MacBook switches to hibernation during sleep

Interesting - the fact that UPS settings are configured may mean something but for me the bottom line is that it would be a ridiculous fix to have to plug a laptop into a UPS just to make this go away - no offense

Forcing slower wake from Safe Sleep by removing power from RAM after 4 hours for a MacBook plugged in to wall AC made no sense to me until I read this page from Apple support http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1757. It describes a government-motivated reason to reduce power usage and reads, in part, as follows:

With the release of the OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2 supplemental update 2.0, a new feature was introduced to enter safe sleep after four hours of the computer being connected to AC power. This is an effort to comply with the European Energy Standards (ErP Lot6). This will only occur if there is no wireless or Ethernet activity and no activity from external devices such as USB storage devices... (Also includes a list of affected machines.)

>>can you tell us whether your computer wakes up briefly...

Yes, pulsing white sleep indicator lamp stops pulsing and stays lit for a little while when I remove the power cable from the MacBook Pro while it is asleep. However, this is not something I normally do. I usually make all changes to the system while it is awake and then, after everything has settled down, close the lid and wait for it to go to sleep.

Oh believe you me, it doesn't make sense to anyone. However, the fact that your system detects (somehow... dd you set UPS settings or load any software or have a USB plugged into it) the UPS and has settings for %, could very well defeat the autopoweroff setting, since it no longer draws power from the wall "per say" (well, it does if you count the UPS pulling power from the wall, but you get what I'm trying to say).

I've never actually plugged a Mac just directly into a UPS and expected it to detect that it's plugged into a UPS as opposed to a regular outlet because in the PC world, a USB/Serial connection and software or native OS UPS setting is required for it to know it's on a UPS and for that UPS to signal it's battery level when it's low so that a shutdown can occur on the machine. I'm not saying the Mac charger is smart enough to do this because it can't be... but I'm betting you've configured your laptop to know it's on a UPS, which most likely defeats the other timers because the timers for the % of battery left on the UPS would need to take priority over the others. This would be the most logical explanation because in all my testing it's been pretty evident that PMSET core functions in the OS are not very dynamic and the OS must power up the system in order to change PMSET modes of opperation... this is after all why this "wake on power disconnect/connect" additional issue after this update is also happening.

Now, as to one change that Apple has made to 10.8.3 in regards to this hibernation wake routine is that... if the system is fully charged and left plugged in and does go into hibernate after 4 hours. When you do unplug it without opening the lid, the system WILL wake up, but it will reenter its previous full hibernation state. Prior to the 10.8.3 update and after the Update 2.0 which they released after 10.8.2 was out (the update mentioned in the KB above), if you unplugged the system after full hibernation was in effect with the lid closed, the system would wake and then go back into normal sleep as opposed to hibernation (which inherently caused it to eat up power because sleep keeps memory powered to maintain the sleep image for quick wakes.) This was one of the gripes I had filed with Apple back in November and took me a couple of months of going back and forth with them for someone higher up to "get it". Apparently, they addressed this one issue because it makes sense that if you're going to hibernate the system fully, why wake it and put it back into a mode to just consume more power than the mode it was just in. So, at least they fixed that.

Now, I wish they would just fix the issue where it ACWAKES even though ACWAKE is set to 0, meaning that the darn thing shouldn't be waking up at all when we attach/detach it's power cord. That's just stupid and unnecessary! Windows boxes don't need to do it and heck... even my Mac with Windows running in Bootcamp won't wake up when I plug/unplug the AC adapter to it while it's asleep or hibernated in that OS. Yep, OSX is just dumb. :rolleyes:

Sorry for the long post, but I hope this gives you guys a bit more insight into this problem.

>>but I'm betting you've configured your laptop to know it's on a UPS ...

The pmset utility does show that uninterruptible power supply (UPS) settings are configured, but the Energy Saver panel in the Settings app does not, giving me tabs only for "Battery" and "Power Adapter". There is no USB cable connecting the UPS to the MacBook Pro. If there were, I would get an additional "UPS" tab. So I am at a loss to explain why connecting to the UPS makes any detectable difference. Perhaps it is just a coincidence.

