Sleep mode issue - won't go to sleep

Try resetting the System Management Controller: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1806

For Sleep options, open System Preferences/Energy Saver/Sleep

Carolyn 🙂

Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

There is nothing in your original post that indicates you ran the SMC. And resetting Safari has nothing to do with sleep issues.

This from the Apple Help Viewer.
Home Index

If your Mac won’t go to sleep
If your Mac won’t go to sleep or stay in sleep, check the following:

In Energy Saver preferences, click Sleep, and drag the slider that controls the computer’s sleep to “Never.” (If you don’t see this slider, click Sleep, or click Show Details and then click Sleep.)

Open Energy Saver preferences

Phone calls can wake a computer that’s connected to a phone line. If you don’t want this to happen, open Energy Saver preferences and deselect “Wake when the modem detects a ring.” (If you don’t see this option, click Options, or click Show Details and then click Options.)

Open Energy Saver preferences

Your network administrator may be waking your computer remotely to perform maintenance. If you don’t want this to happen, open Energy Saver preferences and deselect “Wake for Ethernet network administrator access.” (If you don’t see this option, click Options, or click Show Details and then click Options.)

Open Energy Saver preferences
Bluetooth devices can wake your computer. If you don’t want to wake your computer by using a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse, open Bluetooth preferences, click Advanced, and deselect “Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer.”

Open Bluetooth preferences

Key presses and mouse clicks can wake your computer. If your computer is waking when you’re not present, something may be pressing the mouse button or keyboard.

Applications that access a disk can keep your computer from going to sleep. For example, iTunes accesses your disk to read the songs it plays, and DVD Player accesses the optical disc drive to play a movie.

People using services on your computer can prevent it from sleeping. For example, they may be using a printer connected to your computer or accessing shared files stored on it. In Sharing preferences, deselect any services you aren’t using.

Open Sharing preferences

If Spotlight is indexing your hard disk, your computer won’t go to sleep. Click the Spotlight icon on the right side of the menu bar and check whether it says it’s indexing. Indexing your files can take several hours, depending on the number of files on your computer.

Malfunctioning Universal Serial Bus (USB) or FireWire devices may keep your computer from going to sleep. Disconnect your USB and FireWire devices and see if your computer will go to sleep. If it does, reconnect your USB and FireWire devices one by one, until you find the one that’s malfunctioning. Contact that device’s manufacturer for more information.

Some PCI extension cards intentionally prevent a computer from going to sleep. Check the documentation that came with your card.


Carolyn 🙂

Are you still having sleep problems?

I am!

Brand new Mac Pro 09.

Done everything above and it will not sleep automatically.

No guarantees but this terminal command was published in the UK MacFormat and it worked for me.

sudo pmset schedule wakeorpoweron "03/31/49 06:00:00 GMT" "com.wakeup.workaround"

which basically sets a wake up event a long long time in the future.

Will that help with not going to sleep though?

Can't say. My problem was that it would go to sleep but then immediately wake up ...so if your's is not going to sleep at all then guess not. Sorry.

As a temporary measure, try downloading & installing 'PleaseSleep'. This
little tool will put your Mac to sleep as per your EnergySaver settings.

Thanks. I have and it works, but like you say it's a temporary fix.

Same issue here. My Mac Pro won't go into sleep mode. Anyone else have this problem? Any solution for this issue yet?

This is for a Mac that won't sleep.
Here is KB article HT1776 with their tips.
Mine follow;
USB devices and hubs often cause Macs to not sleep or wake quickly from sleep (notably HP printers and scanners, HP all in ones, and Cannon scanners). Disconnect all USB except for keyboard and mouse and try. If it sleeps, add one back at a time testing after each one to find the culprit.

If you've set your Mac to receive faxes, it may not be able to sleep. It might also have a damaged preferences file.

If you use your Mac for faxing, open System Preferences. click Print & Fax, click the Faxing tab, and uncheck the Receive Faxes On This Computer box.

If that doesn't work or you've never faxed on your Mac, go to Finder/Hard Drive /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration and delete the com.apple.PowerManagement.plist and com..apple.AutoWake.plist files (if your Mac asks, type your admin. password).

If the latter file isn't present in the folder, go to user name(probably your name)/Library/Preferences, delete the com.apple.systemuiserver.plist file, and reboot your Mac.

Hope this helps!
P.S. One member here reported this (Michael Gleason);
"I have had this problem with my IMac G5. It is surprisingly irritating. LaCie's Silverkeeper backup software was the cause. By default it gave itself permission to wake up the computer to check if a backup was needed. Do you have this or a similar program installed which has scheduled activities including wake-up permissions as an option?"

Dave Hamilton provided this link, xlr8yourmac.com, to a member, which addresses failure of deep sleep with some users that updated and added new FireWire and USB card.

Also, here is Apple KB article TA2469 about PCI cards and sleep.

tomhorvat adds this; After few days of messing around I found out that I had desktop background (wallpaper) set to change every 1 minute.
After unchecking "Change picture..." in system preferences (under Desktop/Screen saver), my powerbook went to sleep all by itself.

Tristan Currier noticed this; "I have a Canon printer(shared) and my imac would not sleep. I opened up printer/fax in system prefs and noticed it said the printer was in use when it was off. Opened up the printer queue and noticed about 7 pending documents. Deleted them all and now it sleeps.
Check the printer queue!"
Good Luck!  DALE

Done all that and sleep is still hit and miss.

I found a solution for my 'no-sleep' problem in another thread on this subject:-
Trash the contents of the LaunchAgent folder in the Library. Worked a treat for me.