MacBook Pro won’t sleep automatically — no process preventing sleep according to pmset. What's going on?

Turn off all sharing services and try again.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Boot in safe mode. First, disconnect all wired peripherals except keyboard, mouse, and monitor, if applicable, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:

• Be sure your Mac is shut down.
• Press the power button.
• Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
• Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).

The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.

Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including your login items.

Don't launch any applications. Test sleep. Same problem?

After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software -- potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions -- they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.

These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing.

Below are four lines of text in monospaced type, which are UNIX shell commands. They’re harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of running these commands, search this site for other discussions in which they’ve been used without any report of ill effects.

Some of the commands will line-wrap in your browser, but each one is really just a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then either copy or drag it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.

Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.

To begin, launch the Terminal application; e.g., by entering the first few letters of its name in a Spotlight search. A text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.

Step 1

Copy or drag -- do not type -- the line below into the Terminal window, then press return:

kextstat -kl | awk ' !/com\.apple/ { print $6 $7 } '

Post the lines of output (if any) that appear below what you just entered (the text, please, not a screenshot.)

Step 2

Repeat with this line:

sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk ' !/0x|apple|com\.vix|edu\.|org\./ { print $3 } '

This time, you'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. You don't need to post the warning.

Step 3

launchctl list | sed 1d | awk ' !/0x|apple|edu\.|org\./ { print $3 } '

Step 4

ls -1A {,/}Library/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Sta}* 2> /dev/null

Important: If you synchronize with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, change it to something like “user@me.com” before posting.

Remember, steps 1-4 are all drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste, whichever you prefer -- no typing, except your password.

You can then quit Terminal.

Back up all data if you haven’t already done so. Before proceeding, you must be sure you can restore your system to the state it’s in now. If you skip this step, no one but you will be responsible for the consequences. If you’re dissatisfied with the results of the procedure suggested below, restore from your backup.

You should either update or uninstall the following system modification(s), if an update is available from the developer:

N/A

and definitely remove at least the following:

† SIMBL

VirtualBox (non-functional partial installation)

Radio Silence

Fritz.mac Suite

Cocktail

AppFresh

Things

Bodega

SelfControl

TextExpander

It's essential that all of the latter be removed completely, and the only way to do that is to use the uninstallation tool provided, if any, or otherwise to follow the developer's instructions. In some cases it may be necessary to re-download or even reinstall the software in order to get rid of it. I can't be more specific, because I don't install such things myself. Trying to remove complex system modifications by hunting for files by name usually will not work and may make matters worse.

Never reinstall the modifications marked with a dagger (†) above, if any. If your problem is resolved after uninstalling all the above modifications and rebooting, but you still want to use some of those not marked with a dagger, you can experiment with putting them back, one at a time, testing carefully after each step. Keep in mind that system modifications may be incompatible with each other or with future Mac OS updates, so it may not be clear which one is at fault.

Never install any third-party software unless you're sure you know how to uninstall it; otherwise you may create problems that are very difficult to solve.

If making the suggested changes and rebooting doesn't resolve your issue, post again.

Uninstall SIMBL by deleting these items:

/Library/Application Support/SIMBL

/Library/LaunchAgents/net.culater.SIMBL.Agent.plist

/Library/ScriptingAdditions/SIMBL.osax

Log out and log back in.

Make sure you never reinstall SIMBL, as it’s one of the worst articles of crapware on the Mac platform. It’s likely to come bundled with some other modfication that depends on it. If you want trouble-free computing, avoid software that makes miraculous changes to other software, especially built-in applications. The only real exception to that rule is Safari extensions, which are mostly safe, and are easy to get rid of when they don’t work. SIMBL and its dependents are not Safari extensions.

Please repeat steps 1-4 and post the output.

You haven't completely uninstalled Things or TextExpander, but I think it's unlikely that either of those is involved in the problem.

You can narrow down the possibilities further by logging out without rebooting, then logging back in with the shift key held down. That is, enter your name and password, then hold the shift key and click the "Log in" button. Keep holding the key until the Desktop appears. This will prevent LaunchAgents and login items from loading.

If sleep works in that mode, then you know the problem is one of those. If sleep still doesn't work, then you've ruled out everything I can see except the Google "Keystone" updater daemon (which in my opinion should be removed anyway, for privacy's sake) and TextWrangler.

Why do you suggest removing Things? I have Things, but no longer use it.

If the solution in this thread didn't work for you, then please start your own discussion to address your issue.