You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Crashes/reboots/restarts while on sleep

This thread is exclusive to people who have spontaneous crashes/reboots/restarts while their Mac is in sleep. (this is usually connected to having a USB external hard drive plugged in the computer while on sleep)


In simple words, you are experiencing this problem:

1) You put your Mac to sleep

2) You return to it after some time and you find it on.

3) On screen you find this error message "Your computer restarted because of a problem." or similar, and in the report of the error message the Event is "Sleep Wake Failure" or similar.


If your Mac does not wake from sleep this is NOT the thread for you, please don’t write here.

If your Mac is experiencing black screens and freezes while waking up from sleep this is NOT the thread for you, please don’t write here.


This thread is a continuation to the “New rMBP sleep/wake failure crashes” thread.


I’m trying to better understand this problem. Allow me to ask you some questions. After you answer the first 5 question, feel free to write freely in this thread. (as longs as you are pertinent to this issue)


Please answer this questions carefully. If we get enough people to answer, I will personally slap this thread on the face of every Apple employee I can find, so they will have to stop saying "we never heard of this issue" and we can get a quick fix or a quick replacement if this is indeed an hardware issue.



PLEASE ANWSER THIS QUESTIONS BEFORE WRITING IN THIS THREAD FOR THE FIRST TIME

I suggest you copy and paste the questions below in your reply, and replace the text ANSWER with your answer.




1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

ANSWER


2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

ANSWER


3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

ANSWER


4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

ANSWER


5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

ANSWER


OPTIONAL QUESTIONS


6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

ANSWER


7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

ANSWER


8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

ANSWER


9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

ANSWER


10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

ANSWER


11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

ANSWER




PS

Please forgive any mistakes in this text, unfortunately english is not my native language.



<Email Edited by Host>

MacBook Pro with Retina display

Posted on Dec 21, 2013 7:05 AM

Reply
211 replies

Feb 12, 2014 6:32 PM in response to hailalistair

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

15" MBP Retina Late 2013 with NVIDIA card


2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

About 2 months after I got it (January 2014)


3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

NO


4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

NO


5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

YES


OPTIONAL QUESTIONS


6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

NO


7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

NO


8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

NO


9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

YES


10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

1-2 hours


11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

YES

Feb 15, 2014 11:22 PM in response to hailalistair

PLEASE ANWSER THIS QUESTIONS BEFORE WRITING IN THIS THREAD FOR THE FIRST TIME

Hi

i am having same problem and that thing crashed my external hard disk leads to loss of all my important data.



1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

MacAir 2014


2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

ANSWER

This problem just ocurred on 14-feb-2014. i have not installed mountain lion.


3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

ANSWER

No i have just bought the new mac air on 10-Feb-2014.


4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

ANSWER

yes that crash my external 500 GB hard disk.



5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

ANSWER

i have already unchecked.



Hope to have some favourable reply.


Do you have any suggestion to extract my data from that crashed hard disk. If so then please tell me.

Feb 16, 2014 1:17 AM in response to sumitkumar3011

Hi,


Sumitkumar, maybe this will be helpful. It depends on the format you use on your external drive. I have been having the sleep/wake crashes for months (since new) on my Macbook Pro. I now no longer leave the drive connected when leaving the computer (unless I forget!).


A couple of times in addition to the usual crash taking place, I have had an error message that the drive was ejected improperly (presumably at the time of the crash). I have then found that the drive has corrupted and that the Mac cannot read it.


I opened disk utility and tried the 'repair' dialogue, but this failed and I was told that Mac could not recover from the problem. My drive was formatted in Exfat, as I need to read it on both Mac and sometimes on Windows, so I took it to my son's Windows machine.


I plugged it in, and selected Scan and Fix. After about 2 minutes the drive was recognised and a message appeared that errors had been found and fixed. My Mac could then read it normally again.


When this problem happened a second time (and was fixed the same way) I became much more careful to eject the drive before leaving the computer.


It is very disappointing to have this issue still unfixed after several months on an expensive new machine, and frankly embarassing that I need to use a Windows machine to fix a fault with the Mac.

Feb 17, 2014 1:14 PM in response to hailalistair

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

Late 2013 13" rMBP 2.4/256/8


2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

Possibly after unchecking "put hard disks to sleep whenever possible", though not sure.


3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

No (at least not yet)


4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

No. Reboot with no peripherals.


5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

Powernap unchecked, still reboot.


OPTIONAL QUESTIONS


6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

No.


7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

Yes. WD MyBook world II.


