Mac mini (Apple Silicon) ignores autorestartatconnect / no power-on after AC restore

[bjoho]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to understand the behavior of power management on my Mac min. I’m seeing a confusing situation with `pmset` and power-on behavior after AC power loss. System information:
- Mac mini (Apple Silicon)
- macOS Tahoe 26.5
- Modell-ID: Macmini9,1
- pmset shows:

# pmset -g custom
AC Power:
Sleep On Power Button 1
autorestartatconnect 0
standby 0
ttyskeepawake 1
powernap 1
displaysleep 20
womp 1
networkoversleep 0
sleep 1
tcpkeepalive 1
autorestart 1
disksleep 10

Now since autorestart doesn't work I attempted to enable:
# pmset -a autorestartatconnect 1
Usage: pmset <options>
See pmset(1) for details: 'man pmset'

Even when using:
# /usr/bin/pmset autorestartatconnect 1
I get the same answer.

I performed a controlled test:
1. Mac was running normally
2. I unplugged power
3. Waited ~1 minute
4. Plugged power back in
The Mac does NOT boot automatically.

Question:
- Is `autorestartatconnect` actually supported on Apple Silicon Macs?
- Why does `pmset` show the key but not allow setting it?
- Is “power-on after AC restore” still a supported feature in macOS Tahoe / Apple Silicon Macs, or has it been removed/disabled?

Any clarification from people who have seen this behavior or understand the internal power management model would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[!!!]

I don't know where you're getting the -a from. According to this link it's just
sudo /usr/bin/pmset autorestartatconnect 1