Mac mini screen saver won't turn off

Question

Mac mini screen saver won't turn off

I have a 2020 M1 Mac mini. Among other things, I have 2 23" displays attached, one through HDMI and the other by USB C. Several days ago I noticed that my screen saver is no longer kicking in, nor are the displays eventually going into standby mode as they used to.

2020 M1 Mac mini

512 Gb internal SSD(inactive), 2 Tb external SSD startup drive, 16 Gb RAM.

Sequoia OS 15.2 (the problem started before today’s update).

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 15.2

Posted on Jan 3, 2025 04:50 PM

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Answer 1

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den.thed

Level 10

88,960 points

Jan 3, 2025 07:25 PM in response to Colin Mansfield

The Screen Saver is nothing but eye candy that hogs a lot of resources.

Disable the Screen Saver and test the following Energy and Lock Screen settings.

Turn On "Prevent automatic sleeping when display is off"

Set "Turn display off when inactive" to 5 or 10 minutes

Leave the Mac mini On and only allow the display(s) to turn Off

Do not manually Sleep from the Apple Drop Down menu

Shut Down the Mac mini when away for a day or more

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Answer 2

den.thed

Level 10

88,960 points

Jan 3, 2025 07:29 PM in response to Colin Mansfield

.

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Answer 3

Jan 4, 2025 09:12 AM in response to den.thed

That was useful advice. I needed one more step to make the settings take, and that was to shut down the Mac completely then power it back on. Everything's back to the way it should be.

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Answer 4

den.thed

Level 10

88,960 points

Jan 4, 2025 09:48 AM in response to Colin Mansfield

👍

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Mac mini screen saver won't turn off

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