mac wont wake from sleep after Catalina upgrade

I have the Macbook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar and I had this same issue. I thought the issue was related to DisplayLink due to this article: https://support.displaylink.com/knowledgebase/articles/1925041-macos-catalina-10-15-black-screen-or-only-one-mon

I followed the steps provided except step 7 as I was still having the issue.

So I reset the SMC and NVRAM as recommended in https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204760.

The problem is now resolved.

Success: I tried both and still had trouble. Then I noticed that while I previously had "unlock with AppleWatch" turned on, it was now turned off. I turned that back on and now it wakes from sleep. NOTE: I also purchased a new AppleWatch just before I installed Catalina. Not sure how or when the setting turned off; probably when I got the new watch. Not even sure if this was the solution, but it seems to have fixed the problem for me. I was trying a lot of things, so I can't be sure.

I have the same problem (Retina Macbook Pro 2015).

The behaviour is that the device will wake successfully if it's only been idle for a few minutes so I think the problem applies to when the device goes into "hibernate" mode rather than "sleep" mode. There is a technical difference in that "hibernate" mode copies the current RAM state onto disk and shuts down more systems - I think that this is the state from which my Mac fails to wake. When it happens the device appears to wake (the screen goes from off to on and become a lighter shade of black) and makes noises when you push the keys but the screen is black and I can't see the login screen. This applies when Apple Watch login is on or off. Resetting the NVRAM etc as suggested elsewhere makes no difference.

I don't have a fix but the workaround I am using is to use a little app called "Caffeine" which prevents the Macbook from ever sleeping - it's not ideal but at least I don't have reboot every time I come back to my office.

I also suspect that there is a way to turn off Hibernate mode using the command line but I'm not sure how to do it and couldn't find suitable instructions online so perhaps someone can advise and test this solution.

You can revert, just look up the steps to follow or you can erase and reinstall Catalina which was how I solved the problem. Some people here have had success with other options, but none worked for me so I backed up everything of value to iCloud or to my work's Sharepoint and erased/reinstalled. I actually freed up a ton of space by ridding my Mac of 6 years of junk that had built up and its running like a champ now.

I had the same issue, MacBook Air not waking from sleep or not starting when power button was pressed. It only woke occasionally after a day or more, after taking multiple steps in random order (like SMC reset) - so can't help with that. The NVRAM/PRAM reset didn't have effect for my case. But this weekend when it was awake I was able to remove the cause of the issue for me with help of the Apple Support chat.

• They asked me to check some folders in the library folder:
  • Click "Go" in the menu bar
  • Select "Computer"
  • Select "Library"
  • Check the "LaunchAgents" & "LaunchDaemons" folders for possible unsupported files
    • In my case it was quite clear which file caused the problem, but leave at least all files mentioning apple or macos
    • For me files mentioning adobe & microsoft didn't cause the problem
  • Move the file which you think causes the issue to your desktop before deleting - if it has no effect and it causes problems with some apps you always can place it back
• To rule out any user specific issues he asked me to check the user related files
  • Click "Go" in the menu bar
  • When pressing your option key, select "Library" that will appear
  • Check the "LaunchAgents" & "LaunchDaemons" folders for possible unsupported files
  • If you have multiple users, you might want to check them all, but for me only the admin user had a file that had to be removed

After that I was asked to try and see if that solved it, the scary part, but my MBA didn't fail to wake since.

So hope that this can help others too.

After install of 10.15.1, the same problem persists on iMac Pro (2017) - will not wake from sleep. Work around is to disable security requiring password after sleep. Very annoying that same problem persists after installing the upgrade to 10.15.1, esp after spending hours with Apple on phone trying many other alternatives.

Hi YoEugene,

Thank you for your congrats. I am glad you finally seems to find the solution. Perhaps you will need to make further adjustments, no just the hibernatemode 0, but standby 0 and autopoweroff 0.

Jorge

I reset the NVRAM and it now appears to be working.

look for 32 bit drivers

Have you updated to macOS Catalina 10.15.1 ?

You may read about it here if you wish: https://eclecticlight.co/2019/10/29/catalina-10-15-1-is-now-available/

It's worked for me! 😉

I updated to 10.15.1 and it seems to work

Type in terminal:

sudo pmset - a hibernatemode 25

my iMac did not wake up but rebooted after sleeping! It solved my, hope it will solve yours.

check your 3rd party apps loaded to the memory and close all of them next time before your MB goes to sleep. If it wakes up flawlessly you will know who’s to blame

J5create now has a new driver for Catalina OS...everything works properly

Fixed!!!!!

So I was having a similar problem... 2014 era MacBook Air with a fresh install of Catalina was not waking from sleep. It would go to gray screen, but no further. I'd have to hold the power button and restart the whole system. After wasting all day trying to figure it out on my own, I did a chat with the guru's at Apple Support and after being transferred to a supervisor, he nailed it. Turns out that one stupid little file with an outdated extension was causing issues. I had no idea what this file was for, so we moved it to the trash (not deleted completely just yet).

That solved the issue. I tested the sleep mode after 1, 3 and 5 minutes and it is back to working the way it should. Unfortunately I am not a techie, so trying to explain how he went about this process would not only confuse, but probably make things worse, so I apologize for that, but the first step was to create a new user (with admin) and restart using that login. If same issue occurs, it's a system wide issue versus a specific user issue. Mine was system wide. We then went hunting for non-apple extensions residing in an area used during startup, and somehow he spotted the right one immediately.

So far so good. Again sorry I cannot provide the details, but if you chat with support and mention this whole file extension issue perhaps you'll get lucky too.