my imac wakes up at night - for instance, when there is noise

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Level 1

18 points

my imac wakes up at night - for instance, when there is noise

My iMac sometimes wakes up from sleep at night when I pass the working room or last night when I flush the toilet - so, that is, I think when there is noise. Statistically this is too much a coincidence, so 99% true. (There is no proximity sensor in the iMac that I am aware of - this is a joke of course). Because the trigger seems to be noise I am a bit worried. Sometimes - not always, before this was a couple of months ago. It is really a scarce but scaring event.

I have no apps that are allowed to use the microphone, that is, Zoom is unticked. I have no 'Hey I'm always listening' - Amazon or siri apps. Access is not ticked.

I ran a virus and spyware check, it did find a malware page. I cleaned the wastebin.

Was this the reason?

iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 12, 2021 3:12 AM

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Answer 1

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BDAqua

Level 10

239,363 points

Jul 12, 2021 1:48 PM in response to alberti-nl

Delete these 2 files & restart...

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.ARM.***.plist

~ tilde indicates hidden Local Library

Apple hid the Users' Library folders...

Method 1:

1 From the Finder, select the Go menu at top of the screen, and choose Go to Folder.

2 In the window that opens, enter~/Library/LaunchAgents, and click Go.

Might have to uninstall F-Secure too.

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Answer 2

alberti-nl Author

Level 1

18 points

Jul 12, 2021 11:57 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks. This is what I did.

In fact the ??ARM.***.plist was two files that I trashed.

I refrained from deleting the AAM-updater that was there too - it is 32 bits heritage that should have been purged (when moving to Catalina, by whom?)

F-Secure is the anti-virus and anti-malware kit I have. I hope this helps me.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,363 points

Jul 12, 2021 6:56 AM in response to alberti-nl

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/

Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report if you capture the URL while there…

https://pastebin.com/

Whew, they've changed pastebin & made it harder, but after pasting in, click Create new paste button, then Embed button, then copy the URL...

The important part of the above is between the quote marks...

https://pastebin.com/embed_js/KuvnghqA

Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck. In a Reply before you click post, look for this to add longer texts...

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Answer 4

alberti-nl Author

Level 1

18 points

Jul 12, 2021 7:13 AM in response to BDAqua

Thank you so much, I did some iterations into safe mode and back.

Does it occur in safe mode? - I have not tried, as it is sporadious. Safe mode is not meant for long periods correct me if I'm wrong. It is so slow too.

As a safety measure, I think I will revert to cmd-ctr-r to reinstall the OS.

Best is to move to big sur but I'm not sure my classic lightroom will like that. So I am holding back.

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Answer 5

6x6

Level 6

11,372 points

Jul 12, 2021 7:39 AM in response to alberti-nl

I would also look into possible vibrations that would make the mouse think it's been used. Is your mouse on a pad - which would reduce vibrations? Do you have wood floors as walking on them could also trigger the mouse?

I know it is a very, very long shot but you never know.

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Answer 6

Jul 12, 2021 7:45 AM in response to alberti-nl

This and similar questions always make me wonder. If you don't want your computer "waking" at night then I assume it is not doing anything like computations that take overnight to perform. If this is the case, why not shut down your computer at night. In 40 years of working with computers, unless I was running a server, I never understood the reason for leaving a computer on overnight.

Just curious and finding it interesting.

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Answer 7

alberti-nl Author

Level 1

18 points

Jul 12, 2021 8:43 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

The house is an appartment, concrete, very strurdy, no vibrations. [last earthquake was 15 years ago at <2.1 magnitude, a sculpture fell at night, nothing to worry about]

I for simplicity leave the iMac to sleep. Starup is now fast - on my external Thunderbolt with a clocked 30 secs; so it would be OK to shut down totally. But Apple stopped the simple option to stop, I understand the SSDs don't like the file impact.

Although I see the following as a sidetrack, I'm running Catalina, 64 bits is already mandatory and Lightroom is OK, it is the file handling. . I am surprised by the amount of old 32bits software still on the machine, some over 10 years old such as 'Camera 2011' , AAM', 'Adobe Appl Mgr', 'Adobe Flash Player Installer' - in total 207 32-bit apps. . And outdated unsigned apps like Wish. Why are these not cleaned automatically? Well, that is a different issue.

My ETRE report is in the making, next post.

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Answer 8

bratman91

Level 2

262 points

Jul 12, 2021 3:49 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

For BobTheFisherman: I leave my iMac on overnight because it is then ready for use almost instantly whereas rebooting takes a matter of minutes. My iMac is getting long in the tooth so perhaps more modern models take far less time.

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