You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Energy saver settings do not stick when set in system preferences

For some reason when I restore the default settings for the energy saver settings, the settings go back to a custom setting I set months prior of Display Sleep at 1 minute.


Here is what I am doing:

  • Going to "System Preferences"
  • Going to "Energy Saver"
  • Pressing the button "Restore Defaults"
  • Everything goes back to the default settings of Computer Sleep of 10 minutes and Display Sleep of 10 minutes and I close the window out.
  • Problem happens: A bit later I come back to my iMac and wake it up, the setting is back to 1 minute of Display Sleep (which I did months ago, I no longer want that).


I have even locked the setting to prevent further changes. Which locks the settings in place like it should I believe. However, once the iMac sleeps and I wake it up in a couple of hours it switches back to the old setting I made months ago, 1 minute of Display Sleep, which I no longer want.


Thanks in advance for any assistance!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7), All updates applied to the system.

Posted on May 23, 2011 6:42 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 23, 2011 10:20 PM

Delete the com.apple.PowerManagement.plist that resides in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/, restart, and reset the settings.

5 replies

Jun 5, 2011 2:08 PM in response to baltwo

Thanks for the fast reply!


I just now had a free moment to perform the steps you mentioned with one slight modification. Before performing the steps you mentioned I created a copy of the com.apple.PowerManagement.plist just to be safe. Then I removed the file you mentioned from that folder /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ and restarted my machine. I really just wanted to keep the default settings, so I didn't make any additional setting changes. I will give my machine some time before considering this the solution but I am pretty confident at this point it will work.


Thanks for the help baltwo, much appreciated!

Oct 10, 2012 4:41 PM in response to baltwo

i have the opposite problem... i would like to use custom Energy Saver settings but they will not "stick." instead they keep returning to the default settings. i followed the advice on this thread, thinking it might solve my problem too. but it did not. any suggestions?


i had one hunch - that it might have something to do with the file of same name but with ~orig at the end (see image below). should i remove the other file as well?


User uploaded file

thanks!

Energy saver settings do not stick when set in system preferences

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.