How to prevent Mac from shutting down all apps when goes to sleep

I wonder if you have the Log out after inactivity set. You can check it at System Settings > Privacy & Security > Advanced (button on bottom of page) > Log out automatically after inactivity.

Make sure that the switch is turned off.

Hi Leroy, strange that the folks at Apple Support are telling you that this is a Non-Problem. In my case it has been consistently happening to Two MacBook Pros for several months now.

The first one is a MacBook Pro 16 - 2019, that one worked fine until the latest or next to the latest version of Monterey that I loaded on it, ever since then, it regularly on its on decides to do a complete shutdown while sleeping, sometimes it will do a complete shutdown while I am actively using it, like in between keystrokes, causing me to lose any work that has not been saved, as well as having to reopen pretty much everything. Loading Ventura did nothing to fix this problem with the Mac OS.

The second one is a M1-Max MacBook Pro 16 - 2021, that I purchased in November 2022 just before the M2s came out, because my wife couldn't wait for the M2. That one came with an early version of Ventura that I immediately updated to the latest version, but alas, same stinking problem as my 2019 Intel Mac problem, only for her it happens even more often that it happens to me, I can sometimes go for a few hours before my 2019 model shuts down, she can only go for a short period of time, then bam, she loses everything.

I have AppleCare on both Macs, so far I have spent about 4 hours on the phone with them dealing with these problems, but no dice and no progress. I am looking for a weekend day that I can devote all day to it so that I can work with them again.

They try to tell me it is hardware related, but since I am an Electrical Engineer that started work in the Computer Industry in January 1980, I have gained a little experience since then, and know for a fact based on the symptoms that this is either a Mac firmware or a Mac OS problem. Just have not been able to convince them.

More power to you, this problem is making our MacBook Pros almost unusable, at least you apparently aren't having an unscheduled shutdown while you are typing.

I wish you success in getting this straightened out.

Brad

If it is not the logout after idle 'n' minutes option, then I would lean toward the system actually panic'ing when waking from sleep.

If Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal

uptime

19:04 up 9 days, 6:24, 6 users, load averages: 2.54 2.69 2.60

Says the system has only been up for a few minutes after waking, then I would assume it rebooting because of a system panic.

As you can see from my uptime, my Mac has been up for 9 days, 6 hours, and 24 minutes. I put this Mac to sleep every night, and all my apps are still there in the morning. My network connections have been broken (VPN into my company network, my ssh connections to work computers, etc... are all broken, but I expect that when I put my Mac to sleep). However, all my previous apps are still running (web browser, email, Activity Monitor, System Preferences, terminal emulator, Podcast app, backup utility, etc... are all still there).

If you do have a short uptime, then it might be a battery issue (unlikely on an M2 MacBook Air, but this has been known to happen on Macs with older batteries). It could 3rd party software (less of an issue these days as Apple is really pushing for not kernel extensions), it could still be 3rd party software, as I've seen anti-virus packages using the Apple provided hooks cause the Apple software to panic. It could be external hardware, as I've seen keep alive times timeout triggering panic because external hardware was too slow to respond to software probes. The point is, there can be lots of reasons the Mac could be forced to reboot, and if uptime is from the time you woke up the Mac, they it would appear a reboot occurred.

I do know of an app called "Quitter" that will quit or hide idle apps you specify, but you would have had to install the 3rd party Quitter app and configure it for the apps to quit or hide. If your "uptime" is long, then you might want to review what 3rd party apps you have installed. EtreCheck can give you a list of 3rd party apps that run in the background that you can review what additional services they perform.

Hi, the same thing is happening to me. This is extremely annoying. I don't normally use Chrome but have to now for work. Did you find a solution yet?

mlpantaro wrote:

Hi, my macbook air M2 (running Mac OS Ventura 13) keeps shutting down all apps and logging out of chrome whenever it goes to sleep for a while. I cannot find how to disable this annoying feature, which loggs me out and shutts down all my tabs and windows. Please help

MacBook, macOS 13.0

Never heard of this before, and seems very odd behavior.

The current stable release of Ventura including bug fixes, security updates is macOS Ventura 13.2

I would start there; and compare your results.

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

Keep your Mac up to date - Apple Support

bwholder wrote:

Thanks Mac Jim ID, I wan't even aware of that setting, it would seem that we are doomed by the green police wanting to save power at any cost, I am assuming that this bug is most likely caused by some green code that is not functioning properly in certain untested scenarios.

I just checked both Macs, the MacBook Pro 16 - 2019 and the M1-Max MacBook Pro 16 - 2021, and both of them had that option grayed out. But that was a very good idea to check that.

The suggestion is most appreciated, if you think of anything else, I will try it.

Brad

I see now you are not the OP— I am sorry I responded to this thread jack.

My apologies to mlpantaro Author from the OP above.

This is such an old post—Posted on Jan 27, 2023

Hi Leroy,

Strange that the folks at Apple Support are telling you that this is a Non-Problem. In my case it has been consistently happening to Two MacBook Pros for several months now.

The first one is a MacBook Pro 16 - 2019, that one worked fine until the latest or next to the latest version of Monterey that I loaded on it, ever since then, it regularly on its on decides to do a complete shutdown while sleeping, sometimes it will do a complete shutdown while I am actively using it, like in between keystrokes, causing me to lose any work that has not been saved, as well as having to reopen pretty much everything. Loading Ventura did nothing to fix this problem with the Mac OS.

The second one is a M1-Max MacBook Pro 16 - 2021, that I purchased in November 2022 just before the M2s came out, because my wife couldn't wait for the M2. That one came with an early version of Ventura that I immediately updated to the latest version, but alas, same stinking problem as my 2019 Intel Mac problem, only for her it happens even more often that it happens to me, I can sometimes go for a few hours before my 2019 model shuts down, she can only go for a short period of time, then bam, she loses everything.

I have AppleCare on both Macs, so far I have spent about 4 hours on the phone with them dealing with these problems, but no dice and no progress. I am looking for a weekend day that I can devote all day to it so that I can work with them again.

They try to tell me it is hardware related, but since I am an Electrical Engineer that started work in the Computer Industry in January 1980, I have gained a little experience since then, and know for a fact based on the symptoms that this is either a Mac firmware or a Mac OS problem. Just have not been able to convince them.

More power to you, this problem is making our MacBook Pros almost unusable, at least you apparently aren't having an unscheduled shutdown while you are typing.

I wish you success in getting this straightened out.

Brad

Thanks Mac Jim ID, I wan't even aware of that setting, it would seem that we are doomed by the green police wanting to save power at any cost, I am assuming that this bug is most likely caused by some green code that is not functioning properly in certain untested scenarios.

I just checked both Macs, the MacBook Pro 16 - 2019 and the M1-Max MacBook Pro 16 - 2021, and both of them had that option grayed out. But that was a very good idea to check that.

The suggestion is most appreciated, if you think of anything else, I will try it.

Brad