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Reminders app waking mac from sleep

I've been having 2 issues with my mac staying asleep, this post is about one of them, which is regarding reminders waking from sleep, turning the display on, and not going back to sleep:


iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017). Mac OS 10.15. Have two external USB hard drives hooked up at all times.


In Energy Saver, power nap is off, wake for network access is off. In Notifications, Do Not Disturb has the following 3 checked: "When the display is sleeping, when the screen is locked, when mirroring to TVs".


I set up a test reminder, see the `inDelta=137` below.


Abridged log using `pmset -g log` (full log in attached file):

2019-10-12 14:26:25 -0700 Notification        	Display is turned off
2019-10-12 14:26:25 -0700 Assertions          	PID 582(useractivityd) Summary PreventUserIdleSystemSleep "BTLEAdvertisement" 00:00:02  id:0x0x10000a3af [System: PrevIdle DeclUser BGTask IntPrevDisp kDisp]
...
2019-10-12 14:26:25 -0700 Assertions          	PID 119(powerd) Summary InternalPreventDisplaySleep "com.apple.powermanagement.delayDisplayOff" 00:00:58  id:0x0x1000008003 [System: PrevIdle DeclUser BGTask IntPrevDisp kDisp]
2019-10-12 14:26:25 -0700 Assertions          	Kernel Idle sleep preventers: -None-
2019-10-12 14:26:25 -0700 Assertions          	[System: PrevIdle DeclUser BGTask IntPrevDisp kDisp]
2019-10-12 14:26:25 -0700 Assertions          	PID 119(powerd) Created InternalPreventSleep "com.apple.powermanagement.darkwakelinger" 00:00:00  id:0x0xd0000a3b1 [System: PrevIdle DeclUser BGTask SRPrevSleep IntPrevDisp kCPU kDisp]
2019-10-12 14:26:25 -0700 Assertions          	PID 584(sharingd) Released PreventUserIdleSystemSleep "Handoff" 00:02:38  id:0x0x10000a381 [System: PrevIdle DeclUser BGTask SRPrevSleep IntPrevDisp kCPU kDisp]
2019-10-12 14:26:40 -0700 Assertions          	PID 119(powerd) TimedOut InternalPreventSleep "com.apple.powermanagement.darkwakelinger" 00:00:15  id:0x0xd0000a3b1 [System: DeclUser BGTask SRPrevSleep IntPrevDisp kCPU kDisp]
2019-10-12 14:26:40 -0700 Sleep               	Entering Sleep state due to 'Software Sleep pid=205': Using AC (Charge:0%) 150 secs
2019-10-12 14:26:43 -0700 Wake Requests       	[proc=dasd request=Maintenance inDelta=43536] [*proc=powerd request=UserWake inDelta=137 info="com.apple.alarm.user-visible,481"]
...
2019-10-12 14:29:01 -0700 Notification        	Display is turned on


iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Oct 12, 2019 3:15 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Sep 22, 2020 3:30 AM

I have the very same problem as so many others here.


What did work for me, setting an immutable flag to `/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist`:


$ sudo pmset sched cancelall
$ sudo chflags schg /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist

$ /bin/ls -lO com.apple.AutoWake.plist


This prevents the system from updating the file and my MacBook no longer wakes to reminder events. Needles to mention that it prevents all scheduled system events like sleep, power-on and such.


I recommend removing the flag before a system update:


$ sudo chflags noschg /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.AutoWake.plist


Hope this helps at least some of you!



Similar questions

90 replies

Aug 31, 2020 1:46 AM in response to Old Toad

Does 'Safe Mode' allow things like Reminders and Notifications to run? I was under the impression that all those background processes were disabled to provide a really clean and 'safe' operating environment. In which case it would be expected that the problem would not manifest itself in Safe Mode. If the problem does still exist however, then it indicates the underlying sub-systems do run in Safe Mode and the problem is with Reminders and those associated sub-systems.


Not wanting to dismiss your suggestion as any further checking is worthwhile (at least to be able to confirm that with Apple), but I am not sure it would actually tell us anything useful. Is there something else you had in mind?

Aug 31, 2020 5:11 PM in response to FUNK1196

I am on 10.15.6 - and my computer is woken up by Reminders.


Or does the problem still exist for others even after the (iOS13) Reminders update?

Yes, it does. My situation: I upgraded to iOS13 immediately, upgraded reminders (bad move), and then didn't use reminders on my Mojave machine until one month ago, when I upgraded to Catalina. Since then I have experienced this issue.

Reminders app waking mac from sleep

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