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Sleep Wake Failure with High Sierra 10.13.2

Since installing 10.13.2 I have a sleep wake failure on iMac. Was working perfectly before installed latest update on Dec 8.

This is not an uncommon problem but the "fixes/solutions" one reads on the internet are all over the place.

Is there a fix or is this simply something only Apple can solve for all those now plagued by the problem? It is irritating in the extreme.

iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.2)

Posted on Dec 10, 2017 7:41 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 10, 2017 7:58 PM

It isn't a problem with the update. I do not have such a problem. Didn't have a problem with 10.13 or 10.13.1 either. My suggestion is a problem in the underlying system you upgraded. So, the first thing I will recommend you try is this:


  1. Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
  2. Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support.
  3. Boot into Safe Mode - this takes longer than normal.


The second thing you want to do is:


Repair the Drive for El Capitan or Later


  1. Restart the computer and after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Utility Menu appears.
  2. Select Disk Utility and press the Continue button.
  3. Then select the indented (usually, Macintosh HD) volume entry from the side list.
  4. Click on the First Aid tab in the toolbar and wait for the Done button to activate. Click on it, then quit Disk Utility.
  5. Select Restart from the Apple menu.


The third thing to do is: Download and install the macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Combo Update.


That's it for now. After the Combo Updater is completed your computer should restart. However, if it does not then restart the computer normally.

302 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 10, 2017 7:58 PM in response to TJBHK

It isn't a problem with the update. I do not have such a problem. Didn't have a problem with 10.13 or 10.13.1 either. My suggestion is a problem in the underlying system you upgraded. So, the first thing I will recommend you try is this:


  1. Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
  2. Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support.
  3. Boot into Safe Mode - this takes longer than normal.


The second thing you want to do is:


Repair the Drive for El Capitan or Later


  1. Restart the computer and after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Utility Menu appears.
  2. Select Disk Utility and press the Continue button.
  3. Then select the indented (usually, Macintosh HD) volume entry from the side list.
  4. Click on the First Aid tab in the toolbar and wait for the Done button to activate. Click on it, then quit Disk Utility.
  5. Select Restart from the Apple menu.


The third thing to do is: Download and install the macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 Combo Update.


That's it for now. After the Combo Updater is completed your computer should restart. However, if it does not then restart the computer normally.

Dec 21, 2017 4:24 PM in response to TJBHK

Ignore the people that say you have to reset this and that and upgrade or downgrade, or re-install etc. It's useless. Once you move to 10.13.2 you have just as much chance that it happens again. Obviously.


This is a bug introduced with this update and Apple's aware of it and hopefully the next release will have this addressed.


This happens on all our new and old macs, fresh installs or updates. At my place, parents place, friends .. name it. So far only 3 people I know with macs said they didn't notice this yet, everybody else replied: yeah now that you mention it.. so I asked around: 23 ppl that i've asked, 20 had the issue.

Jun 19, 2018 6:41 AM in response to ghogoh

Sadly, I was woken from a restful sleep about 3:30 am by the double startup chime on my late 2013 iMac. After a few days of running 10.13.5 with Power Nap enabled, I decided to try turning it off. All was well except that it was kind of annoying to wait for Safe Sleep to reload the contents of RAM that got backed up to disk sometime overnight. I figured it was a small tradeoff for having RAM contents safely tucked away in the event of an unexpected power failure. Sigh.


User uploaded file

Jan 11, 2018 2:09 AM in response to TJBHK

Same story since upgrade to High sierra on MacBook retina...


tried everything suggested - nothing helped. Also had several chats with Apple support - no better solution from them - they suggested to go to a genius bar....which I had no time till now..


Now when on the power cord I disabled go to sleep - but this is no solution..


when working in battery mode it also suddenly shuts down :-(


REALLY THE WORST upgrade since 20 years....


there are several threads with this issue...e.g. Re: Sleep Wake Failure: Reboots only after upgrading to High Sierra

Feb 15, 2018 10:14 AM in response to jim.123

Hi Jim, there are many sites that purport to direct you in backdating to a previous OS. For example you could consult the devils themselves at macOS Sierra: Revert to a previous macOS version. As far as I understand the procedure suggests you return to a time machine backup where you were still with the previous OS. All this, of course, is well and good in emergency situations, where you somehow lost and/or corrupted your work and need to recover the best you can. Now, the instruction to go to a previous backup, appears to assume that one sits around between backups and does nothing else but wait for a new OS upgrade to enjoy and glory.


Why I would want to loose my uncorrupted work, which could be even very valuable, only because an update of the OS malfunctions, is totally beyond me.


Obviously, this is my very individual take on the situation, so please, explore options, which could be helpful in your particular circumstances.

Feb 23, 2018 12:07 PM in response to ghogoh

ghogoh wrote:


This is very intriguing. How is it possible to know who reported your comment? I thought it is an automated process. Are there known moderators and/or people who act on Apple's side?

