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After installing mavericks, the iMac will not wake from sleep properly (at all)

I've upgraded to 10.9 (late 2012 21" iMac), and I notice in the morning when the iMac has been sleeping overnight, it will not wake up,

During the day, if it sleeps for a few hours, it seems fine, and wakes normally, prompting me to type my password,

In the morning however, I hit a key (on my wireless keyboard), and the display wakes up, I get a dark grey screen, and see the loading circle (not the beachball) in the middle, and see the cursor for a few seconds, before it then disappears, and reappears.

This cycle repeats itself,

The 'fix' is to do a forced shutdown by holding the powwer button until it shuts down, and then restart.


Anyone else find this problem/find a solution?

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Oct 28, 2013 2:44 AM

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Posted on Oct 28, 2013 11:06 PM

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, or by corruption of certain system caches.


Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. Note: If FileVault is enabled on some models, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.

Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.


Test while in safe mode. Same problem?


After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.
210 replies

Dec 8, 2013 12:54 PM in response to fearull

Thank you SOO much this worked great for me !! i changed SSD's completely wiped and reinstalled Mavricks, Mountain Lion and Lion and Snow leppord but couldnt fix this **** thing sin e i installed mavricks. Followed all of these steps below and worked lieka charm. even "Geniouses" are stuppid completely useless and waste of time and money for real problems.


follow this if you want to fix it

As per the instructions received,

First thing I did was reset the SMC;


  • Shut down the computer.
  • Unplug the computer's power cord.
  • Wait fifteen seconds.
  • Attach the computer's power cord.
  • Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

This was then followed by resetting the NVRAM/PRAM;

  • Shut down your Mac.
  • Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
  • Turn on the computer.
  • Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
  • Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
  • Release the keys.

After this step, I verified disc permissions;

  • Disc Utility
  • select my main Mac HD
  • Click on 'verify disc permissions'
  • then, when done, click on 'repair disc permissions'

Finally, I started in safeboot mode;

  • Shut down the iMac
  • Restart, holding the Shift key until I saw a loading/progress bar.
  • After starting up, did a regular restart.

Dec 11, 2013 2:01 AM in response to fearull

Has anyone trying reverting to ML or an older OS? If so did that solve the issue?



I'm working on a 21" iMac (2007) for a client where the hard drive died. I replaced it and installed a new drive plus a fresh copy of Mavericks, it started have this freezing problem immediately after going to sleep. I assumed it was a video card issue on top of the bad hard drive. But Apple's hardware test came back clean. Even though this was a clean install of 10.9 I rest the SMC, the NVRAM/PRAM, repair the permissions, and booted in to safe mode. I have it booted up normal now and reset the energy saver setting. I'll report back and see if this fixes it. If not I try installing 10.8 and see how that works.

Dec 11, 2013 10:46 AM in response to jayman16

Yes, my experience has been that sometimes I will go back to the default sleep settings and it may seem OK for days before failing, and other times it can be a short time until it does not wake - sometimes as soon as the very next time it sleeps.


BTW - note that there could be a chance for differences between laptops and desktop systems. I think certain settings or defaults may be different under the hood for the case where AC power is always there vs. machines with batteries. I think I noted something when I looked at the documentation for the pmset hibernatemode manipulation that some have posted about.

Dec 15, 2013 7:49 PM in response to BobHassinger

Although my issue was slightly different (MacBook Pro would need a restart after going to sleep with Thunderbolt Display and only after being disconnected), a software (kernel extension) conflict was the root cause of the awakening issue. I used safe boot to confirm that it was an issue with my content (safe boot and a dull known good OS on an external hard drive both worked as expected). I read here about EntreCheck which proved to be very useful in helping me systematically identify those things to remove (with an uninstaller) that needed to be removed.


As it turned out, this was an extension I implemented with a VPN client back in 2008 (about three Macs ago), but never uninstalled until yesterday.


I wonder if there are others with hidden software conflicts, that end up making Mavericks run so poorly.



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Dec 19, 2013 4:54 PM in response to fearull

I've got a mid-2012 MacBook Pro. I installed Mavericks a month ago and now, on occasion, it takes over 3 minutes to wake. It doesn't do it every time, and I can't find a recurring commonality to the times it fails.

Been following this forum; thanks everybody for your posts.


Today I: 1. Reset SMC, 2. Reset NVRAM, 3. Verified permissions (there were many differing permissions) and repaired them.


I'm hoping this will work. More than anything I'm hoping Apple will give a **** about this issue and do something about it.

Dec 23, 2013 6:50 AM in response to jjohn3

Not a diagnosis but a way to avoid reformatting, etc.


I was able to escape from the "won't boot no matter what I try" scenario by inserting an old OS X install disk and pressing the start key. This took the boot through a different path that by-passed the issue.


The system came up with numerous diagnostics about Sleep Mode Restart (no surpise there) and a dump sent to Apple. I have turned off sleep mode until Apple gets its act together.


Hope this helps


Maverick OSX 10.9.1.

Dec 23, 2013 8:24 AM in response to jjohn3

I have tried everything I can think of to break the sleep \ wake function in the last two days. It is still working as it should for me. (fingers crossed).


I tried every suggestion on this discussion, some more than once; Reset SMC, Reset NVRAM, Verify and repair permissions for example. However the sleep/wake function has never worked this well until 10.9.1.

I certainly don't know what combination of steps contributed to this result, I just hope it continues 😕


I will continue with the Energy Saver Default settings.

After installing mavericks, the iMac will not wake from sleep properly (at all)

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