My Screensaver is not coming on.

snottrocket wrote:

I've discovered recently that my screensaver doesn't come on automatically any more.

I do have hotspots set up and it works fine when I do that but the screensaver doesn't always come on like it should. I run an application that records radio programs late at night and if I get up and happen to see the glow of my iMac coming from my office, I go in there to move the mouse to a hot spot but this isn't practical in any way.

Is there a set a prefs that I need to delete or something along those lines that will resolve this problem?

>System Preferences>Desktop & Screensavers

Change Screen Saver preferences on Mac - Apple Support

snottrocket wrote:

Thanks, unfortunately that's not much help for me. I've already played with different start times and aside from setting the start time to 1-minute, the only sure-fire option has been the hot-spots.

I'm looking to see if there are system prefs that I can delete (I'm thinking old-school Mac maintenance) or if there's other things to look for/

Maybe try disabling Hot Corners and test.

If your Mac doesn't sleep or wake when expected - Apple Support

Other ideas—

>System Preferences>Security And Privacy>General has a few preferences, maybe worth looking at.

 You can also try to trouble shoot further, if you continue to have an issue:

  Try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

  Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5-15 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache,  etc.  

This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode. 

Test issue in another user (or guest user) account  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204443

  This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

If you are concerned that the screen may turn on when it shouldn't, I have a suggestion: instead of (or in addition to) relying on screensaver setting, dim the screen all the way down using F1

The only thing is if you forget it in the next day you may be struggling to find why your screen does not light up.

You may alternatively not turn it off completely but dim it considerably so you can still notice it is on.