8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

Yes


9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

No.


10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

Around 2 hours.


11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

No. Iris graphics.


Bought my rMBP after finally returning my MBA for black screen crashes. This is annoying. Read the 15-page thread, now I'm on to this one. Thanks everyone for sharing youre experiences.

Feb 17, 2014 11:25 PM in response to hailalistair

For whatever it's worth, in preparation for calling apple today, I verified the disk which told me it needed repairing. I did the repair, and no reboot tonight.

I'm also considering the possibility that it is when I close the lid while time machine is backing up, but I have yet to investigate this.


hailalistair: did you get a case id I could refer to?

Feb 21, 2014 12:37 AM in response to hailalistair

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

MacBooc Pro Retina 13 inch late 2013, 2.8 intel, 8gb, 500gb


2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

Problem been here since purchase


3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

No


4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

Having external drive connected makes no difference.


5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

Not tried


OPTIONAL QUESTIONS


6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

No


7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

Yes, Airport Extreme Timne Capsule


8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

Yes


9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

No


10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

Couple of hours


11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

No - Interl Iris 2014mb

Feb 25, 2014 11:28 AM in response to hailalistair

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

Macbook Pro Retina late 2013 (11,3). 512Gb SSD, 16Gb RAM, 2.6Ghz i7


2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

On purchase (with Mavericks)


3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

No


4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

Yes


5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

Haven't tried it. Will do tonight.


OPTIONAL QUESTIONS

6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

WD My Book Studio 2TB Mac External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0


7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

No


8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

Yes. The WD is partitioned. 2TB for files and 1TB for Time Machine


9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

No


10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

An hour or so


11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it?

Yes

Feb 25, 2014 12:40 PM in response to hailalistair

Guys i have something to add. Since I installed Parallels Desktop 9.0 with Windows XP, I manage my virtual windows FAT,NTFS external disc and pendrive's, I have no restarts and wake/sleep issues. Last time i had 13,5 days without restart by doing everything the same. Next day i had to restart manual coz of new software installed, than i did not turn on my Parallels and my Macbook restart in maybe next 6 hours. Now it's turned on and minimalized, everything works great (using 3G modem, External Disc and sometimes plugged pendrive).


Maybe that tip can help someone, bye.

Feb 25, 2014 5:11 PM in response to hailalistair

1. Which Mac do you have? (If you have this issue with multiple machines, list them here)

rMBP late 2013, 2.3GHz i7


2. When did the problem start? If you had Mountain Lion installed on this machine, did the problem start when you updated to Mavericks?

This machine has only had 10.9, and started shortly after purchase.


3. Did you have your Mac replaced from Apple because of this issue? If yes, does the new machine still have the problem?

No, I have not replaced it.


4. Does your machine crash/reboot while on sleep only if you have an external hard drive connected?

I do not have any external HDD physically attached, only wirelessly and no WD


5. Does your machine crash/reboot even if you uncheck "Enable Power Nap" in Preferences, Energy Saver? (before answering this, check that you have updated OS X to 10.9.1 and that you have unchecked Power Nap in both the Battery and Power Adapter tabs in Energy Saver)

Yes.


OPTIONAL QUESTIONS


6. Do you have an external hard drive connected via USB? If yes, write the manufacturer name and model name of the drive. (example: Western Digital My Book)

Nothing connected via USB. I have a thunderbolt ethernet connection only. Ext HDD are wireless over Server


7. Do you have a network connected drive? (like Time Capsule or an external hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme, or a NAS)

Yes, several


8. Do you have Time Machine Enabled?

Yes


9. Do you have Crashplan installed?

No


10. How much time does it usually take for the first crash/reboot to happen, after you put the computer on sleep?

a few hours


11. If you have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, do you have discrete graphics in it? (In other words: do you have an NVIDIA GPU? If you don't know this, go into the menu bar, click the apple icon, click About This Mac, Click More Info, in Graphics you should find written “NVIDIA GeForce”.)

Yes

Feb 26, 2014 1:37 AM in response to budkin

This issue is not listed on the Apple list of issues resolved by the update. When I went to the Genius bar with my machine they had not heard of it. I said there was a thread all about it on the discussions forum and was told that if I look on the Internet I could find all sorts of issues, real and imagined. This didn't exactly fill me with confidence that it was being addressed.


I will update, but am on the road at the moment and only have the issue when back home with the peripherals connected so won't know if it helps for about 6 weeks. Please post your experience with 10.9.2

Crashes/reboots/restarts while on sleep

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.