Time Machine Back Up WHile Mac in "Sleep"

Richard Campbell4 wrote:
I notice my machine appears to do the Time Machine backups hourly while my Mac is in "Sleep" mode.

this is impossible. no processes can run while the computer is in sleep mode. something else is going on here. perhaps it's only the monitor that's asleep when this happens?

I have been having the same issue recently, my computer would appear to be in "sleep" mode like any other time. I will be away all day but notice time machine appears to wake the computer and there is a log under time machine for hourly backups all day. This does not occur every day and also not for every hour as well.

Then your machine, like Richard's, must not really be asleep, as V.K. has already said twice. When a machine is sleeping, no processes are running. Check your Energy Saver settings (in System Preferences). If the machine is set to sleep after a certain amount of time, then something else must be either waking it up or keeping it from sleeping. And note, as V.K. has said, that screen sleep and computer sleep are two different things. Although you might visually confuse them, they're completely different... just like the difference between a person with his eyes closed and a person who is sleeping.

Sorry, but you are incorrect. Macs will wake up automatically if an event has been set. This is obviously true since you can set to have your Mac go to sleep or to WAKE UP at specific times of the day and on specific days of the week. It will even START UP if it has been shut down. Click on the Schedule… button in the lower right portion of the Energy Saver preferences panel to set these options. You are correct that the Mac can't check mail while it is asleep, but it can automatically wake up, check for new mail, and then go back to sleep.

And Snow Leopard Mail IS checking for new mail while asleep. This morning I was working on my MacPro when my MacBook Pro cycled the SuperDrive and the login screen popped up. After a few seconds (with me staring at it wondering what the heck was going on) it chimed to indicate that I had new mail and then it went back to sleep.

While some might find this a feature, to me it is a fairly major bug. My MacBook Pro is in my backpack while I travel to and from work and it takes a while for it to timeout checking mail when it doesn't have a network connection. This does pretty much explain why there have been times since 10.6 was installed that my MBP would be a lot warmer than I thought it should be when I took it out of it's slipcase.

I'm really getting tired of Apple making changes like this without providing the ability to turn off these "improvements".

If you can move the mouse (trackpad) and the screen wakes up, then you Mac was not asleep.

On an Apple laptop, there is a light on the front edge of the Mac that pulses when it is asleep. If the light is steady, then the Mac is not asleep.

If you have the plusating front edge light then you seem to have a situation where scheduled wakes are occurring.

If this is the case, then from Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal enter the following command:

pmset -g sched

I get the following:

pmset -g sched
No scheduled events.

If you get something, then it would seem you have scheduled events.

Sorry, but you are incorrect. Macs will wake up automatically if an event has been set. This is obviously true since you can set to have your Mac go to sleep or to WAKE UP at specific times of the day and on specific days of the week. It will even START UP if it has been shut down. Click on the Schedule… button in the lower right portion of the Energy Saver preferences panel to set these options.

When the Mac is sleeping, OSX is not running at all. On the logic board, there is a separate SMC (System Management Controller) chip. This controls various functions independently of the operating system. Functions include battery charging, temperature monitoring, fan control, memory refresh while sleeping, and over-temperature shutdown. The SMC runs even when the computer is off. Desktop Macs have a small battery on the logic board to keep the SMC running even if the Mac is unplugged. The SMC contains a clock so the computer will know the correct time when it starts or wakes. The SMC clock can be set to start or wake the computer at a set time. When OSX is shutting down or going to sleep, it sets the time for the next wake or startup in the SMC clock.

You are correct that the Mac can't check mail while it is asleep, but it can automatically wake up, check for new mail, and then go back to sleep.

And Snow Leopard Mail IS checking for new mail while asleep. This morning I was working on my MacPro when my MacBook Pro cycled the SuperDrive and the login screen popped up. After a few seconds (with me staring at it wondering what the heck was going on) it chimed to indicate that I had new mail and then it went back to sleep.

It is not waking for Mail checking. If Mail was running when it went to sleep, then if it wakes for any reason, Mail will do its scheduled checking, but Mail does not schedule wake events in the SMC clock. The wake was for some other reason, such as USB activity, Bluetooth if enabled by the "Advanced" button in "Bluetooth" system preference, or a scheduled wake. You can see any scheduled wake or start events whith the Terminal command:
pmset -g sched

then it was not really asleep. as i said, it can not possibly do anything while in sleep mode.

Hi Richard Campbell4;

It sounds like you have the screen set to sleep but not the computer because that is how I have mine set up and I do get back ups when the screen is sleeping.

Allan