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macOS Sierra - hold down power button to enter sleep mode

I recently updated my MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015) model from El Capitan to macOS Sierra v10.12. Before the update, holding down power button for 2 to 3 seconds put the machine in to sleep mode. It doesn't work properly after the update. Holding down power button to enter sleep mode works only once after every start of the machine.


I know there is an option to enter sleep mode using Ctrl + Power button and then selecting one of the three options from Restart, Sleep and Shutdown, but that needs 3 more clicks and taps and is not quick. Also, irrespective of any app that is open, pressing power button worked well before the update, but now I need to be on the desktop to even make Ctrl + Power button work.


Any fixes available to this? I am missing the old way of putting my Mac to sleep 😟 I don't remember whether I did some tweak in my Mac or was it a default functionality..

MacBook Air, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Sep 23, 2016 1:28 AM

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101 replies

Oct 22, 2016 5:51 AM in response to jainam2209

Broken again, after 6 days..


Well well, I tried all the suggestions above, and the command line fix also stopped working after a few sleeps.


BUT, I noted a strange behaviour that might give developers working on this bug fix some useful clue. This is what happened to me, and it seems like a repetitive behaviour: after the Power button stops working as it should, go to Apple logo, then choose Shut down.., and when the shutdown window appears (with a warning saying that shutting down may cause other users to lose data..), press Cancel. Now, from that moment on, a short press (say 1 second) on the Power button always brings on this Shutdown warning window ⚠, which is new, wrong, and even more strange a behaviour. And fn+Power button does the same. It doesn't offer between Sleep and Shut down any more.


If someone can try and report the same or similar behaviour?!


And of course, we can now only hope that someone from Apple MacOS development team reads this.. if you ask me, that is such a major bug, I mean, the power button not working..

Oct 22, 2016 6:22 AM in response to Csound1

Right, so as long as the machine wakes up we should be happy 🙂 ? I hope not.

I do not want to start a polemic here, but I do refuse to lower my user experience expectations here. Even the tiny quick start guide that comes with a MacBook tells a user what the Power button is for, and I would expect it to just work, sorry. And I am not so sure about your "small number of users" argument. Your estimate may be wrong. I suppose that not a big percentage of users know how to, or bother at all, report on the issue.

Oct 22, 2016 6:44 AM in response to Csound1

But it is you that speculated, sorry, not me. You mention a small number of users being affected, and you use that argument for teaching us that this is not a major bug. I just replied that this argument of yours - quote - "may be" a wrong estimate. I will leave it at that and will only reply if my response could help Apple or other affected users to resolve the problem.

Nov 10, 2016 11:48 AM in response to Mac_slide

I have a different issue, even this one related to shutdown, both in a MacMini or a MacBoookPro: I had always used CTRL-Eject to show the shutdown dialog box (or the 1,5 sec power button). When you did this (with both ways) you had the dialog shutdown box as the active window and you could just hit Enter to power off your Mac.

Now this dialog box is no longer the active window and this is very annoying because prevents from just pressing Enter; instead you have to use your mouse to activate this window and then you can press Enter.
Not even CMD-TAB is good to activate the dialog box. Very, very, very annoying.

macOS Sierra - hold down power button to enter sleep mode

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