It is not possible to know who reported your comment. Any user Level 2 and above can report a post. The Hosts (Apple employees) then review the post. They and only they decide what, if any action, to take. Just because someone reports a post, doesn't mean it will be removed or even edited. If you have a post removed for cause, you will receive an email from the Hosts telling you that your posts was removed and why. If your post was a replay to a post that was removed, it may also get removed as part of the editing process. In that case, you won't receive any kind of notification.


ghogoh wrote:


I am fully aware that this is Apple's site and they can delete, remove and altogether shut down anything that is not in their interest. However, for as long as it is open and allowed, the absence of acknowledgement and any other response from Apple is very disrespectful to so many Apple customers.

You will never see a response from Apple on this site for this or any other issue. This is a user-to-user forum. Apple's participation is minimal. And, it never includes official statements. You seem to have some misconceptions about what this forum is and why it exists. You may want to consider reviewing the Terms of Use to which you agreed when you registered.

Apple Support Communities Use Agreement

Feb 24, 2018 7:33 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

Dear IdrisSeabright,


Thank you for your response. I fully appreciate the proprietary aspects of this forum and I try to respect rules, terms and conditions, use agreements and all. If you (and anyone else, who has the power to decide the fate of this comment) could kindly bear with me for a few more paragraphs, I shall do my best to present my position concisely and in the spirit of this discussion.


Firstly, few people will be surprised, if I say that I have not read the full terms and conditions or the use agreement. That is because many honest people will recognize how just about anyone nowadays (guiltily or not) has answered numerous times 'yes' to the question 'have you read and agreed with the terms and conditions' in order to proceed to the use of or involvement with some conditional offering. In some cases this is critical, in most this is just a way to move forward to more useful and meaningful activities.


I may not have read the TC but I can assure you that I have read more than 95pc of the entries to this and a parallel discussion on the same subject, available at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8135104?start=105&tstart=0

While we all may enjoy friendly and relaxing discussions or some suggestions about useful tips and simple solutions as available throughout the numerous discussions on this site, the two threads I am referring to, happen to address a significant (critical it seems for some) performance issue with the HS OS. Although going through the usual customer support channels would be the recommended course of action, it doesn’t take long, reading through the threads, to see that not a single person has mentioned any success from going in this direction. Apple customer support staff have not managed any substantial help or resolution to an apparently persistent and impeding problem. Where do we go from here?


Just like with many community wide problems, people take every possible opportunity to press for a resolution, especially to problems, which are not a matter of convenience or ornamentation, but seriously affect their work and even cause damages. Well, the Apple Support Communities is one such direction.


It is unfortunate that we will never see a response from Apple here, but even with a minimal involvement, they may wish to realise that occasionally it might be beneficial to all concerned to go out of one’s way if this will help significantly a great number of people, especially if there is a possibility to prevent exasperating matters exacerbate.

At this stage I see two logical possibilities. Either Apple knows this is not a macOS High Sierra problem, but would maintain its involvement so minimal that would not do as little as to nudge a higher enough level member into even suggesting it, consequently leaving hundreds of users wondering how come their utterly diverse circumstances cause apparently identical malfunction. Or, Apple knows it is a macOS HS issue and would not acknowledge it, which is a lot more serious matter.


Whichever the case may be, hundreds of Apple users, at least those showing on this and the thread I mentioned above, quite likely many more, have been affected over an extended period of time and this forum becomes as good as any for them to express their expectations from Apple to help resolve the issue.


Here is the daily recurring reason for my plea:


Date/Time: 2018-02-24 11:20:29 +0000


OS Version: Mac OS X 10.13.3 (Build 17D47)

Architecture: x86_64

Report Version: 26


Data Source: Stackshots


Event: Sleep Wake Failure

Duration: 0.06s

Steps: 6


Hardware model: iMac13,1

Active cpus: 4


Time Awake Since Boot: 23000s





Process: accountsd [284] (suspended)

Architecture: x86_64

Task size: 21.15 MB

Note: Suspended for 1 sample


Binary Images:


Apr 29, 2018 4:29 AM in response to DD208

Hello again, here is a brief comment by 'janisfromhamburg' posted on the parallel thread at Re: Sleep Wake Failure: Reboots only after upgrading to High Sierra. (I have also copied my comment on that thread further below.)


"Today I was at the Apple Store in Hamburg. One of the "Geniuses" said, they knew about the problem of the SWF after updating to High Sierra. He also said, it should be fixed with the next macOS-Update. I hope thats true."


This is probably the brightest flicker in this long dark and muddy tunnel of the Apple SWF experience. Ever since I started to keep track of the discussions on these threads, I have seen innumerable reports, describing various systems, setups and myriad of settings attempting to identify possible reasons for the darn SWF problem. Looks like individual circumstances could contribute to some extend, but that same variety also suggests that there has to be a common underlying reason. That reason unequivocally points to the HS OS update.


