Mac Mini M1 does not awake from sleep on mouse button or key press

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Level 1

13 points

Mac Mini M1 does not awake from sleep on mouse button or key press

When it was new (a few months ago) my Mac Mini M1 used to wake from sleep normally with either a mouse button or key press, regardless of whether I had put it to sleep or it timed out and went to sleep automatically. Recently, I have had to wake it from sleep by pressing the power button briefly if the device has been asleep for long enough for the external (Time Machine) hard drive to switch itself off. There was some correspondence about this issue a year or two ago but all has gone quiet since. Am I alone? It's not a major issue - just a slight annoyance - but it is a little frustrating.

I am running Monterey 12.4 and have a refurbished wired Apple keyboard (A1243) and mouse (A1152) - I dislike using battery-powered wireless input devices with a desktop. I have an AOC Q24V4W1G5 Display connected via its DisplayPort interface. The external 1TB hard drive came out of my old (2013) iMac and is housed in an OWC Express enclosure connected to one of the Mac Mini's built-in USB-3 ports.

This behaviour may have started when I upgraded to Monterey 12.4 (from 12.3) but I cannot confirm that. Does anyone have any comments or ideas on how to get my Mac Mini to behave normally again?

Mac mini, macOS 12.4

Posted on Jun 18, 2022 10:15 AM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 9

78,070 points

Jun 19, 2022 4:39 AM in response to CrizzleMac

You're welcome. No problem, I'm glad to hear that a shutdown and restart solved the issue.

There are know sleep/wake issue with the late model Mac Mini's and Monterey. If the sleep/wake problem returns or becomes bothersome, then consider using the Energy Saver setting above and just let the display(s) turn off after 10 or 15 minutes.

FWIW I'm also using a USB keyboard and mouse (Logitech) and think this is why we are not having a serious wake issues, like those that are using a wireless keyboard and mouse.

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Answer 2

Jul 13, 2022 10:38 AM in response to den.thed

I, too, use a usb/wired keyboard & mouse, thinking my dual/fob Logitech keyboard/mouse was the problem. I switched back to wired to eliminate this inability to wake.

I've adjusted my power settings to prevent sleeping (when display is off) & guess I have to get into the habit of shutting down.

I had thought allowing the disks to sleep when away for a while would encourage longevity of my Mac mini.

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Answer 3

CrizzleMac Author

Level 1

13 points

Jul 19, 2022 12:54 AM in response to Eirualmac1

I have reset my power settings to default and resigned myself to my M1 Mac Mini having to be awoken from "Auto" sleep by pressing and releasing the power button. The normal waking process (mouse click or key press) works normally when sleep is commanded manually. This behaviour was not present when I first bought my M1 Mac Mini. I suspect it started with Monterey 12.4 but I cannot be sure. I am not sure of the benefits of putting an SSD to sleep but I have a mechanical HDD Time Machine connected and putting that to sleep seems sensible to me.

Perhaps Monterey 12.5 or Ventura will address this ...

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