Screen not sleeping

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Level 2

221 points

Screen not sleeping

High Sierra, Mac Pro. Everything was going fine, until I had a weird freeze - the cursor moved, but couldn't click on any of the windows or do anything. So I had to reboot. Everything is fine now, but - the screens won't go to sleep. I've got the System Settings like I think they should be, but the screens just don't go dark after inactivity. Unless, I activate a hot corner to launch a screensaver, and then, after a while of screensaver, they do sleep. But I want to go back to how it was - what setting am I missing?

Posted on Aug 10, 2019 6:10 PM

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Answer 1

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BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Aug 10, 2019 7:18 PM in response to Michael Levin

Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

The same network activities that can wake your Mac can also keep your Mac from sleeping.
Any app or other process that's running on your Mac could also be keeping your Mac awake. Check the Energy Saver pane of Activity Monitor to identify apps that need your Mac to be awake. If "Yes" appears in the Preventing Sleep column for an app, your Mac won't automatically sleep while the app is running. Other apps prevent sleep only when doing certain things, such playing music or video, printing, or downloading files.

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Answer 2

Michael Levin Author

Level 2

221 points

Aug 11, 2019 2:27 AM in response to BDAqua

I'll try the safe boot. Meanwhile, I can't let the machine itself sleep (it's doing a bunch of calculations etc.) - it's always been fine to have the Mac never sleep but the monitors go dark after inactivity. I tried Activity Monitor and there's only one entry that says Preventing Sleep - that's "hidd" - is that normal?

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Aug 11, 2019 7:41 AM in response to Michael Levin

The hidd service is the Human Interface DeviceDaemon. In fact, the hidd service is required for your Mac to operate properly as it is responsible for the operation of any human input devices, such as your mouse (or trackpad on a MacBook) or keyboard! It is a very important process.

No idea why it is preventing sleep, doesn't even show that it's running on my iMac!?

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Screen not sleeping

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