The above mentioned mini has started hibernating occasionally when put to sleep.
Is there any way to stop it other than a complete shutdown?
PS. I am not going to leave it running with the display turned off!
Mac mini, macOS 10.15
What about scheduling automatic shutdown & power on instead? It would lessen the length of time it will be in sleep mode which may lessen the chance of hibernation.
Also, the "pmset" command mentioned by @6x6 can be used to view current settings for various options which may trigger hibernation. Looking at the man pages for "pmset", it appears a couple of other settings also relate to triggering hibernation mode:
from man pmset:
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.
What about scheduling automatic shutdown & power on instead? It would lessen the length of time it will be in sleep mode which may lessen the chance of hibernation.
Also, the "pmset" command mentioned by @6x6 can be used to view current settings for various options which may trigger hibernation. Looking at the man pages for "pmset", it appears a couple of other settings also relate to triggering hibernation mode:
from man pmset:
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.
Hi Ian
We use the following Energy Saver settings on our 2012 Mac mini running macOS 10.15.7 Catalina.
Then if/when she walks away, it should turn off the display at 5 minutes and put the compute to sleep at 15 minutes.
If it does not work as expected:
1) reset the Mac mini's SMC, as per > Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support
2) open the Activity Monitor and check to see if anything is preventing Computer sleep.
Could you run the following command in Terminal that shows the current hibernation setting:
pmset -g | grep hibernatemode
My iMac (macOS Sequoia 15.7) returns:
hibernatemode 3
Which seems to be the default setting, i.e. my Mac exits sleep by just pressing a key.
Ian R. Brown wrote:
Thanks for all the suggestions. I will check them out later.
You're welcome.
I don't want anything special. . . just when she puts it to sleep it stays asleep with the activity light gently pulsing instead of the activity light going out and requiring the power button to be pressed to bring it back to life.
The only thing that should/could/would cause a shut down during sleep, is a loss of power.
Of course, one thing I did not mention is that she only uses it once a week (and sometimes not that often) so it's probably no surprise that it drifts into an incredibly deep sleep! It's probably more appropriate for her to shut it down completely.
Yeah' given that usage or even a few times a week, it is probably best to just Shut Down from the Apple menu.
Turn off Sleep it is problematic! Then please do the following:
Problem solved!
This is for my wife who is an unbelievable technophobe . . . she finds putting a machine to sleep or shutting down almost beyond her!
Back in 2014 when I purchased the mini it behaved itself . . . you put it to sleep and it stayed sleeping until you woke it, which is the way Macs have always behaved.
Somewhere along the line after several OS updates it started to hibernate occasionally.
By hibernation I meant it went into a very deep sleep, the light went out and the power button needed to be pressed to wake it.
To all intents and purposes it had been shutdown except when woken a grey screen appears with white blobs along the bottom and it seems to take ages to start up.
This is nothing to do with its age or any accumulation of crud as the machine has had its OS deleted and reinstalled on an almost annual basis.
A prevalent comment on this forum for the past few years is that Macs are not supposed to sleep and you should simply switch off the monitor and leave the machine running.
I have not seen any official Apple statements endorsing that policy, indeed the Sleep facility is prominently displayed in the Apple menu.
On a side note, my defunct iMac would always sleep and wake normally as do my current M2 and M4 minis.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I will check them out later.
I don't want anything special. . . just when she puts it to sleep it stays asleep with the activity light gently pulsing instead of the activity light going out and requiring the power button to be pressed to bring it back to life.
Of course, one thing I did not mention is that she only uses it once a week (and sometimes not that often) so it's probably no surprise that it drifts into an incredibly deep sleep! It's probably more appropriate for her to shut it down completely.
Ian R. Brown wrote:
Scheduling would be ineffective as she never knows when she may need to use it apart from Thursday afternoons when she has a zoom meeting. Best bet is to shut it down.
Schedule it for end of day shutdown (is there a normal time when she won't be using it? Or a standard bedtime?), and schedule power on when her alarm clock goes off in the morning (or perhaps an hour later). Of course if she has very odd non-standard hours, then it may not be an option. At least you can check out the "pmset" options I quoted to help figure things out regarding disabling hibernation completely.
Very curious how it goes either way.
Scheduling would be ineffective as she never knows when she may need to use it apart from Thursday afternoons when she has a zoom meeting. Best bet is to shut it down.
Stop 2012 i5 mini (Catalina) from hibernating?
