Does "sleep" conserve enough energy to deal with thunderbolt timeouts?

[rawdawg]

My main computer is a mid-2017 MBP fully stocked. I have tons of peripherals, including (2) HD monitors, (minimum of 3 active) HDDs, and plenty more. I am running 10.13.6

Many of my peripherals are attached using a USB hub, and I have no issues. But I also use an OWC USB-C dock and usually whenever my MBP goes to sleep, when I go to wake it everything in the USB-C dock has been ejected.

OWC says Thunderbolt 3 is built with a power saving feature that engages when the computer goes to sleep. They also say this is an issue with any Thunderbolt 3 dock and the you will need to manually re-connect the computer whenever this happens. Is this true? I can't imagine everyone with a Thunderbolt 3 drive or monitor has to do this every time your computer goes to sleep.

I was told I could disable "sleep" mode but would rather deal with the issue to conserve energy--that is unless it's so little it isn't worth it. My MBP has an SSD so perhaps not much is saved from sleep mode so long as I use a screen saver.

Does anyone know? Thanks!

 

[monokakata]

This problem may have been fixed in 10.14.

Before I moved to 10.14, my Akitio (=OWC) TB3 4-bay unit would almost always eject (really, fail to eject) its disks some time after I put the iMac Pro to sleep. And I'd wake it up to find my screen filled with "you didn't eject" notices.

And then . . . it stopped, and hasn't returned. Now I can put the machine to sleep (explicitly) and never have any problems upon wake.

I suggest you try 10.14, unless you have a good reason not to.

 

[rawdawg]

monokakata, thank you! I wanted to test and make sure everything worked before I responded. I updated to 10.14, but already I'm noticing it didn't solve the issue with my OWC USB-C dock... I stepped away from my MBP for less then 10 minutes. I heard I received a text on my MBP so I thought my MBP was still awake. Last night I disabled "Power nap" thinking that was now I needed to disable this sleep issue.

One of my two displays is hooked up through this dock, along with the bluetooth receivers for my mouse and keyboard, so I immediately noticed those were off. I needed to unplug and plug back in and they came back on.

I'm going to restart my MBP and see what happens. I was so excited to think this would be fixed. I'm not sure why it worked for you but not me...

And yes, I also used to get those "you didn't eject" notifications. Two of my HDDs are on a UBS hub, and I just noticed a 10.13 update I performed awhile ago must have fixed it for those two on that hub. I did still get it on the one HDD on this TB3 dock.

 

[monokakata]

I had two USB3 externals connected all night (I regularly have one connected, but had two last night) and this AM when I woke the iMP from sleep, there were no problems.

FWIW, I'm using Oyen Digital USB enclosures and haven't had problems with them.

I have an OWC 2-day dock. I'll stick a drive in it and leave it there, mounted, overnight.

I should add, because maybe it's relevant, that the USB devices I leave connected successfully are all USB-C ones.

 

[rawdawg]

I had two USB3 externals connected all night (I regularly have one connected, but had two last night) and this AM when I woke the iMP from sleep, there were no problems.

FWIW, I'm using Oyen Digital USB enclosures and haven't had problems with them.

I have an OWC 2-day dock. I'll stick a drive in it and leave it there, mounted, overnight.

I should add, because maybe it's relevant, that the USB devices I leave connected successfully are all USB-C ones.

Interesting, do you have "sleep" disabled which was the advice I was given by the OWC rep?

My docks are all connected by USB-C since that's all my MBP has, although from the dock and hub my peripherals are all not USB-C. I'm assuming you meant everything on your end is USB-C, maybe that communicates better.

 

[monokakata]

I was unclear about sleep. Yes, for Energy Saver I have "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically" selected, and "Put hard disks to sleep..." also selected.

So basically during my working day, the machine never sleeps.

When I'm done for the day, I use the Apple menu to select "Sleep" and that's it until the next morning.

I have to go out for a while, so I'll change energy saving to put the machine to sleep after a short time, and I'll see what's happened when I get back (maybe 90 minutes).

 

[rawdawg]

I was unclear about sleep. Yes, for Energy Saver I have "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically" selected, and "Put hard disks to sleep..." also selected.

So basically during my working day, the machine never sleeps.

When I'm done for the day, I use the Apple menu to select "Sleep" and that's it until the next morning.

I have to go out for a while, so I'll change energy saving to put the machine to sleep after a short time, and I'll see what's happened when I get back (maybe 90 minutes).

Hi, I wanted to check in and ask what happened after you put your computer to sleep. Although wouldn't it be the same as when you wake your computer up every morning (you mentioned you put it to sleep every night)?

I came to my MBP this morning and found it at 0% battery, this happens frequently and I can't understand why. It's related to the fact that I'm having these issues with this dock. I even now plug the MBP into the wall and don't rely on the dock's USB-C connection for the power (originally I thought once the dock was disconnected it stopped providing power, but now I see this happening even with the power cable attached).

I checked "prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" and this dock still disconnects. I still have power nap enabled-- what does this mean anyhow!?

It's frustrating. I updated my OS to 10.14.4 and the only difference I can tell is many of my programs no longer are compatible with my OS---go figure.

 

[monokakata]

Sorry to be tardy. It's been just fine with the USB and TB externals (two of them). Never a problem.

I've had it set to sleep when the display does (for a few days), and then as usual I sleep it at night and wake it in the AM.

I didn't set up the OWC 2-day USB-C dock, sorry, but I'll do that now and see whether it behaves properly.

 

[rawdawg]

No worries! You've done enough answering all my posts, so don't worry about testing these things on my behalf. You had just mentioned doing a test changing your sleep settings to see what happens but it sounds like since you put the computer to sleep every night it shouldn't be any different then when you wake the Mac up every morning.

Interestingly, two hours ago I un-checked this power nap mode and twice already I came back to my Mac and haven't had disconnection issues!?! Maybe it's the Power Nap Setting?!

(But this power nap setting sounds like it allows the Mac to operate certain tasked while sleeping, so I assumed enabling it would only allow something to happen DURING sleep. Considering my issues were occurring even when I enabled "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" then I thought power nap wouldn't never have an option to engage.. Black Magic)

 

[monokakata]

I have Power Nap turned off, and also Wake for network access is also off. The OWC dock's gone through a few sleep cycles without incident so far.