Screensaver is not working in OS X Mavericks

Thanks MrJPH69. It really is quite odd. Could'nt sleep one night last week, got up switched imac on. Left just the desktop on and the screensaver kicked in. Did a bit of surfing, put it to sleep and retired. Woke it up in the morning, left it on desktop ( as before) and no screensaver kicked in!

Once it works it seems to work throughout the day regardless if there's a window open or just the desktop.

Let's hope 10.9.2 sorts it as I'm rather impressed with mavericks over m/lion (jmo). I gather there's now a 3rd 'Seed' to the .2 Beta.

Though not a solution, as if something should be working then it should work, but I've allocated s/saver to a hot corner and if I know I'm going to be away for say half an hour I'll just flick to the hot corner.

"Though not a solution, as if something should be working then it should work, but I've allocated s/saver to a hot corner and if I know I'm going to be away for say half an hour I'll just flick to the hot corner."

Good tip though, until there is a solution.

Been dealing with this issue ever since I bought my Mac last November. It works more often than not but then it stops working. It is really sporadic and there seems to be no pattern to it. Sometimes it doesn't kick on with just desktop open and sometimes it doesn't work with a browser open. Sometimes restart helps, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes logging out and logging back in helps, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes selecting another screensaver picture fixes it, sometimes it doesn't. Go figure. Tried all the solutions offered by Apple - no luck. It works for the most part but then it stops working for some reason.

Really hoping Apple is aware of this issue and will address it.

I'm still experiencing this issue, as well.

Been a few weeks since last post...Any fixes found?

Not that I'm aware though there is a beta update (10.9.2) but do not know when this will be released nor what it contains.

Running 10.9.1 (13B42) on 27-inch, Late 2009 iMac with 2.8 GHz i7, 16GB RAM

Experiencing the same issue where screensaver (regardless of which one is selected) does not activate via the timer.

I can use the hot corner to activate it.

I dont have an answer. But, I just began experiencing this issue of the screen saver not working when I installed the latest update of 10.9.2 yesterday. I have not seen any other issues for me, just the screen saver not working. I have tried changing it (using both photos and effects) as well as changing the trigger time, but it does not work.

Yep, same here. 10.9.2 generally fine except screen-saver of course!. Sometimes, after a period it will start to kick in at the correct time set. (once it has been allowed to kick in on it's own) Certainly not satisfactory and maybe, just maybe one day Apple will address this issue (which I imagine they consider to be minor). This screen-saver issue has now been running for several months so fingers crossed for 10.9.3...😁

Unfortunately, 10.9.2 did not fix it. Like I said before, it's really weird, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and it seems to have to particular pattern.

I hope Apple are aware of this issue.

I too have this issue. It was so bad that my previous iMac had after-image burn-in on the monitor. I believe the afterimage was temporary and would clear in time, but after coming home the computer had not engaged the screensaver or put the display to sleep. I found that bringing up a grey window showed text from the previous window that had been displayed all day.

I thought it was a hardware issue with Mavericks and my circa 2007 iMac. Sooo, I bought brand new iMac last month- the latest model 27inch (all maxed out). I transferred the accounts over from the old iMac and thought everything was working fine. It appeared to be fixed...

Then last night I decided to install a few 3rd party screensavers- the helio, fieldlines, hyperspace, etc...really cool GL screensavers that are free. After doing that, the screensaver no longer kicks in and if I go to the screensaver corner the screensaver kicks in for maybe 4 seconds and goes away.

I don't know what Apple has changed- I too had hoped for a fix in 10.9.2, but I don't even see any acknowledgement of the problem on the internet outside of user reports. The "fixes" I've read about don't work for me either- and I doubt they actually work long term for anyone else- I think the changes they ask you to make simple result in the screensaver management process restarting and working fine for a while. I've notice with the old 2007 iMac that the screensaver would work for a while after a reboot...but eventually stop working.

Apple really needs to address this ASAP. Like I said, I've had visible monitor damage as a result of leaving the old iMac on without screensaver or power management kicking in. I had tried a number of "screen cleaners" like JScreenFix to get rid of the ghosting and they worked to some degree, but I don't want that to happen to my brand new iMac. If it does, I'll expect Apple to replace it under warranty given that their OS simply doesn't work.

