Mac wakes up from sleep every night and then goes back to sleep immediately

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35 points

Mac wakes up from sleep every night and then goes back to sleep immediately

I've had my Mac Mini for about six months now. Every night, I put it to Sleep rather than shutting it down. Since about two weeks ago, the Mac Mini wakes up from sleep around 1 to 3 am, once a night, and then after about 10 seconds, it puts itself back to sleep. Why does it do this? Is it performing some sort of maintenance function? But that then begs the question, why is it only doing this recently, and not a few months ago?

I checked the Console for messages, and there's roughly the same thing every night. Here's part of what appears in the logs, particularly whatever pertains to waking from sleep (let me know if you need me to post a specific snippet):

Sep 14 02:00:30 gary-mac kernel[0]: AppleThunderboltNHIType2::waitForOk2Go2Sx - retries = 6

Sep 14 02:00:30 gary-mac kernel[0]: IOThunderboltSwitch<0xffffff8048e40000>(0x0)::listenerCallback - Thunderbolt HPD packet for route = 0x0 port = 12 unplug = 0

Sep 14 02:00:30 gary-mac kernel[0]: TBT W (2): 0x0100 [x]

Sep 14 02:00:30 gary-mac kernel[0]: Wake reason: EC.SleepTimer (SleepTimer)

Sep 14 02:00:30 gary-mac kernel[0]: AirPort_Brcm43xx::powerChange: System Wake - Full Wake/ Dark Wake / Maintenance wake

Sep 14 02:00:30 gary-mac kernel[0]: Previous Sleep Cause: 5

Sep 14 02:00:30 gary-mac kernel[0]: The USB device USB 3.0 HUB

Sep 14 02:00:30 gary-mac kernel[0]: (Port 1 of Hub at 0x15000000) may have caused a wake by issuing a remote wakeup (1)

I'm sure there's something useful in there (such as references to the USB ports) but I can't exactly figure them out. For your information, my Mac Mini has four USB ports, and all four are used. USB port 1 is an external drive, USB port 2 is an external drive, USB port 3 is connected to a KVM, which provides access to my mouse and keyboard, and USB port 4 is connected to a USB 3 hub that splits the port into four other ports.

When I go to the System Information app to determine what device is at USB location 0x15000000, I get the following:

USB 3.0 HUB:

Product ID: 0x0812

Vendor ID: 0x2109 (VIA Labs, Inc.)

Version: 85.71

Speed: Up to 5 Gb/sec

Manufacturer: VLI Labs, Inc.

Location ID: 0x15100000 / 3

Current Available (mA): 900

Current Required (mA): 0

It just looks like a generic device of some sort. Right above this device in the System Information app is the first USB device I have connected, which is my external drive for Time Machine. Could that be the problem somehow, even though its device location is `0x15400000 / 4`?

Could this problem be due to the recently released Mac OS X 10.8.5? It seems like the problem started occurring a few days after the update was released. I have already performed the basic maintenance of resetting the SMC and PRAM, and Repairing Disk Permissions, but that didn't fix the problem. Also, in the System Preferences -> Energy Saver page, I've got all checkboxes UNchecked (including "Wake for network access"). I haven't had any other wake issues since this started happening. Plus, the fact that the Mac Mini goes back to sleep after a few seconds doesn't seem to indicate that it could possibly be a network access problem, or a mouse randomly moving, right?

Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), 2.3 GHz i7, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD

Posted on Oct 2, 2013 11:00 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 21, 2017 7:12 AM in response to GaryKing

This bugged me for a long time.... I eventually narrowed the time down to around 7am, and then used the system log to discover that "GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent" was the culprit. I had no idea that it was on my machine. After removing it (see http://applehelpwriter.com/2014/07/13/how-to-remove-googles-secret-update-softwa re-from-your-mac/), the problem went away.

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Answer 2

C F McBlob

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2,885 points

Oct 2, 2013 11:11 AM in response to GaryKing

Is THIS checked?

If so, something is probably "pinging" your system and waking it.

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Answer 3

GaryKing Author

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Oct 2, 2013 11:12 AM in response to C F McBlob

I already mention that everything on that page is UNchecked.

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Answer 4

C F McBlob

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2,885 points

Oct 2, 2013 11:14 AM in response to GaryKing

My bad. There's so much in there, I missed it. 😊

It could very well be the TM. Have you tried leaving it disconnected for a night?

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Answer 5

GaryKing Author

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Oct 2, 2013 11:16 AM in response to C F McBlob

Yeah I know it's a lot of info. Most people don't check the obvious stuff, so I think I've already done more than most people would to try to fix the problem myself first.

I'll try disconnecting all four USB devices to see if the problem still occurs. If the problem does NOT occur, then I will add one device each night until the problem occurs again, to isolate the problem. It would still be weird if it's the TM drive though, because technically the TM drive has no software on it; TM is run from the internal drive.

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Answer 6

C F McBlob

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2,885 points

Oct 2, 2013 11:57 AM in response to GaryKing

Did I read that correctly?
The TM is the internal drive?
NOT your OS drive, but a second internal HD, right?

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Answer 7

GaryKing Author

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Oct 2, 2013 12:03 PM in response to C F McBlob

No. One of my external drives is the Time Machine drive. What I meant was that the Time Machine software is actually in Mac OS X. The external drive essentially just contains files, and none of those files are meant to be executed. Therefore, the external Time Machine drive should not be able to wake the Mac Mini when there are no executables on the Time Machine external drive.

