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iMac not sleeping automatically

M

mpts

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 21, 2011
31
0
Hi there,

I got myself an iMac 27" just recently. I often use it to watch videos over VLC while falling asleep. Unfortunately I find the iMac awake every time in the morning, with only the display asleep. So basically I can hear that the iMac is still on and when I touch the mouse it is immediately on.

Within the energy settings I have def set it up to sleep after 15mins. Still nothing happening.

Anyone an idea what I could do?

Cheers!
 
mpts said:
Hi there,

I got myself an iMac 27" just recently. I often use it to watch videos over VLC while falling asleep. Unfortunately I find the iMac awake every time in the morning, with only the display asleep. So basically I can hear that the iMac is still on and when I touch the mouse it is immediately on.

Within the energy settings I have def set it up to sleep after 15mins. Still nothing happening.

Anyone an idea what I could do?

Cheers!
Click to expand...

I had the same issue. This is what I did to resolve it:

  1. Unchecked all sharing options
  2. Reset PRAM (Hold down CMD-P-R while rebooting, listen for chime twice and release keyboard keys)
  3. Boot into safe mode (Hold down shift-key while rebooting, release when you see the apple symbol). I checked to make sure that the iMac would sleep.
  4. Reboot normally
  5. Turned back on all appropriate sharing options

My 2011 27" iMac now seems to be sleeping like it should.
 
Hi there....wow, how did you come up with this?

I will give it a try, many thanks. But what exactly are sharing options?
 
mpts said:
Hi there....wow, how did you come up with this?

I will give it a try, many thanks. But what exactly are sharing options?
Click to expand...

Go under System Preferences->Sharing. If you have any items checked off uncheck them.
 
Hm, unfortunately this did not work for me. Did what you said and still I woke up this morning with the sound of my iMac in the background. It's really weird, because all my Macbooks went to sleep perfectly.

What else could be the reason for this? Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that I have an external HDD attached to my iMac?
 
My iMac has never slept automatically, even though I have tried pretty much all the tricks. I leave my iMac on overnight quite often though so I don't mind really.
 
mpts said:
Hm, unfortunately this did not work for me. Did what you said and still I woke up this morning with the sound of my iMac in the background. It's really weird, because all my Macbooks went to sleep perfectly.

What else could be the reason for this? Do you think it has anything to do with the fact that I have an external HDD attached to my iMac?
Click to expand...

Does the computer automatically go to sleep when booted into safe mode?

I have two external hard drives connected to my iMac. Have you called Apple? That is what I would do next.
 
Taz Mangus said:
I have two external hard drives connected to my iMac. Have you called Apple? That is what I would do next.
Click to expand...

Do you have wake up on network access enabled?

Also their is a widget called deepsleep which makes your mac go into deepsleep ( a mode which happens if the computer isn't used for hours) It is less likely to wake up from that. It is a free software (hence my attachment)
 

Attachments

  • DeepSleep-1.5.1.zip
    210.3 KB · Views: 75
We have a Mac mini which seems to have a bad case of insomnia too. I'm often finding the display on when no one is using it, presumably because it's not going to sleep and just a slight bump of the desk wakes up the display. It shur is annoying.
 
Do you have time machine set up for backup? If you do, your iMac might be just doing its job for you!
 
maril1111 said:
Do you have wake up on network access enabled?

Also their is a widget called deepsleep which makes your mac go into deepsleep ( a mode which happens if the computer isn't used for hours) It is less likely to wake up from that. It is a free software (hence my attachment)
Click to expand...

Thats what I was going to suggest.
 
I also use the iMac for the same as you and have come to the following conclusion. As the program is still running in this case VLC media player the computer ignores the sleep instruction ans continues playing the video.

You should be careful of this as images after some period of time may burn into the screen which could result in a nice bill from Apple!
 
I had the same problem when I got my iMac back from the local Apple store after the SeaGate HD was replaced. It had went to sleep normally before that. I checked and all the Energy Saver settings were still the same. Just for grins I checked the restore defaults and it started working. Don't know why, but maybe something 'behind the scenes' got reset.
 
Cool, thanks guys.

> Will try deepsleep
> I don't think it has anything to do with VLC, because it stops playing video after the file is finished, so in most cases after half an hour. Then it also closes the video window and only shows the playlist
> I will try to reset my energy settings, maybe that works....
 
maril1111 said:
Do you have wake up on network access enabled?

Also their is a widget called deepsleep which makes your mac go into deepsleep ( a mode which happens if the computer isn't used for hours) It is less likely to wake up from that. It is a free software (hence my attachment)
Click to expand...

Yes, I have wake on network access enabled.

FrankHahn said:
Do you have time machine set up for backup? If you do, your iMac might be just doing its job for you!
Click to expand...

When the iMac sleeps time machine does not run.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hellhammer said:
Disable it. Otherwise it's unlikely that your iMac will sleep automatically and even if it did, it will wake up by time to time.
Click to expand...

Since I use wake on demand, disabling it will cause an issue for me. Besides, I am *NOT* having an issue with my iMac automatically sleeping. In Apple support documentation it clearly outlines instances where the iMac will wake for brief periods of time which I am perfectly fine with as that is now it was designed to work.
 
So I tried deepsleep now and it didn't work either. Does it still work on Lion?

What else could be the reason or a solution?

> I am falling asleep with VLC running, video ends after 30mins approx.
> I have an external HDD attached
> Wake on demand is set off
 
mpts said:
So I tried deepsleep now and it didn't work either. Does it still work on Lion?

What else could be the reason or a solution?

> I am falling asleep with VLC running, video ends after 30mins approx.
> I have an external HDD attached
> Wake on demand is set off
Click to expand...

did you try this?

Originally Posted by Taz Mangus
Yes, I have wake on network access enabled
Click to expand...
.

Disable it. Otherwise it's unlikely that your iMac will sleep automatically and even if it did, it will wake up by time to time.
Click to expand...
 
Yes, that's what I meant with wake on demand is disabled.
Any other ideas?

What could be the reason? VLC, HDD?
 
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