Mac Mini M4 powers up by itself and with no bong

[tony359]

Hi there,

My Mac Mini works perfectly but I've noticed that whenever I remove power (to carry it with me), whenever I apply power again, the mini powers up by itself without me having to push the on button.

I toggled the "Start Automatically after a power failure" and it seemed to work - but today it happened again.

Same for the bong, today it didn't happen even though I have "play sound on startup" enabled.

What am I missing here? Is this a known behaviour maybe?

 

[Tesla1856]

I do not think you need that option turned on.

Just Shut-Down macOS completely and then wait 10 seconds before disconnecting anything or moving it.

When re-assembling it later and turning on ... it should not even know it's been moved (no complaining or strange behaviors).

 

[Mrbobb]

My M4 works as it should but then I am still on Sequoia,

 

[tony359]

I am also on Sequoia.

@Tesla1856

You might have mis-read my message. I don't have that option (start automatically after a power failure - I imagine that is "that option"?) turned on. I just toggled it on/off to see if it would change anything.

What you describe is what I normally do.

Shutdown, wait a bit, remove all the cables, transport it elsewhere, plug all USB-C, HDMI, Lan, then power.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Have you done an OS update of ANY kind lately?

The "startup automatically when connected to power" option is now a part of Tahoe's "energy" settings.

I'm going to to take A GUESS that it was incorporated into firmware.

I'm going to take ANOTHER guess that somehow it got into the Sequoia firmware update as well.

The only problem is... there's no "switch" by which to disable it in Sequoia (as there is in Tahoe). If you go to "energy", there's no option to turn it on/off there.

Some personal experience:
I have an m4 Mini.
My "normal" OS is Sequoia.
BUT... I experiment with Tahoe on an external SSD, also.

I discovered that after a Tahoe update (in which I had ENABLED the auto-power-on feature), when I switched back to Sequoia, the new feature was still "operational", even though you couldn't control it.

That's fine with me.
I LIKE the option, because I shut down every night and power-up in the morning.
My Mini is connected to a power strip (which I also shut off at night), so as soon as I switch on the power strip, the Mini starts as well.
Just one button to push now, instead of two.

But again... I'm going to GUESS that the feature "got snuck into" a Sequoia firmware update.
May have been a mistake or oversight.
May have been intentional.
Don't know...

There might be a terminal command to enable/disable this.
Again, don't know that one yet.

 

[tony359]

@Fishrrman
No, never updated to Tahoe. I did update to 15.7.7 not long ago - maybe that what happened in between me toggling the option and the behaviour re-appearing.

Though, to be clear, when I checked the "turn on when power loss" option the other day, I didn't find it enabled. So it was working but the GUI was not reflecting that.

I'll keep what you said in mind and experiment. Thanks!

 

[Fishrrman]

"I did update to 15.7.7 not long ago"

If I'm not mistaken, that will have upgraded your firmware as well.
That's why I'm GUESSING that "something in the firmware" has enabled this "feature" in Sequoia -- even if there's no way to control it (for now)...

 

[tony359]

Can anybody with Sequoia confirm that this is the standard behaviour now? My Mini still turns on as soon as power is applied despite the setting saying the opposite.

 

[chrisus]

Can confirm this is happening for me as well on Mac mini m4 after uo dateing to 15.7.7

 

[tony359]

Thank you @chrisus - that makes me feel better if it's not just me 🙂