Sleep Wake Failure Experienced a Problem

I just started experiencing this same issue. My issue was apparently corrected by unchecking the "Enable Power Nap while plugged into the power adapter". Its found under system preferences, energy saver, power adapter. Hope this helps.

This will prevent your Mac from automatically waking to check for messages and what not.

I have set my power management in Preferences to stop the disk going to sleep (ever). I don't like this - but it seems to have solved the problem for now. Is this related to SSD's at all ? ( I have an SSD and a normal rotating hard drive)

I had same problem, took a few calls to Apple but seems to be fixed for now by deleting all files in Launch Daemens and Launch Agents.

Go > Computer > Hard Drive > Library > Launch Daemens - delete all files, then do the same for Agents folder.

I have been away from my computer for a number of hours since I did this, and so far, so good.

Just an FYI. This has now stopped happening to me. Coincidentally right after I lugged my IMac into an Apple Store and the guy at the Genius Bar couldn't find anything wrong with it, but told me to back up my files and bring it back and they would keep it to try to see the system crash. I brought it home, backed up my files, and made sure from then on that all programs were shut down when I left it for a while. My suspicion, which Apple personnel will not confirm, is that 3rd party software - maybe Word for Mac or Adobe Acrobat - hose up the system since the upgrade to High Sierra. So my advice - always close out of all applications when leaving your device for a while.

Uninstalled the Dropbox kext. Seems that fixed the problem for me. Will check with Dropbox what the issue with their kext is.

For those who a are interested: the faulty dropbox kext was located in "/Library/StagedExtensions/Library/Extensions/". it is needed for the Dropbox smart sync feature.

I am having the same issue. I worked with an Apple support person over the phone and we did a number of things to check on my system. It is still happening after I re-installed the OS as she recommended. It also has been taking forever to reload or start up from the sleep mode. I'm about ready to throw this computer out the window. These are all the things we did.

How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

How to reset NVRAM on your Mac

How to reinstall macOS

Really want a solution to this.

Sandi S.

Well, until Apple will own up to what the problem really is, or that there even is a problem, I don't know what else to do. I tried all the other fixes that customer care suggested and nothing worked until I started closing apps.

I am experiencing the same problem – on two Macs. It seems it started when I upgraded to Dropbox professional and activated the smart sync feature. This smart sync feature requires manual activation of a kernel extension in High Sierra (High Sierra blocks such extensions by default). Since I have activated this Dropbox kernel extension, the problems started occurring on both Macs.

Anyone here also using Dropbox smart sync on their Mac?

Welcome to Wake Sleep Failure issue.

If you have an SSD no not deselect "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" if you want that it lives longer!

If the iMac is connected to the internet using Wi-Fi, turn off Wi-Fi instead of deselect "Put hard disks to sleep when possible"!

I hope this will help!

Have you done a recent System upgrade ?

Are you using a Logitech wireless keyboard or mouse ?

I had a conversation with Apple Support a couple of weeks ago. After describing the Sleep Wake Failure problem in detail -- how the computer will often restart itself while in Sleep mode; how waking the computer up from Sleep mode sometimes takes up to a minute; how the desktop image sometimes appears behind a milky white foreground while it's "waking" -- the Apple person told me that they had been receiving "several reports" of the Sleep Wake Failure issue. Even after trying a couple of ideas for a fix, it still occurs every single day. (Sometimes more than once a day.) I'm convinced it's an High Sierra OS issue, and Apple has not yet addressed it in an update.

I had this on Sierra.

A reboot has taken my Energy Savings back to default values - which suggests that my workaround wasn't a / the solution. I have also had to reinstall Sierra (for other reasons) - no recurrence of the problem at the moment. Beginning to think I may have had a memory fault.

I worked with two different Apple support people and they ran a bunch of checks and suggested I reinstall the OS which I did. Didn’t help. Second one said it could be a conflict with my third party software like Microsoft or Adobe. I that is lame and they need to fix this. Mine shuts down several times a day. It is a big time suck.

Try this...

In System Preferences, Energy Saver, check the box for "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off".

And/or...

Open Console, then search All Messages for...

Wake reason