How to prevent a MacBook (the system, not the screen) from going to sleep?

Yup I already got that. Apple has again limited what the user can and can't adjust. Way to go Apple. Way to take away options making a Mac computer just a large phone with built in keyboard.

Then don't address your reply to me, LowLuster, as you did in the post from you I replied to.

Caffine is nice, but it doesn't let my mac go into Display Sleep. It keeps it completely awake.

If you want to let your machine to go into Display Sleep but without going into the full sleep that stops background processes/disconnecting your wifi, try this:

1. Open Terminal

2. Type: sudo pmset -b sleep 0

3. Type: sudo pmset -b standby 0

This does the following:

* sudo = Makes it run as an admin user (You will need to put in your password for this bit)

* pmset = Allows you to change Power Management Settings

* -b = Tells pmset to change the settings for the battery

* sleep & standby 0 = Changes the settings to disable them.

There's more advanced options here: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man1/pmset.1.html

Thanks 🙂

Ducky

Thank you c.9 for doing all the troubleshooting for this issue. We have the same device and the "Computer Sleep" slider is also not available to me. I should also just use Caffeine. 🙂

I too was having a problem with this, and then realized the solution -- uncheck "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" and make sure to check the "Prevent computer from sleeping when the display is off" box.

This is a really in-elegant reworking of a system that was fine in the prior OS -- it's not intuitive that two check boxes next to each other would have diametric effect. Plus the way it is written is very very unclear.

Caffeine solved my problem. It prevents my Macbook Pro Retina 2013 from going asleep, although only when my display is asleep. When i close my notebook, the wifi connection breaks up. Espresso app should keep your notebook awake all the time, but it also isnt free, so caffeine is a good option.

I noticed this feature was removed in Mavericks, and I definitely want it back. I just wrote the following to Apple's feedback page. I used the max amount of characters in the message body. You have to keep it short. http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Allow Mavericks to Stay Awake in Battery Mode With Display Sleeping

This option existed and now it's gone.

In battery mode, before Mavericks, I was able to leave my laptop open, let the display sleep within 5 minutes, and the computer would remain active receiving all incoming communications. I understand there is Power Nap, but that doesn't help me when I'm connected to work using VPNs and receiving email and other online communications. Everything gets disconnected after the display sleeps and it's EXTREMELY inefficient to wake up the laptop, login to VPN, and wait for all incoming communications to arrive.

I don't want to prevent the display from sleeping because that will drain battery on my MacBook Pro Retina. I want the display sleeping while the computer remains on. Many know how to manage battery usage. Please revive this feature.

Thanks for your time.

Short Answer: Check the Fan under the DVD ROM. If Not working Replace

Long Answer:

I purchased a Power Mac G4 from the Local thrift store for $15.15. I inserted Ram, and also bypassed the user name and password issue. I was excited but then shortly after I noticed the issue of the Mac going to sleep after being on for about 10 minutes, and more frequenly about every 15-20 seconds after the first automatic sleep. I did some trouble shooting by using blower I cleaned the inside, which did not do any good. Secondly I removed the Video Card and reseated it, and that did not work either. The computer was doing the exact same thing, so I was disapointed, and really could not get much more help on the internet. Then I opened up again, and I looked at the Fans. I could easily see two fans inside one next to the motherboard, and the other one under the DVD Rom. I noticed the Fan under the DVD rom was not on, and so I decided to leave the computer case open for a few minutes powered on to observe the fan and after about 10 minutes the Fan was still off but the computer was on and was not going into sleep mode. I have a mini-fan and I plugged it in and kept it next to the heat sink and left it on and also kept the computer case open and it worked. In my case it was a defective Fan that caused overheating, so I just have to order a part from Ebay or Amazon.

Hmmm, fabularasa's settings did not work for me. Setting "Prevent the computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" and unsetting "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" still causes me to lose Wireless connectivity after a few minutes of the display being put to sleep (via Hot Corner).

It seems the option is simply broken. Hopefully they will fix it at some point.

If anyone has found solution to this problem - turning off the display while keeping the computer from going to sleep - I'd love to hear how you did it! This is very frustrating as it basically forces me to keep my display on if I don't want to lose my VPN connection to work.

See my earlier post.

I don't know about the hotcorner part of it, but I usually just set my machine to go to Display Sleep after 1minute. After making the changes in my earlier post, it doesn't drop the wifi once the display goes off.

Thanks,

Ducky

Thanks Ducky, your solution works just fine even with the Hot Corner display sleep!