MacBook switches to hibernation during sleep

<Edited by host>

So, the Power Nap is only for the Retina version, which I do not have. Interesting they tried to spin my issue towards the Power Nap, which doesn't apply to my Mac.

There is a link on the Apple site to update to allow for Power Nap. And it says all users can use the update. But when I attempt the update, it says it won't work with my MBP version. So, I am back to square 1.

While I'm absolutely not making excuses for Apple, I think this thread might be losing a little focus as to finding a solution.

There are a few links in the thread to docs and settings that can be tweaked to get the computer to function closely to the way it was before (but not exactly). I'm not sure if people are complaining because they tried tweaking these settings on their specific machine and they're not working, or they haven't tried them yet at all (in which case, they should try them to see if they work).

My computer (non-Retina, mid 2012, MacBook Pro 15") is now set to never hibernate under AC or battery power and I've got the instant-off / instant-on functionality back. All I did was change two settings. The only after effect is that when I plug the computer into AC (or out of AC) it wakes up momentarily and then goes back to sleep in about 15 seconds. Not a big deal for me personally, but that might anger other people....I don't know.

Again....I'm not making excuses for Apple, and I still believe that the OSX update clearly caused this problem. My guess is that until Apple releases a patch for this everyone will face an uphill battle trying to get a new machine out of it, and even if they do, I've yet to see any concrete evidence that the exact same thing won't happen again if this problem was introduced by an OSX patch.

JohnNY123: Which settings? I see attempts all over the internet to fix the issue so I'm not clear on which ones you have had luck with.

Did you have luck with the setting:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

???

As far as the computer waking up when plugging/unplugging, I really don't care about that either and I agree it isn't a problem for me either.

Sorry: Please disregard. I see your solution and will try it tonight. THANKS SO MUCH!

MTBryan: I did the following....

sudo pmset -a autopoweroff 0

sudo pmset -a hibernate mode 0

...and that got me to where I am today, which is OK for my needs.

Let us know if it works for you.

JohnNY123 As I tried to tell you before, the plug in/plug out AC issue is not a consequence of changing autopoweroff settings, I think that's a normal thing with any macbook pro.

I've tried with other MBPs from prior years and the same thing happens, and all the pmsettings are untouched.

Bruclin....Yes, I think I would agree. I just can't say that I noticed this or not before the OSX upgrade. In any event, it's inconsequential to me. I'm just glad I got the instant-on and off back by tweaking the settings.

update: I tested my computer all day and found it falls into hibernation right at the 4 hour mark while on AC power. I plan on taking it into the apple retail store on Friday and camping for 4 hours so they can see the problem for themselves. I'll update again after that. I can't imagine they won't agree to replace it since the said they would 3 times already!

Entering "sudo pmset -a autopoweroff 0" inside terminal should solve all the problem. I would suggest to leave the Hibernate mode alone.

I think this "autopoweroff" is something new inside pmset and forcing our mac to hibernate after sleep?

Save yourself all this Terminal "voodoo." You're wasting your time.

Any "fix" to this particular issue will have to be implemented at the assembly/factory level.

Your expensive MBPr is basically one "fully baked" gadget controlled by firmware. The OS is limited in how much it can do anymore, regardless of how much "tinkering" you do. Mark my words: within 1-year, the Genius Bar is going to disappear from the Apple Store because there's going to be less and less that they can really do.

So you really have only two choices: settle, or wait it out until the mid-model MBPr, and get it replaced then.

Much like your average mobile phone over the last couple of decades, Apple's gadgets are not designed to be servicable anymore. When you had a problem with your mobile phone, you returned it for a replacement. Apple has apparently chosen to follow this same paradigm, from tablet to laptop to mobile phone.

@Summer.....Regardless of what the Apple guy said, I don't understand why that would be the case. The OSX patch broke it....so it clearly has its root in software and/or firmware somewhere along the line. It should be fixable with a patch if a patch is what broke it. But there's not much point in discussing that aspect of it since neither of us truly knows. The terminal tweaks fixed it enough for me and it only took a few minutes to do it.

