Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MBHockey

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 4, 2003
4,063
314
Connecticut
I'm having a heck of a time preventing my new M4 Mac Mini from sleeping. I run a few VMs and Plex server off it, so i just want it to stay on 24/7. I did not have this issue with the M1 Mac Studio before it.

Settings -> Energy
Energy Mode: automatic
Prevent Automatic sleeping when the display is off: enabled
Put hard disks to sleep when possible: disabled
Wake for network access: enabled
Start up automatically after power failure: enabled

Settings --> Lock Screen
Start screen saver when inactive: for 5 minutes
Turn display off when inactive: for 20 minutes
Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off: after 1 hour

So i have these settings on, and also have set up Amphetamine to keep my computer from sleeping. But every few days, it still just decides it wants to sleep and breaks all my network connections.

When i go into terminal to see what's going on, this is what i get about the sleep/wake cycles:

Code:
pmset -g log | egrep "\b(Sleep|Wake|DarkWake|Start)\s{2,}"
2025-01-24 16:42:18 -0500 Sleep                   Entering Sleep state due to 'Software Sleep pid=579':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:0%) 943 secs
2025-01-24 16:58:01 -0500 DarkWake                DarkWake from Deep Idle [CDNPB] : due to SMC.OutboxNotEmpty smc.70070000 enet lan-10gb/ Using AC (Charge:0%) 45 secs
2025-01-24 16:58:46 -0500 Sleep                   Entering Sleep state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:0%) 943 secs
2025-01-24 17:14:29 -0500 DarkWake                DarkWake from Deep Idle [CDNPB] : due to SMC.OutboxNotEmpty smc.70070000 enet lan-10gb/ Using AC (Charge:0%) 45 secs
2025-01-24 17:15:14 -0500 Sleep                   Entering Sleep state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:0%) 905 secs
2025-01-24 17:30:19 -0500 DarkWake                DarkWake from Deep Idle [CDNPB] : due to NUB.SPMI0Sw3IRQ nub-spmi0.0x02 rtc/Maintenance Using AC (Charge:0%) 45 secs
2025-01-24 17:31:04 -0500 Sleep                   Entering Sleep state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:0%) 943 secs
2025-01-24 17:46:47 -0500 DarkWake                DarkWake from Deep Idle [CDNPB] : due to SMC.OutboxNotEmpty smc.70070000 enet lan-10gb/ Using AC (Charge:0%) 74 secs
2025-01-24 17:48:01 -0500 Sleep                   Entering Sleep state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:0%) 943 secs
2025-01-24 18:03:44 -0500 DarkWake                DarkWake from Deep Idle [CDNPB] : due to SMC.OutboxNotEmpty smc.70070000 enet lan-10gb/ Using AC (Charge:0%) 45 secs
2025-01-24 18:04:29 -0500 Sleep                   Entering Sleep state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:0%) 61 secs
2025-01-24 18:05:30 -0500 Wake                    Wake from Deep Idle [CDNVA] : due to SMC.OutboxNotEmpty smc.70070000 wifibt bluetooth-pcie/HID Activity Using AC (Charge:0%)       
2025-01-24 18:07:26 -0500 Start                   powerd process is started                                                           
2025-01-25 08:16:17 -0500 Sleep                   Entering Sleep state due to 'Software Sleep pid=382':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:0%) 942 secs
2025-01-25 08:31:59 -0500 DarkWake                DarkWake from Deep Idle [CDNPB] : due to SMC.OutboxNotEmpty smc.70070000 enet lan-10gb/ Using AC (Charge:0%) 2430 secs
2025-01-25 09:12:29 -0500 Wake                    DarkWake to FullWake from Deep Idle [CDNVA] : due to HID Activity Using AC (Charge:0%)       
2025-01-25 10:19:00 -0500 Start                   powerd process is started                                                           
2025-01-28 08:30:26 -0500 Sleep                   Entering Sleep state due to 'Software Sleep pid=402':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:0%) 942 secs
2025-01-28 08:46:08 -0500 DarkWake                DarkWake from Deep Idle [CDNPB] : due to SMC.OutboxNotEmpty smc.70070000 enet lan-10gb/ Using AC (Charge:0%) 45 secs
2025-01-28 08:46:53 -0500 Sleep                   Entering Sleep state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:0%) 943 secs
2025-01-28 09:02:36 -0500 DarkWake                DarkWake from Deep Idle [CDNPB] : due to SMC.OutboxNotEmpty smc.70070000 enet lan-10gb/ Using AC (Charge:0%) 45 secs
2025-01-28 09:03:21 -0500 Sleep                   Entering Sleep state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:0%) 924 secs
2025-01-28 09:18:45 -0500 DarkWake                DarkWake from Deep Idle [CDNPB] : due to NUB.SPMI0Sw3IRQ nub-spmi0.0x02 rtc/Maintenance Using AC (Charge:0%) 67 secs
2025-01-28 09:19:52 -0500 Sleep                   Entering Sleep state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:0%) 943 secs
2025-01-28 09:35:35 -0500 DarkWake                DarkWake from Deep Idle [CDNPB] : due to SMC.OutboxNotEmpty smc.70070000 enet lan-10gb/ Using AC (Charge:0%) 61 secs
2025-01-28 09:36:36 -0500 Sleep                   Entering Sleep state due to 'Maintenance Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=active Using AC (Charge:0%) 122 secs
2025-01-28 09:38:38 -0500 Wake                    Wake from Deep Idle [CDNVA] : due to SMC.OutboxNotEmpty smc.70070000 wifibt bluetooth-pcie/HID Activity Using AC (Charge:0%)

Any ideas why my Mac Mini is so determined to go to sleep despite my best efforts?

Computer specs (not sure it matters): M4 Pro Mac Mini, 2 TB SSD, 48 gb ram, 10G ethernet (this computer uses ethernet only, not wifi, MacOS 15.2). Hooked up to Apple Studio Display.
 
Last edited:
Weird, if anything I find Mac desktops (my m4 mini included) don’t like to sleep at all. Mine certainly doesn’t by itself (and rarely if I ask it).
I would try starting a new user profile and see if it’s linked to your account and software your running.
 
Download Amphetamine from the App Store
 
  • Like
Reactions: haralds
Download Amphetamine from the App Store

Unfortunately it isn’t working (stated in original post)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.