Best settings to stop mac going to sleep

[jkeep]

Hi,

I have just upgraded from ATV1 to an ATV3.
With the ATV1 having the internal HDD there was never any problem
with listening to music or watching films I had sinc'd then only woke
my mac up to watch films on my iTunes library.

I have noticed that if I want to watch anything on my ATV3 I have to go
downstairs & wake my mac up before I can do anything.

I don't mind doing this once when I get home but to do it all the time
is a frigging pain.

What are the optimal power settings on my mac or is there another
way to set it up.

Cheers,

Jeff

 

[heisenberg123]

Hi,

I have just upgraded from ATV1 to an ATV3.
With the ATV1 having the internal HDD there was never any problem
with listening to music or watching films I had sinc'd then only woke
my mac up to watch films on my iTunes library.

I have noticed that if I want to watch anything on my ATV3 I have to go
downstairs & wake my mac up before I can do anything.

I don't mind doing this once when I get home but to do it all the time
is a frigging pain.

What are the optimal power settings on my mac or is there another
way to set it up.

Cheers,

Jeff

in system preferences on the mac got to system pref - energy saver - that move when on power supply to sleep never, also in there you will see a box to wake on LAN this should wake the mac when your try to access it with the ATV but that doesnt work for me and there are threads where it doesnt work for others, so sleep never is full proff if you dont mind using the power all the time

 

[BaggieBoy]

In addition, even though I had pwer saving set never to sleep, I was still finding my Mac mini snoozing. In my case it turned out to be caused by my Logitech Harmony remote set-up, when I switched away from the Apple TV activity it was trying to turn off all associated devices.

 

[MiamiBourne]

Hi,

I have just upgraded from ATV1 to an ATV3.
With the ATV1 having the internal HDD there was never any problem
with listening to music or watching films I had sinc'd then only woke
my mac up to watch films on my iTunes library.

I have noticed that if I want to watch anything on my ATV3 I have to go
downstairs & wake my mac up before I can do anything.

I don't mind doing this once when I get home but to do it all the time
is a frigging pain.

What are the optimal power settings on my mac or is there another
way to set it up.

Cheers,

Jeff

I use a free 3rd party software called Caffeine. It sits in the menu bar and you just click on the coffee icon to turn the feature on (never sleeps mac).

Works fine for me.

 

[416049]

I use a free 3rd party software called Caffeine. It sits in the menu bar and you just click on the coffee icon to turn the feature on (never sleeps mac).

Works fine for me.

+1 for caffeine, have been using it for years on multiple devices and never had a problem with it.

 

[mic j]

in system preferences on the mac got to system pref - energy saver - that move when on power supply to sleep never, also in there you will see a box to wake on LAN this should wake the mac when your try to access it with the ATV but that doesnt work for me and there are threads where it doesnt work for others, so sleep never is full proff if you dont mind using the power all the time

I also have my "Computer Sleep" set to "Never" and "Put the hard drive to sleep when possible" set to "30 minutes". I do not have wake for LAN checked. Never had to go and wake up the MBP for the aTV.

 

[brucewayne]

another +1 for Caffeine (http://lightheadsw.com/) Been using it for a while with no issues. Also gives the option of allowing sleep after X amount of hours, so you have the mac stay awake during the evening but still allow the mac to sleep overnight.

 

[Primejimbo]

If you go under "system Preferences" then "Security" and then the "general tab" and make sure you have "Log out after XX minutes of inactivity" unchecked. I learned this on a friends Mac ones that their Mac would log off after so many minutes all the time watching something on their Apple TV. They or myself don't have any 3rd party Apps to keep our Macs from going to sleep.
What kind of router do you have? Apple routers you can wake your Mac whenever you want to watch something on your Apple TV.

 

[heisenberg123]

If you go under "system Preferences" then "Security" and then the "general tab" and make sure you have "Log out after XX minutes of inactivity" unchecked. I learned this on a friends Mac ones that their Mac would log off after so many minutes all the time watching something on their Apple TV. They or myself don't have any 3rd party Apps to keep our Macs from going to sleep.
What kind of router do you have? Apple routers you can wake your Mac whenever you want to watch something on your Apple TV.

interesting post maybe thats whats stoping my wake for lan from properly working ill have to check tonight

 

[jkeep]

Some great replies, I,ll have a play around tonight when I get home.
I obviosly want the hard drive to stop spinning & the screen to go
blank but I also want my ATV to work when I switch my tv on.

Cheers,

Jeff

 

[Steppy]

+1 for caffeine, have been using it for years on multiple devices and never had a problem with it.

Only thing I don't like about caffeine is that it doesn't let the screen switch off, so I just change my energy settings to 3 hours & that lets the screen switch off as normal but keeps it awake. Once I am done watching a film I just put power setting back to normal and its goes to sleep after 10 mins

 

[jkeep]

OK, Ive found that if I go to settings and set computer sleep to
never then I can always access my ATV but..................
I can always hear my macs fan running in the background when I
havnt used it for a while, is this doing any harm or shortening the
life of my beloved mac?

 

[thatoneguy82]

These options are interesting, I didn't even know they existed. Like the OP, I too have the same situation. However, I'm almost positive that these options are only for desktop macs. I have a MBP and would like to close the lid and still have access to the media in it. It only works when it's open of course, but I'm pretty sure it's impossible when the lid is closed or is there an app for that?

 

[heisenberg123]

These options are interesting, I didn't even know they existed. Like the OP, I too have the same situation. However, I'm almost positive that these options are only for desktop macs. I have a MBP and would like to close the lid and still have access to the media in it. It only works when it's open of course, but I'm pretty sure it's impossible when the lid is closed or is there an app for that?

InsomniaXwill let you have it set to stay awake even with lid closed

 

[kmmingus]

Please help...

In addition, even though I had pwer saving set never to sleep, I was still finding my Mac mini snoozing. In my case it turned out to be caused by my Logitech Harmony remote set-up, when I switched away from the Apple TV activity it was trying to turn off all associated devices.

Did you find a solution to your problem? I think we are experiencing the same issue with our MacMini and logitech remote.