Look under System Information on the Power section by Option+Clicking the Apple icon on the toolbar up top to bring it up.

No one else has UPS settings configured when one is not on there and detected.

I'm with KellyfromFayetteville. My MacBook Pro is "fixed." This morning, it started up fast after sleepiing all night disconnected from AC power. Tonight after work, it started up fast after sleeping all day plugged into a normal AC outlet (not battery backed up). Go figure. (Crossing my fingers that it continues to perform this way.)

It won't enter hibernation when it's sleeping on battery unless you enable StandBy. That's the setting that behaves like autopoweroff on AC and is the battery profile version of hibernation. I don't know why they call it StandBy and Autopoweroff, they should just call it Hibernation or Standby in both profiles and be done with it.

Anyway, your UPS settings in PMSET is most likely what's causing yours not to fully enter hibernation when it's plugged in and left sleeping. You can usually tell if it's entered hibernation because the white LED on the front won't be slowly flashing like it does when the system is in sleep. When the system has fully entered hibernation, that indicator light turns off completely.

So, with the PMSET settings you have (which show that you definitely have autopoweroff set to enabled with a delay of 14400), your problem is not "fixed"... I'd pick the term "masked" as a more appropriate solution because if yours just sleeps like it used to before, then something else (most likely the UPS settings) are the ones that are masking the issue and keeping the system from following the newly set standard that Apple set on them via the 2.0 Update or the 10.8.3 update respectively.

I agree. FWIW, I don't think this will be "Fixed" by Apple at all unless they change their minds about following the standards that they have announced and published - i.e. hibernate after 4 hours when on AC. for "green" reasons. . Basically the systems are behaving the way Apple wants them to so changing that behaviour is only going to be caused by changes made to these settings in some way by users as we have already discussed; unless Apple is moved to change by consumer complaints - I'm not holding my breath. But I can't see why they wouldn't want t ofix the AC AWAKE issue or at least provide a rationale for that behaviour

For the moment, I'm happy that my MacBook Pro starts up from sleep quickly. I certainly hope that it continues to do so. But I wish I understood better why it behaves the way it does. Thanks to everyone for trying shed light on the matter.

Well, if you're that interested and think no one here is right, go ahead and sudo change the PMSET settings for UPS to be off and 0 for all three settings. See what that gets you as a test. It's not like you can't set them back or simply sudo the autopoweroff to 0 or to disable the hibernation. Like I said, there's no magic to it. It's either your UPS settings or something else that keeps resetting the delay timer. You can check your sleep logs to see what it is if you're really that interested.

When I put my mid-2012 MacBook Pro to sleep with AC charger attached, about 4 hours later, my MacBook automatically hibernates.

Well, this behaviour is annoying but I don't mind it as wake up from SSD is quite fast.

However, when the MacBook is on sleep while running on battery, it does not automatically hibernate (except when the battery is completely drained).

This behaviour is nonsensical and I do not like it.

First, it does not make sense to hibernate when unlimited power supply is available. It's rather the other way round, it should transition into hibernation only when sleeping on battery for some hours (to extend battery life).

Second, this is not was "pmset -g" shows. "pmset -g" in battery mode shows (relevant parameters only) :

I think you need to set standby to 1. Then it should hibernate on battery. Can someone confirm this pls.

Sleg5 wrote:

I think you need to set standby to 1. Then it should hibernate on battery. Can someone confirm this pls.

I have the impression that "standby" does not apply to my MacBook Pro(mid-2012, no Retina). According to Apple at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4392 , "standby" is a feature only available to newer MacBooks Pro with Retina display.

I'm having the same problem. I've taken it to the genius bar three times and no one knows what I'm talking about. I have AppleCare. Going to call tomorrow and reference these forums. Thanks!