Is Hibernation mode available in macOS Ventura?

[SackJabbit]

I have a 2020 Mac mini M1. I only see "Sleep", "Restart..." and "Shut Down..." options. Does macOS Ventura have a hidden option to Hibernate? I can't seem to find it in System Settings. If there is one, how do I enabled it? Thanks.

 

[ignatius345]

Sleep, Restart and Shut Down are all we've ever had. Hibernation is a special "deep sleep" state for laptops only, and has been triggered when they're asleep for a certain amount of time. From what I remember, it is (or has been) configurable only in Terminal. Not 100% sure if modern Mac laptops use hibernation these days. In any case, the purpose of hibernation is to preserve battery life, so it's not really applicable to a desktop Mac.

 

[iStorm]

If you're wanting the hibernation feature that's found in Windows, macOS doesn't have anything like that other than what was described above. The closest you can get to hibernation on a Mac is to Shut Down and tick the "Reopen windows when logging back in" checkbox.

 

[kitKAC]

I have a 2020 Mac mini M1. I only see "Sleep", "Restart..." and "Shut Down..." options. Does macOS Ventura have a hidden option to Hibernate? I can't seem to find it in System Settings. If there is one, how do I enabled it? Thanks.

Open Terminal and type

man pmset

These are your options:

SAFE SLEEP ARGUMENTS

hibernatemode supports values of 0, 3, or 25. Whether or not a hibernation image gets written is also

dependent on the values of standby and autopoweroff



For example, on desktops that support standby a hibernation image will be written after the specified

standbydelay time. To disable hibernation images completely, ensure hibernatemode standby and

autopoweroff are all set to 0.



hibernatemode = 0 by default on desktops. The system will not back memory up to persistent storage. The

system must wake from the contents of memory; the system will lose context on power loss. This is,

historically, plain old sleep.



hibernatemode = 3 by default on portables. The system will store a copy of memory to persistent storage

(the disk), and will power memory during sleep. The system will wake from memory, unless a power loss

forces it to restore from hibernate image.



hibernatemode = 25 is only settable via pmset. The system will store a copy of memory to persistent

storage (the disk), and will remove power to memory. The system will restore from disk image. If you

want "hibernation" - slower sleeps, slower wakes, and better battery life, you should use this setting.



Please note that hibernatefile may only point to a file located on the root volume.

 

[gilby101]

Does macOS Ventura have a hidden option to Hibernate?

Yes, the pmset command. But I don't think it is of much value for a desktop as @ignatius345 has said.

man pmset

The man page is dated at 2012. I don't think it has been updated since and I am not convinced that it is still accurate, particularly regarding sleep modes. Be very wary of changing the hibernatemode parameter.

On a laptop, I have used standbydelayhigh and standbydelaylow to control how soon a MacBook goes into deeper sleep. My advice is not to touch hibernatemode.

 

[davidlv]

Yes, the pmset command. But I don't think it is of much value for a desktop as @ignatius345 has said.

The man page is dated at 2012. I don't think it has been updated since and I am not convinced that it is still accurate, particularly regarding sleep modes. Be very wary of changing the hibernatemode parameter.

On a laptop, I have used standbydelayhigh and standbydelaylow to control how soon a MacBook goes into deeper sleep. My advice is not to touch hibernatemode.

Several years ago, I found this page describing the various pmset commands related to sleep and hibernate mode:
<http://baqamore.hatenablog.com/entry/2019/02/08/222401>. (in Japanese, so you will have to translate it)
At that time I used the following on an Intel MBP, and later on a desktop with no adverse results noted.
The main reason to use hibernate mode 0 is the fact that the default mode 3 will write a swap file to the SSD and the size of that swapfile is equal to the RAM installed. On a small SSD, the 16GB of swap file can be excessive.
The commands below do away with the swap file, saving that 16GB of valuable space. Again, I have noticed no adverse results stemming from these settings on either laptops or desktops.

pmset -g Shows the settings you have set now.
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0 standby 0 autopoweroff 0
sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage or sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage
--Ignore any message saying there is no such file
Create a blanked zero-byte file so the OS cannot rewrite the file:
sudo touch /var/vm/sleepimage or sudo touch /private/var/vm/sleepimage

Make file immutable:
(sudo chflags nouchg ... to revert)
sudo chflags uchg /var/vm/sleepimage
or
sudo chflags uchg /private/var/vm/sleepimage

The sleep image file is actually in /private/var/vm/ but /var/vm/ is a symbolic link to that location.
sudo pmset -a proximitywake 0
sudo pmset -b tcpkeepalive 0
--This command may produce a warning saying some features may not work properly. This is fine, it simply disables Internet access during sleep. This is the same as disabling "PowerNap" Apple's badly implemented (demented?) attempt to have apps update themselves during sleep behind the users back.
sudo pmset -a standbydelaylow 86400
sudo pmset -a standbydelayhigh 86400
sudo pmset -a highstandbythreshold 0

If necessary;
sudo pmset restoredefaults

 

[SackJabbit]

Ah, I see. Yes, I understand "Sleep" would be the closest to "Hibernation". It's just that I wear my Apple Watch all the time, and my Mac is very close to where I sleep, and the odd time, when I walk away to my bed or when I'm in bed, my Mac is unlocked automatically by my Apple Watch when I don't want it to. I was hoping perhaps "Hibernation" would prevent that from occurring.

 

[Rkuda]

Ah, I see. Yes, I understand "Sleep" would be the closest to "Hibernation". It's just that I wear my Apple Watch all the time, and my Mac is very close to where I sleep, and the odd time, when I walk away to my bed or when I'm in bed, my Mac is unlocked automatically by my Apple Watch when I don't want it to. I was hoping perhaps "Hibernation" would prevent that from occurring.

If you set a sleep focus state on your iPhone the watch won't wake up the Mac during the times it's active.

 

[ignatius345]

If you set a sleep focus state on your iPhone the watch won't wake up the Mac during the times it's active.

You can also set focus states independently on separate devices if you uncheck "Share across devices." That can be handy if you want (say) your Mac to stay inert but also want your phone to be active and showing alerts and such.

 

[haralds]

Macs mainly sleep. The fallback to hibernation happens when the system runs low on battery during sleep. It will flush memory and processor state to disk.

 

[dubaaron]

Sleep, Restart and Shut Down are all we've ever had. Hibernation is a special "deep sleep" state for laptops only, and has been triggered when they're asleep for a certain amount of time. From what I remember, it is (or has been) configurable only in Terminal. Not 100% sure if modern Mac laptops use hibernation these days. In any case, the purpose of hibernation is to preserve battery life, so it's not really applicable to a desktop Mac.

I could see utility for hibernation on a desktop ... if you just want to save a bit of extra electricity, or to safely save state in case of possible power interruptions ... given, it's likely not as big a deal on a desktop, but I also like to hibernate my desktops. It's a tradeoff -- extra power savings and state safety vs extra time to wake from hibernate and extra disk space used. I do wish they (or someone) made it a little easier to select the other side of that tradeoff from the UI, if so desired.

Thanks all for your good information here.