any pmset wizards around here? wol specifically

[nathansz]

I know pmset is an esoteric nightmare,

I've been dancing with her for decades through different architectures and also lots of hackintosh

now a new struggle (waking Intel Mac mini with wol) and just wonder if there is anyone around that really knows it to discuss with

cheers all!

 

[gilby101]

So what is your current struggle? From your mention of 'wol', I assume you are looking at tcpkeepalive - I always set it to 0 for both Intel and Apple silicon.

One problem with any discussion is that there are significant differences between Intel and Apple silicon as well as between what you might want for laptop vs desktop. So need to be very clear about hardware.

I also believe the interaction between pmset and System Settings has gradually changed with macOS versions.

 

[Nermal]

"pmset -a womp 1" should be your first port of call. If that doesn't work, then post back with specifics.

 

[nathansz]

So what is your current struggle? From your mention of 'wol', I assume you are looking at tcpkeepalive - I always set it to 0 for both Intel and Apple silicon.

One problem with any discussion is that there are significant differences between Intel and Apple silicon as well as between what you might want for laptop vs desktop. So need to be very clear about hardware.

I also believe the interaction between pmset and System Settings has gradually changed with macOS versions.

thanks for your input

current struggle is that I cannot wake up a 2018 intel make mini from sleep over the network

I've tried both sshing in and sending magic packets directly from router and it does not respond

 

[nathansz]

"pmset -a womp 1" should be your first port of call. If that doesn't work, then post back with specifics.

thanks for the input

I believe it is already set thus but I'll check when I return

problem is that I cannot
wake up a 2018 intel make mini from sleep over the network

I've tried both sshing in and sending magic packets directly from router and it does not respond

 

[bogdanw]

Post the result of pmset -g
There are several values related to network: tcpkeepalive, ttyskeepawake, powernap, networkoversleep

The manual for pmset says "networkoversleep - this setting affects how OS X networking presents shared network services during system sleep. This setting is not used by all platforms; changing its value is unsupported."
but the value can be set to 1 with sudo pmset networkoversleep 1

 

[nathansz]

Post the result of pmset -g
There are several values related to network: tcpkeepalive, ttyskeepawake, powernap, networkoversleep

The manual for pmset says "networkoversleep - this setting affects how OS X networking presents shared network services during system sleep. This setting is not used by all platforms; changing its value is unsupported."
but the value can be set to 1 with sudo pmset networkoversleep 1

Not with the machine currently but I’ll post pmset -g when I get a change

I have tried networkiveesleep with both 0 and 1. Doesn’t seem to make any difference.

 

[Brian33]

I wonder if your issue is related to Apple's use of a Bonjour Sleep Proxy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_Sleep_Proxy

Maybe it's changed recently, but it used to be that you needed one or more on your network for the usual service requests to wake a sleeping Mac that was providing a service. Apple TVs provide a sleep proxy, as did the now-discontinued Airport Extreme/Express/Time Capsule devices. It may be that whatever method(s) you're using to send the WOL packet aren't sufficient -- that macOS wants something more (something from the sleep proxy)?

Can you wake the sleeping computer from Finder on another Mac -- for example, for File Sharing (SMB) or Screen Sharing (VNC)? (Of course the services must be enabled on the sleeping Mac ahead of time.)

This command will show the sleep proxies on your network (if any): dns-sd -B _sleep-proxy._udp
I have three, with two interfaces each, apparently (yes, I still use a Time Capsule!):

brian@mini4:~(0)$ dns-sd -B _sleep-proxy._udp
Browsing for _sleep-proxy._udp
DATE: ---Sat 22 Mar 2025---
18:38:27.022  ...STARTING...
Timestamp     A/R    Flags  if Domain               Service Type         Instance Name
18:38:27.023  Add        3   7 local.               _sleep-proxy._udp.   50-34-10-70.1 timecapsule2
18:38:27.023  Add        3   7 local.               _sleep-proxy._udp.   70-35-60-63.1 lounge-applebox
18:38:27.023  Add        3  16 local.               _sleep-proxy._udp.   50-34-10-70.1 timecapsule2
18:38:27.023  Add        3   7 local.               _sleep-proxy._udp.   70-35-60-63.1 basement-applebox
18:38:27.023  Add        3  16 local.               _sleep-proxy._udp.   70-35-60-63.1 lounge-applebox
18:38:27.023  Add        2  16 local.               _sleep-proxy._udp.   70-35-60-63.1 basement-applebox

 

[f54da]

bonjour sleep proxy is not necessary for wake on lan if you send a womp packet directly. Sleep proxy is only necessary for the services to continue to be advertised.

Sleep proxy might indirectly fix the issue though in that if sleep proxy is enabled the mac will wake itself every 1hr or so to re-register.

 

[nathansz]

I wonder if your issue is related to Apple's use of a Bonjour Sleep Proxy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_Sleep_Proxy

Maybe it's changed recently, but it used to be that you needed one or more on your network for the usual service requests to wake a sleeping Mac that was providing a service. Apple TVs provide a sleep proxy, as did the now-discontinued Airport Extreme/Express/Time Capsule devices. It may be that whatever method(s) you're using to send the WOL packet aren't sufficient -- that macOS wants something more (something from the sleep proxy)?

Can you wake the sleeping computer from Finder on another Mac -- for example, for File Sharing (SMB) or Screen Sharing (VNC)? (Of course the services must be enabled on the sleeping Mac ahead of time.)

This command will show the sleep proxies on your network (if any): dns-sd -B _sleep-proxy._udp
I have three, with two interfaces each, apparently (yes, I still use a Time Capsule!):

brian@mini4:~(0)$ dns-sd -B _sleep-proxy._udp
Browsing for _sleep-proxy._udp
DATE: ---Sat 22 Mar 2025---
18:38:27.022  ...STARTING...
Timestamp     A/R    Flags  if Domain               Service Type         Instance Name
18:38:27.023  Add        3   7 local.               _sleep-proxy._udp.   50-34-10-70.1 timecapsule2
18:38:27.023  Add        3   7 local.               _sleep-proxy._udp.   70-35-60-63.1 lounge-applebox
18:38:27.023  Add        3  16 local.               _sleep-proxy._udp.   50-34-10-70.1 timecapsule2
18:38:27.023  Add        3   7 local.               _sleep-proxy._udp.   70-35-60-63.1 basement-applebox
18:38:27.023  Add        3  16 local.               _sleep-proxy._udp.   70-35-60-63.1 lounge-applebox
18:38:27.023  Add        2  16 local.               _sleep-proxy._udp.   70-35-60-63.1 basement-applebox

I actually do have an Apple TV on the network

edit: ran that command and it does show the Apple TV

 

[nathansz]

I actually talked to apple support today, they couldn't figure anything out but had me collect some logs of trying to wake up the mini from my MacBook pro to have someone look at

I kept trying to explain that I couldn't wake the mini from any device so the issue it seems to me would lie on the mini itself rather than on the MacBook Pro but that's what they wanted to do

 

[nathansz]

Can you wake the sleeping computer from Finder on another Mac -- for example, for File Sharing (SMB) or Screen Sharing (VNC)? (Of course the services must be enabled on the sleeping Mac ahead of time.)

no I cannot wake the computer from finder on another Mac. that is the main use case I am trying to accomplish

ssh and sending packets from the router were just troubleshooting/attempts to find a workaround

 

[f54da]

Can you rule out network issue by having both computers connected to a network switch? womp packet should be broadcast to the usual broadcast address, but maybe your particular network topology is filtering it somehow