It is also evident that Apple Support staff are not in sync with the problem (with or without internal instructions not to acknowledge it). Some commentators on these discussion fora have suggested that we should not 'complain' here but go and raise the issue directly with apple support. While I agree with the latter and have personally been in contact with apple support, it is a fact that for so many months and so many reported attempts, not a single case has been mentioned, where apple support have been able to help resolving the matter. The discussions, especially here on the 'neatly' moderated apple website, should be taken into consideration and respected as a source of information from genuinely concerned and mostly supportive apple users. To deny their existence and the issues raised is plain irresponsible.


So, for once, there seems to be some hope that the SWF will be banished at last.

Jan 30, 2018 9:17 AM in response to TJBHK

I have the same problem with my 2012 iMac. Here is what I tried:


  • Resetting PRAM and NVRAM - Did not solved the problem
  • Resetting SMC - Did not solved the problem
  • Reinstalling OS - Did not solved the problem
  • Creating a new user account - Did not solved the problem


I also tested in Safe Mode and the problem doesn't occur so I know this is not an hardware issue.


I found a way to avoid the Sleep Wake Failure on another forum. I haven’t had a crash since changing some things on my Energy Saver settings. Go to System Preferences > Energy Saver and check "Put hard disks to sleep when possible", "Wake for network access" and "Enable Power Nap".

Jun 21, 2018 1:44 AM in response to TJBHK

Just noticed something peculiar, which could be related to not having SWFs. Completely overtaken by relief since my 10.13.5 update, I somehow overlooked an interesting change in my power management settings, which I have not done myself. The ‘disksleep’ parameter has been set to 10, coincidentally or not, the same as (system) ‘sleep’. In the past ‘disksleep’ in my settings has always been set to 0!


Last login: Mon Jun 18 18:50:17 on ttys001


iMac:~ [username]$ pmset -g

System-wide power settings:

Currently in use:

standby 0

Sleep On Power Button 1

womp 0

halfdim 1

hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage

powernap 0

autorestart 0

networkoversleep 0

disksleep 10

sleep 10 (sleep prevented by sharingd)

autopoweroffdelay 14400

hibernatemode 0

autopoweroff 1

ttyskeepawake 1

displaysleep 5

standbydelay 4200


In a posting to this discussion from 12 Feb. 2018 I raised the question of why there are two pmset parameters ‘disksleep’ and ‘sleep’, for which time can be set, when in the ‘Energy Saver’ of the ‘System Preferences’ only ‘Computer sleep’ is adjustable in minutes (apart from ‘Display sleep’). Since no one responded to my query, it somehow drowned in the later frustrations about SWF.


Unless someone has already experimented and found out that it would not work (I have not come across such a comment), it could be worth trying, for anyone still interested, to change the ‘disksleep’ to a value (for a start) equal to ‘sleep’. The procedure is somewhat intricate, so only try it entirely under your own responsibility:



The modification of the ‘pmset’ is done by opening the ‘Terminal’ program and typing text commands in the Terminal window. Typing pmset -g to the command prompt gives the current settings.


The following steps have been borrowed and slightly modified from very helpful websites, such as


https://eclecticlight.co/2017/01/20/power-management-in-detail-using-pmset/.


For example, to modify a pmset parameter on a Mac the following should be entered 'sudo pmset -a disksleep MM’, where MM is the desired number of minutes, then authenticate with your admin password.


"When setting values, you will normally need to specify which group of settings are to be affected. This is determined by options:

  • -b
    changes a setting when on battery power (laptops),
  • -c
    changes a setting when on charger (mains) power (laptops),
  • -u
    changes a setting for the UPS, …, [uninterrupted power supply]
  • -a
    changes a setting for all circumstances (laptops and desktops)."

The following is a quote shown as an example and illustration. It used the parameter 'sleep', which I have modified do 'disksleep' in accordance with my hypothesis discussed above.

To set the time for disksleep to 10 minutes, you can use one of the following commands accordingly:

  • sudo pmset -b disksleep 10
    for a laptop running off its internal battery,
  • sudo pmset -c disksleep 10
    for a laptop running off its mains charger,
  • sudo pmset -a disksleep 10
    for any Mac and all circumstances.


"If you get the settings into a mess and don’t know what to do,

sudo pmset restoredefaults
should work just like the button to restore defaults in Energy Saver (which you could use instead), and sets everything back to the default settings for that model."


To reiterate, please only follow the above suggestions if you are confident enough and entirely under your own responsibility.


Good luck!

Dec 11, 2017 6:05 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks, Kappy. First 2 items on the lsit dont resolve the issue. I have not had time to do the third thing. Effectuively what Apple suggested - erase and reinstal OS.

It is only since the Dec 8 upgrade that this has happened. Very perplexing and irritating. I am not only person to experience this so perhaps Apple can address in a alter OS upgrade.

Sleep Wake Failure with High Sierra 10.13.2

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