I'm going to try deleting the non-apple screensavers and rebooting to see if things go back to normal. I'd be curious to know if anyone else uses custom screen savers? Maybe its a 32bit vs 64 bit thing? Could it be that if you install a 32bit screensaver the screensaver daemon switches to 32 bit and that has the problem? I recall a while back that some preference panes would only work if the preferences manager switch to 32 bit.

This issue does seem to be ongoing. I'm surprised your power management does'nt kick in. Though my s/saver does'nt kick in the energy saving does.

As you have a new imac I'd suggest you book a call with Applecare ( 90 days free from date of purchase) and see what they come up with.

Have you tried creating a new (test) user to see if the intermittency is still present ?

Though not ideal, I've set Screen Saver and Sleep in Hot Corners and use them as and when required. Screen Saver always works. As said, not ideal but at least it works!

Well, it appears that the reason my new iMac doesn't sleep automatically is because the option to sleep is dependent on the display going to sleep on iMacs with haswell chipsets. They removed an independent slider from the Preference pane too. So I checked through pmset -g and found:

Active Profiles:

AC Power -1*

Currently in use:

standby 1

Sleep On Power Button 1

womp 1

halfdim 1

hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage

darkwakes 1

autorestart 1

networkoversleep 0

disksleep 10

sleep 1

autopoweroffdelay 14400

hibernatemode 0

autopoweroff 1

ttyskeepawake 1

displaysleep 5

standbydelay 10800

With "sleep" set to 1, I presume it is set to go to sleep 1 minute after displaysleep, which is 5 minutes. Since my display never goes to sleep, the sleep never kicks in. I have to assume it works this way because the energy preference pane now has only 1 slider "Turn display off after", which I have set to 5 minutes.

Searching online suggests that you can still set these settings through pmset, however I suspect that auto sleep never occurs if the displaysleep never occurs. It all seems related to whether the screensaver is functioning too. I'm just guessing here, but my screensaver would kick in for a few seconds then return like I started using the computer. Something may be using I/O in a way that makes the system think I'm typing on a keyboard or moving a mouse. I know we have a fitbit USB device connected- and I've wondered whether that could be a problem. I also have a WD MyBook Studio Edition with the WD Drive Manage running. I previously had Memory Cleaner install and SMC Fan control, but I've nuked both of those now since they're no longer needed on this new iMac. I also removed all the screensavers I installed.

A reboot seemed to clear the problem, so I'm going to wait and see if it recurs and if it does, try creating a new user account to test. Its just that the problem doesn't exhibit right away- the system had been running for 10 days before it occurred after installing the screensavers- so if I make a new user account then I have to switch to using it. The system is actually my wifes...so I'd have to move all of her stuff to the new account for a few weeks somehow. But next time it occurs, I'll generate a new account, logout of the one I'm on and into the other and see if it is still occurring.

Yeah, Apple seems to not care at all about this, since it originated with Mavericks a half year ago, and are coming up on the third update to it since, and still nothing.

From my observations in the past half year of Apple inadequacy and the problem -

• I have my screensaver set to kick in 5 minutes of inactivity, and to system sleep after 15 minutes of so... screensaver never kicks in.
• As has been noted by someone else in this thread, if a window is open, then the screensaver most likely kicks in... just the desktop though, no dice
• As seroposi suggested, can setup hot corners to initiate it, and I have done that, but still have not gotten into the habit of remembering to use it, and so my screen just remains on my desktop image, if I have no other window open, and the screensaver decides to work, until my computer puts itself to sleep, which mine does thankfully do that... Okachobi, yeah, I would definitely get ahold of CustomerCare with that happening to you, especially with your's being brand spankin' new
• Unless like I have said before, Apple just wants to have to replace all of their precious Retina displays from burn-in, because they can't do some simple code fixing to get the screensaver to work
• I never have used third party screensavers... mine is set to display photos from an album in iPhoto... which is sorta crimped my style, as I have it set to do that so that when I am with photo clients, it will come on and show all these other photos and styles, while we may be working on their order, etc., ... is sort of a subtle marketing thing

Aah, another day. Another Mac-induced problem identified but still and as yet no word from Mac as to what the F to do.... I was right... every time I sign on there is a new problem. Not every day. Every time. I walk away from it now. People were beginning to tell me I'd become combative in conversation. This crap was the reason.

Log off and live.

This worked on mine:

Go to System Preferences and choose Energy Saver adjustments "never".