Screen Saver on 10.8.2 Fails to Activate

I have the same exact issue with my Mac mini running the latest update to Mountain Lion. Apple, please fix this!

This is in reply to your self-reply about going back to the prior version and it still not working...

I should have mentioned in my original post, I never upgraded to 10.8.2 (although keep in mind I've only had my mac for a week), so honestly I'm not sure it has anything to do with the newest version in and of itself. There's something else going on here.

For people having this problem, what exactly happens in your situation? For me, the screen just goes blank as opposed to my chosen screen saver activating. I have my settings such that after a minute of the screen saver running, it prompts for a password. This still happens after a minute of my screen being blank (i.e., the non-screen saver, not MY screen saver).

For the rest of you... does your screen go blank when the screen saver is supposed to activate, or are you not even getting a blank screen?

Number Girl

I would say you don't have the same problem. Nothing happens on mine when the screensaver is supposed to activate (and I assume others on this thread). The desktop remains visible.

I would be happy if mine worked like yours. I really only want the lock screen to come on for security reasons. I don't really care if a specific screen saver comes on (although I understand that it is annoying that you can't select the one you want).

Dave

OK... I set my Energy Saver to put my display to sleep after 3 hours.

I did this 2 days ago.

Screensaver has been working fine again... for now.

But for how long??

Did you re-start your computer? Mine works fine (for a while) after a re-start. Never lasts though.

Dave

David,

Yes, I restarted a few hours after making the change.

I'm not optimistic on how long it's going to work.

What irks me is that we are all setting and resetting various things to try to solve this... the darn thing should work no matter what the settings are at.

What we need is a bug fix from Apple.

Ken

Screensaver still working, but now I have a new issue.

When I change the Desktop Background, it doesn't save.

I can change the background, but after restart, it reverts back to the background that was on the computer when I purchased it last July.

Anyone having this problem?

I am starting a new thread for this.

I just got off the phone with Apple and the tech had me do the following. According to him the 2 problems were related.

Here is a list of procedures we went through:

- Navigated to ~/Library

- From /Preferences, deleted:

ByHosts folder

com.apple.desktop.plist

com.apple.preference.desktopscreeneffect.plist

com.apple.screensaver.plist

com.apple.systempreferences.plist

- Deleted contents of Library/Saved Application State folder

- Emptied trash, restarted computer

Hopefully this is the final solution.

Ken

Did all that in the early days, that is the third peice of conflicting advice from Apple, none of which work. The chap I spoke to a while ago at Apple just suggested a complete re-install (which I did) and report feedback to Apple if it didn't work (which I did).

Sorry that you're both still having the problem.

I'll be in touch when (hopefully if) my problem comes back.

I'm back!!

Screensaver just stopped working again. 3 days.

Makes no sense what so ever.

I'll be calling Apple again tomorrow morning.

Will stay in touch.

Ken

I was tired of that screensaver not working,

So I went back to 10.8.1, Now I am waiting until that bug is fixed it,

I hope that Apple has solved it quickly,

Hi !

I am experiencing the same problem in 10.8.2

I have found that the problem for me is appearing after using the screen sharing....

You can find out what process makes the screensaver not to kick in by typing in terminal the command...

pmset -g assertions

For me it's like this (after closing the screen sharing connection)

% pmset -g assertions

Assertion status system-wide:

PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep 1

PreventSystemSleep 0

PreventUserIdleSystemSleep 0

ExternalMedia 0

UserIsActive 0

ApplePushServiceTask 0

BackgroundTask 0

pid 18(powerd): [0x00000005000001d7] 11:24:18 PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep named: "com.apple.powermanagement.delayDisplayOff"

This means that pid 18(which for me is screensharing) is preventing the screensaver to show up...

So just typing "kill -9 18 "...

solves te problem...!

For my case when the screensharing is invoked then normally it prevents the display to sleep or else for the screensaver to show up...however when you close the screensharing then powerd doesn't get back to the normal state(this is the bug)..so just killing the process the problem is solved...

However it is very very annoying to kill the process after every screensharing session...

So Apple should solve the problem....

You can find out what process makes the same thing for u using te same procedure...

Hope that this helps someone and for Apple solving the problem...

Thx

zikmangr,

This is also how my problem with the screen saver become apparent. I started another thread on this topic before finding this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4406025

As far as I know, screen sharing is the only thing that triggers this problem for me, but others on this thread do not mention it, so it seems to be a more general problem. Thanks for your advice, but I am also waiting for a real fix.

btw, You can easily evoke the screen saver maually by configuring the "Hot Corners" under the screen saver preferences. Much easier than killing the errant process each time.

Dave