Wake for network access not working

Hello BDAqua,

please forgive the missing Hello in my last.

It returns:

Active Profiles:

AC Power -1*

Currently in use:

 hibernatemode    0

 womp         1

 networkoversleep   0

 sleep        1 (sleep prevented by UserEventAgent, backupd-helper, AddressBookSourceSync, identityservicesd, identityservicesd, identityservicesd, identityservicesd)

 Sleep On Power Button 1

 ttyskeepawake    1

 hibernatefile    /var/vm/sleepimage

 autorestart     0

 disksleep      10

 displaysleep     1

True, and I should have pointed that out. However, the matter seems identical. I cannot link to a user's guide to el capitan, because I find no such resource on apple.com. Here's how it looks within el capitan:

After some 10 minutes, it appears that doing so prevents going into sleep mode altogether. What do you think, what might that indicate?

(Edit, a few minutes later: I may be wrong. smbd (as root process), related to active file sharing as far as I know, is preventing sleep, and is now doing so even with Put hard disks to sleep when possible checked. It did not do that before, so now the situation seems to have changed from not waking for network access although required to do so to not going to sleep although required to do so.)

Second edit: Turning off file sharing ends smdb. Turning it back on (with no other device actively accessing the mac in question) does not start it up again. Accordingly, sleep mode is once more activated automatically as set in Energy saver settings. Yet now, attempting to wake the mac via network access fails (Put hard disks to sleep if possible still unchecked).

Hello BDAqua, 

thanks for taking an interest and for mulling … I’m at another loss myself: The two computers that yesterday connected without hesitation (the first one runs on El Capitan as mentioned, the second on Monterey), file sharing enabled on both, now won’t connect any longer (settings unaltered). The second mac connects to yet another without a problem, so I reckon it must be the one on El Capitan giving me trouble—the very same that wouldn’t wake on network access. So maybe the issue lies elsewhere? But I can’t figure out where. Any idea? 

Thanks so much

Thanks a lot, really, so good to have someone like you. One of the two was logged into the neighbour’s wlan. Changing that fixed the problem for a moment, then it seized working, then started working again.

As for your second question: Both mac’s names end in a number, but neither adds another number to it's own address. The MacPro says “afp://[MacPro’s name]“ or “smb://[MacPro’s name]“, the Macbook on the other side says smb://[MacBook’s name] (without quotation marks). Upon Finder>Go>Connect to Server, the MacPro adds _smb._tcp.local to the other computer's name, the MacBook does no such thing.

Now, once this seemed to be up and running, I tried setting the MacBook to wake upon network access and putting it to sleep, to no great avail, as active file sharing prevents the mac from going to sleep in the first place, yet when closing the lid, after some time it does seem to sleep but won’t wake. Maybe my attempts are futile?

(The idea was to use one of the macs as a file server instead of a NAS, because I use a database app (devonthink) that won’t run well on a NAS but will on a mac. However, an older mac somewhere in the background as file server would obviously have to be allowed to enter sleep mode rather than running non stop. It appears that cannot be achieved, or can it, maybe with another tool instead of file sharing?)

I’m sorry, I don't think I explained myself very well. The thing was that rather than being kept awake, the MacPro did in fact go to sleep despite active file sharing which as far as I understood is supposed to prevent sleep permanently (correct?).

If that is correct, then it seems the Wake for network access isn’t designed to wake a mac with active file sharing because active file sharing prevents (or is supposed to prevent) sleep anyhow. If that is right (is it?), I should shift my question:

Can I set up a mac as network server in such a way as would allow that mac to enter sleep mode when no client attempts to access it and wake when they do (rather than idly working and consuming energy)?

(Maybe that should go into a new thread?)

Neither seem to be doing that. Both connect using an smb-address. I was only reporting what the MacPro says in full in case it might matter.

Also, I realized the MacPro goes to sleep despite active file sharing. Even activity monitor displays no process as preventing sleep. Might there be a trick to achieve that? Or is that a fault?