I think there will always be a Genius Bar. Many people can use help with the OS, setting things up, the Apple software, syncing their devices, etc. So I don't think the Genius Bar will go away, although maybe it will turn into an educational tool instead of a service tool.....as you pointed out.

Apple's laptops are clearly becoming less serviceable from the perspective that they're moving to a flash architecture that's soldered to the circuit board. So yes, I agree, they can't go swapping out RAM, batteries (which are glued to the case), and hard drives as easily as they used to. That's the price to pay for getting small, thin, light, and ultra-portable. Something has to give somewhere, and serviceability seems to be what's giving here. Since people are buying them in droves, they seem to be willing to take the tradeoff of Apple's strategy. If they don't like it, they can buy something else. Nobody's forcing them to buy Apple products.

Anyway.....we've gone way off topic here. :-)

This solution worked for me. Thanks Johnny. Sorry I didn't read through everything carefully before bringing this up, but this was my last stop on a several hour research jaunt. Next time I'll know to come here first.

It does wake up for 5 - 10 seconds when I plug and un-plug but I don't really care about that.

Yeah, I'm not sure why someone would say not to waste our time changing the terminal settings. Now it does exactly what I want it to do.

To clarify, I changed these settings:

sudo pmset -a autopoweroff 0

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

To the point of koreanricequeen, I found a setting that appears to have a 4 hour timeout. If you do this:

pmset -g | grep autopoweroff

you'll get this:

You'll see that setting called autopoweroffdelay and it is set to 14400 seconds, which is 4 hours. So, another solution to this issue could be to change that setting to a larger number. Maybe 24 hours. Then it would still hibernate but would take much longer to do it.

To the point of egsl: I may try and turn back on the hibernatemode to '3', which I believe was the default. That's how it is set on my old Macbook Pro. Yes, I think the other setting is probably the one that needs to be changed. Both autopoweroff and autopoweroffdelay do appear to be new settings.

So, the Apple tech was right: This really is a 'feature'. Haha!

Thank you, this is very helpful!

Just in case anyone wants to know...

Yesterday I turned back on the settings (set autopower off back to '1' and hibernatemode back to '3'), but set my autopoweroffdelay to 24 hours (86400 seconds). I left it plugged in last night and it did NOT go to hibernate, which is what I would expect.

So, you have two options: You can set autopoweroff to '0', or just bump up the autopoweroffdelay time.

Personally, I will probably just keep it like it is now (with autopoweroffdelay set to 86400) and after charging overnight, just take off the power adapter if I won't be using it that morning/day.

Yeah it seems to me what happened is:

1. Traditionally, when asleep, the laptop still draws power, so the battery would end up fully drained after a few days.

2. At some point, Apple started started saving RAM to disk whenever you go to sleep, so that when the battery fully drains, it's in "hibernation" and can still wake up when it gets power again, without data loss.

- Downside is that it takes a bit longer to go to sleep, so if you accidentally go to sleep, you have to wait for the RAM-to-disk process to complete before waking again.

- As long as the computer still has power, waking is still instant.

- Once the computer loses power, it takes some time to restore RAM from disk (wake from hibernation), and you get that light gray screen with the progress bar.

The above is well-established. The below ARE MY DEDUCTIONS:

3. Recently, Apple figured that, since it has the hibernation backup anyway, why not intentionally lose power (autopoweroff) BEFORE the battery is fully drained, so that, if you leave your laptop asleep, it will eventually turn itself off. That way, even if you leave it asleep for a few days, it will still have power when you decide to wake it. This actually seems like a great idea.

4. They should autopoweroff when on battery power, and avoid autopoweroff when plugged in. When plugged in, the battery stays charged, and there's no reason for it. But it looks like Apple messed up the logic:

- They are doing autopoweroff when plugged in, which they shouldn't.

- It's not clear to me if autopoweroff even works when on battery power, when it should work. I get the sense from that it doesn't?

So it seems Apple accidentally FLIPPED the logic?