macOS Sierra - hold down power button to enter sleep mode

Edit: The problem is on-and-off again, so the issue remains.

What I decided to do, however, is to use fn+PowerButton, then S for sleep. That seems to work consistently. Might be that Apple did it like this intentionally, so that if you accidentally press the power - it is so very close to the F12 button that is quite useful, for me at least- the computer won't go to sleep..

Hope this helps. Will have to check the Sierra/MacBook official documentation to check how the button should work. I use a 2016 MacBook by the way.

SSame issue here!

I'm not having that problem but I think the behavior has changed a little. I seem to recall that holding the power button for a couple seconds would sleep the computer and specifically that the computer would sleep while I was holding the power button down. When I read your problem and checked out my computer I found that if I hold the button waiting for the computer to sleep I'll wind up seeing the dialog asking if I want to sleep, shutdown or cancel. But if I press the power button for about 2 seconds and release it the computer sleeps. Every time. Also tested it on my office mate's computer. Same thing. You don't see the same behavior?

Same Problem with my MacBook Pro 2012.

Pressing the power Button does not have any reaction, until the system powers down. It dows not go to standby (pressing 2-3 seconds), show the dialog (pressing 4-8 seconds), but does a hard shutdown (pressing at least for 10 seconds)

It works for some time after a fresh restart, but at least the next day it does not work anymore. The botton works it is not a hardware error, as it does the hard shutdown. Stated to appear after the upgrade to sierra, so it is an OS bug. As it works after a restart, it is also meant to work.

The exact same thing happened to me and I noticed it after the 3rd day of purchasing the 12 in gold MacBook (early 2016). I thought it was just my computer because my old 2012 macbook pro goes to sleep every single time I hold the power button for 3 seconds. It makes me feel better to read this because I wanted to take my macbook to the pale store and fix it or get a new one.

Thank you! The exact same thing happened to me and I noticed it after the 3rd day of purchasing the 12 in gold MacBook (early 2016). I thought it was just my computer because my old 2012 macbook pro goes to sleep every single time I hold the power button for 3 seconds. It makes me feel better to read this because I wanted to take my macbook to the pale store and fix it or get a new one.

I have absolutelly the same problem. MBAir 2015.

It is a bug, so you can do nothing to this. We have to wait for a bugfix build.

...do no read that two articles from Braden85 (Comunitiy specialist), it has nothing to do with this problem so it is waste of time.

You are right, a short press of the power button never puts it to sleep, but holding it just of half a second does. So not 2 or 3 seconds that you perceive, but quite shorter hold would do.

Having just tested the above statement, it seems that my - well actually my wife's - MacBook's power button works fine again, for some two or three days now. But I can not be confident this will stay so. Certainly a bug, and a major, major one from the customer's point of view. Purchasing a two grand machine for my wife, and the very first real user experience she had with it was "I can not put it to sleep, the power button does not work." Oh dear.

You are right, a short press of the power button never puts it to sleep, but holding it just for half a second does - or should. So not 2 or 3 seconds that you perceive, but a quite shorter hold would do.

Having just tested the above statement, it seems that my - well actually my wife's - MacBook's power button works fine again, for some two or three days now. But I can not be confident this will stay so. Certainly a bug, and a major, major one from the customer's point of view. Purchasing this quite expensive machine for my wife, and the very first user experience she had with it was "I can not put it to sleep, the power button does not work."

Oh god, I tried it just one more.. and the power button does *not* work any more. Again. Oh dear.

No, sadly I do not have the same behaviour as you describe. And it looks that I am not the only one, or this topic would not exist.

Same thing is happening to me (late 2013 Macbook pro.)

My sleep button will work more than once after each reboot, but then it stops working randomly on both my mac keyboard and my wireless keyboard. So I know it is not a hardware issues. Rebooting solves the issue temporarily.

Also since the Sierra update, my mac will sometimes not wake up from sleep. I'm forced to reboot to get anything from my mac.

Hi jainam2209,

I had problems very similar to yours. I contacted Apple and they suggested a solution that worked for me. Thought it possibly might be helpful for you and others as well.

The first step resets the hardware functions on the Mac.

The second step resets the NVRAM.

RESET SMC

Shut down the Mac.
Plug in the power adapter to a power source and to your Mac.
Using the built-in keyboard, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the keyboard, then press the power button at the same time.
Release all keys, then press the power button again to turn on your Mac

RESET NVRAM:

Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R.
Turn on your Mac.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound or after you press power.
Hold these keys until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for a second time.
Release the keys.