the rest over night. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to work.

  • by brianld,

    brianld brianld Jul 31, 2012 7:44 AM in response to Mad-Hias
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 31, 2012 7:44 AM in response to Mad-Hias

    I also have this problem - I have a Time Capsule, and with the lid closed on my Retina MBP, backups do not occur (Power Nap advertised feature).

     

    Anyone else seeing this problem as well?

  • by Karl Johnson,

    Karl Johnson Karl Johnson Jul 31, 2012 2:15 PM in response to brianld
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 31, 2012 2:15 PM in response to brianld

    It's not working for my rMBP whether the lid is open or closed. There's no backups done to my Time Capsule.

     

    Plus, Mail isn't being processed. It's the main feature I was hopeful for. Why? My iPhone and iPad don't have any filtering for spam, so if the rMBP doesn't hit my accounts first, I end up with a bunch of junk to sort through on my iOS devices.

     

     

  • by wesman246,

    wesman246 wesman246 Jul 31, 2012 2:39 PM in response to Mad-Hias
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 31, 2012 2:39 PM in response to Mad-Hias

    Thank goodness I'm not the only one having this problem!

     

    I have a base model rMBP, and recently performed the firmware update that enables Power Nap.

    I enabled it in System Preferences to run on battery power, but I discovered it failed to update Mail overnight the next day. I tried closing the lid and coming back to it in a few hours, only to discover that it failed again.

     

    It's been a few days since I updated and enabled Power Nap, and it frustrates me to say it still doesn't work!

     

    Does anyone have a fix to this? I really hope Apple acknowledges this problem!!

  • by Mad-Hias,

    Mad-Hias Mad-Hias Jul 31, 2012 2:54 PM in response to wesman246
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 31, 2012 2:54 PM in response to wesman246

    It seems to me that Apple's firmware update enabled the button to switch Power Nap on and off. What they didn't enable is the feature itself...

  • by brianld,

    brianld brianld Jul 31, 2012 2:58 PM in response to Mad-Hias
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 31, 2012 2:58 PM in response to Mad-Hias

    Precisely.  I had the same thought.

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