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Mavericks Wifi drops when display sleeps

I'm having a really strange issue with my iMac on Mavericks. I often stream movies from the iMac to my Apple TV, and after upgrading to Mavericks, the movies stop after three minutes. It took me a while, but I think I've tracked it down to my Energy Saver settings. I've got it set for Computer Sleep never, not putting hard disks to sleep when possible, and the Display sleep at 3 minutes. I know it sounds bizarre, but I can't figure anything else out. I have to walk over to the iMac, wake the display back up, and my Airport Utility shows that it can't find my router. I turn WiFi off and back on, and everything works perfectly after that, including Airport Utility showing everything connected. Until the display goes back to sleep again, at which point I have to repeat the steps again. Is anyone else having this issue? Any ideas on how to fix it?

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Dec 6, 2013 3:27 PM

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20 replies

Dec 10, 2013 6:52 PM in response to griff w

Thanks, but already did those steps. I have zero issues with my Mac mini also running mavericks, in the same room, further from the router. For example, I VPN to the office this evening on the Mac mini - ran for 15 minutes no problem. Tried it on the iMac, 30 seconds before it lost all wifi connectivity. Starting to think my initial diagnosis of a software issue was misplaced - I think it may be a hardware problem on my iMac. Regardless, I'm really frustrated, as the iMac is the only device that has wifi problems. All 3 iPhones, 2 iPads, Apple TV, etc, work fine.

Dec 17, 2013 1:44 PM in response to Shawn Holyoak

I'm having a similar issue. I have a brandnew TimeCapsule connected to my router via Ethernet and all my Apple devices connect to it over wifi for internet access. 1 imac (mid-2010 27 inch), 2 iphones (4 and 5s) and 1 ipad (3). The Time Machine backup is working fine. I'm running the lastest software versions on everything including Maverick on the imac.

Every now and again, the Airport Unitlity on the imac can no longer see the TC ("device not found"). The internet connectivity over wifi still works, however, on all devices including the imac. The TM backups also seem unaffected.

What's even more strange is that when I run the Airport Utility App on my ipad simultaneously it shows everything is fine while on the imac it says "device not found". It's as if the airport utility on the imac is displaying incorrect information i.e. showing a problem when there isn't one. Restarting the airport utility doesn't change anything. Sometimes the TC starts showing up again randomly by itself, other times I turn the imac wifi off and back on and then the TC shows up again.

I've been reading a lot of support discussions and can't seem to find the same issue anywhere. The closest thing I've come across is a problem with wifi channels (neighbours using same channel). Could this be the problem?

Could the fact that the problem is only showing up on the imac not the other devices be linked to the different frequencies the TC basestation operates at (2.4 and 5Ghz)?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Dec 23, 2013 6:00 PM in response to Shawn Holyoak

I also have this issue. I actually don't know if this is an issue or a feature to save even more battery in Mavericks, but i use Google music to stream music, but whenever the the screen goes off, after about 1 more minute passes, the music stops. Then if I turn the screen back on, then wifi is back on again, and the music resumes.


Please advice. This shouldn't be a feature. Just like the OP, it's not optimal to always go back to computer to turn the screen on again, to keep music, movie resume. Not only that, it drains battery as well, so this actually makes people annoyed, as well, as drain the battery too. Doesn't save battery at all.

Dec 23, 2013 6:25 PM in response to Shawn Holyoak

Also, I tried wireless diagonostics, and it says it's working fine, as I was connected to wifi at that time, so I let it to monitor my wifi, and I waited until screen went to sleep, and google music stoped. I waited a few more minutes, and logged back in, but the wireless diagnostics app did not do anything about notifying me that wireless faied. It just kept monitoring.

Jan 29, 2014 11:52 PM in response to Shawn Holyoak

I have exact the same problem. About 1 minute after display goes to sleep Wifi turns off. It reconnects just after I wake the display.


I did the test with Wireless diagnostics app, but apparently it not a good tool to do anything as it didn't notice the wifi connection drop, unlike other apps.


This happens on a Mac Book Retina, my second Mac Book Pro 2013 with Mavericks doesn't have this issue.


I will probably reinstall Mavericks on weekend as I'm out of ideas, let you know if that helps.

Feb 25, 2014 5:32 AM in response to Shawn Holyoak

I believe I have a fix for dropping wifi when display sleeps.


All energy saver options are accesible with

pmset -g
from terminal. Different values are presented depeding on power source, battery or power adapter.


sleep and displaysleep should be looked at. I want my display to sleep after 3 minues on battery, and never to completely sleep (and turn off wifi):


sudo pmset -b sleep 0

sudo pmset -b displaysleep 3

Mar 31, 2014 6:11 PM in response to justinefromsaratoga

I have a 21" iMac that's only about 10 days old and when it comes out of sleep i have no Internet connection. The wifi tells me have full signal strength but I can't surf unless I do a DHCP renew/release or reboot my computer.


Just **** ridicules. I had a 15" Macbook pro that was perfect but sold it...I bought myself a brand new problem.



What happen this company.

Apr 1, 2014 6:19 PM in response to sabcio

Have exactly the same issue. MBP 17" running Mavericks. A few months ago (can't say whether immediately after Mavericks upgrade), machine started to drop wi-fi when display sleeps. Very annoying. Just tried to tweak the energy control settings in terminal per your suggestion -- will see what happens.


I have this problem on AC power also, so not sure whether changing the battery settings will help. I'm also not showing anything altered after runing sudo pmset -- i.e. terminal displays same values with pmset -g command. Any thoughts? Thanks.


EMS-MacBook-Pro-2:~ Mark$ pmset -g

Active Profiles:

Battery Power -1

AC Power 2*

Currently in use:

womp 1

halfdim 1

sms 1

hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage

gpuswitch 2

networkoversleep 0

disksleep 10

sleep 10

hibernatemode 3

ttyskeepawake 1

displaysleep 10

acwake 0

lidwake 1

EMS-MacBook-Pro-2:~ Mark$ sudo pmset -b sleep 0

EMS-MacBook-Pro-2:~ Mark$ sudo pmset -b displaysleep 3

EMS-MacBook-Pro-2:~ Mark$ pmset -g

Active Profiles:

Battery Power -1

AC Power 2*

Currently in use:

womp 1

halfdim 1

sms 1

hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage

gpuswitch 2

networkoversleep 0

disksleep 10

sleep 10

hibernatemode 3

ttyskeepawake 1

displaysleep 10

acwake 0

lidwake 1

Apr 1, 2014 11:26 PM in response to EMSmac

Hi,


you should try -a switch which is for AC, battery, and UPS settings:


sudo pmset -a sleep 0


or if you want to have different setting for AC and battery use -c for AC.


Also pmset -g shows different settings whether on battery or AC.


Description of all settings https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/Manpages/ man1/pmset.1.html


Hope that helps.

Mavericks Wifi drops when display sleeps

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