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Answer 8

C F McBlob

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2,885 points

Oct 2, 2013 12:31 PM in response to GaryKing

The Time Machine IS an external drive, but Time Machine (the app) runs from the OS. Backups run FROM the OS drive where the app is. The drive won't wake the Mini, but the APP running might. Usually TM DOESN'T back up when the Mac is asleep, because THERE'S NOTHING to back up while it's sleeping.
Is the TM the device connected to Port 1?

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Answer 9

GaryKing Author

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Oct 2, 2013 12:34 PM in response to C F McBlob

Yes TM is connected to USB port 1. And yeah, since the app is running in the internal drive, I don't see how it could wake up the Mac Mini.

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Answer 10

C F McBlob

Level 4

2,885 points

Oct 2, 2013 12:38 PM in response to GaryKing

THAT'S the one I'd try disconnecting for a night.
If it stops waking up, it's probably firmware in the HD or enclosure.

I use a little app called "KeepDriveSpinning" to keep my external HD from "winding down" and restarting.

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31158/keep-drive-spinning

Jon Stovell (the developer) recommended that to me.

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Answer 11

GaryKing Author

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35 points

Oct 2, 2013 12:46 PM in response to C F McBlob

Okay well I prefer that my external drive spins down, because I like the silence, even though it isn't that loud. And I don't see the need to keep it spinning at all times if it's just for hourly TM backups.

I'll try disconnecting USB ports to see if that fixes the problem. If I unplug all USB ports and the problem still occurs, then I'll report back.

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Answer 12

GaryKing Author

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35 points

Oct 11, 2013 8:09 AM in response to GaryKing

I hadn't actually gotten around to doing any testing on this problem yet. However, I updated my Mac to 10.8.5 with the OS X v10.8.5 Supplemental Update released yesterday (or a few days ago), and the problem stopped occurring this morning. Of course, I'll wait a week to determine if it's really fixed or not, but it looks like this update fixed the problem. Which would indicate that it was a bug in OS X all along.

In particular, it looks like Fixes an issue that may cause external drives to be ejected after the computer goes to sleep was the problem.

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Answer 13

radaines

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9 points

Oct 24, 2013 4:09 AM in response to GaryKing

I have been having the same problem, i.e. Mac mini keeps waking from sleep mode, since the OSX 10.8.5 update. Everything was great with OSX 10.8.4. I even manually downloaded and installed the Supplemental Update but this did not change anything. There have been no other changes to my system, only the OSX update. Has anyone found a fix for this or will I have to wait until I move to Mavericks?

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Answer 14

Feb 21, 2015 3:04 AM in response to GaryKing

This is an old thread, but I recently started having a literally identical problem with apparently the same cause on my 5K iMac running 10.10.2.

It will sleep, but will repeatedly wake (briefly) and go back to sleep immediately, with corresponding console messages giving an identical error apart from the port number:

2015-02-21 2:27:37.000 AM kernel[0]: The USB device USB3.0 Hub (Port 5 of Hub at 0x15000000) may have caused a wake by issuing a remote wakeup (3)

It didn't do that initially, and always appears to be port 5 of Hub at 0x15000000. The nomenclature is odd, since System Profiler doesn't actually show any devices with ID 0x15000000; they appear to start at 0x15100000. It also isn't clear where the port identifier is coming from; I'm guessing port 5 is 0x15500000 and 0x15000000 is the root hub.

In any case, I set about systematically experimenting until I came up with a definitive cause in my situation.

I have an iDsonix brand 10-port USB3 hub. It looks nice, and I like how it works. However...

If I plug it in "dry", everything is fine--computer sleeps as expected. If I plug a USB3 device into it, it appears in the device tree as a USB3 hub (at 0x15500000). The computer will then fail to sleep. If I subsequently disconnect the USB3 device, the hub remains in the device tree, and the computer will fail to sleep. Bummer--it's brand new.

So basically, it's a malfunctioning iDsonix hub. Other USB2 and USB3 devices connected to the same machine behave as expected, and sleep normally.

Another weird behavior I noticed while experimenting that's probably related to the malfunctioning hub: If I plug a USB2 device into the same hub, it will add a separate USB2 hub to the device tree under the High Speed Bus section--it basically appears as two hubs. This is great, because you can run USB2 devices without slowing down USB3 devices on the same hub.

However, if I connected a USB2 device first, and then a USB3 device, the USB3 device (and hub) would never appear--the hub showed a power light, but the computer never saw anything connected there. Disconnecting and re-connecting didn't fix it. In fact, the entire port on the iMac would then refuse to recognize any USB3 devices until I had disconnected the cable from the iMac and plugged it back in. When I just transferred the cable from the hub to a known-good USB3 device, it did nothing. Once it was disconnected and re-plugged into the iMac itself, however, USB3 functionality was restored.

Basically it was behaving as if the port was not only being locked to USB2 speeds, but would entirely ignore any USB3 devices connected to it until the mechanical connection went away (resetting the port?). It's possible this is how the USB ports on the iMac are supposed to function, and the fault is with the hub not identifying itself as a hub until a device is connected, but in any case it was really bizarre behavior.

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