Hard Drive won't Sleep automatically

In Energy Saver I have set the monitor and hard drive to sleep after 50 minutes. Both sliders are at the same point. "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" is checked. However after 50 minutes the monitor goes to sleep but the hard drive doesn't. If I choose sleep from the pulldown menu then the hard drive sleeps. What's going on? Thanx,
Ken

Hello Ken:
UNIX and I do not mix well. I just looked at my activity monitor and there are only three tasks (aside from the monitor itself) running when all programs are closed. The only application that pops up is a radar widget - but that does not wake my system after it sleeps. The others are system tasks that should, I believe, be running.
I am thrashing around a bit trying to identify the cause of your problem (hopefully to let you identify something) since I have never encountered it before.
Take a look at the logs - console and system. Look at the times things are logged. See if there is some application that keeps showing up. If that does not yield anything, post back and I will try to round up some experts that know UNIX/operating systems far better than I.
I just thought of something else. How are you connected to the Internet? Perhaps your modem or router is sending some kind of signal. Do you have the built-in firewall turned on? If not, do that - good practice in any event.
Barry

Similar Messages

Hard Drives won't sleep..

I first installed Leopard on my machine in August 2008 and after about 15 minutes of no activity it would put my system/hard drives to sleep. I could walk in the room and wouldn't hear any sounds coming from the computer.
Earlier this week, I had to fix an issue which I had to re-install Leopard. Now the hard drives stay active when the computer is supposed to be sleeping! So this is what I found when I went to the HELP section of the Energy Saver Preferences:
If your Mac won’t go to sleep or stay in sleep, check the following:
■In Energy Saver preferences, click Sleep, and drag the slider that controls the computer’s sleep to “Never.” (If you don’t see this slider, click Sleep, or click Show Details and then click Sleep.)
Does that make sense? If my computer does not go to sleep like I want it to, why would I drag the slider to NEVER?
I used to be able to leave my computer on all day while it was sleeping and wouldn't hear a peep from it until I woke it up by dragging the mouse around or touching a key on the keyboard.

Follow the instructions. Moving the slider resets the setting and moving it back should get you the control. I never sleep my computers or HDs, so I can't address that issue. BTW, the preferences for the energy saver are stored in the /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist file. One thing you can try is moving it to the Desktop (might require authorization from an admin user), restarting, and reseting the preferences via the Energy Saver prefPane since the OS should create a new one in that folder. If you can't move the one in that folder or it only makes a copy, then try moving the original to the trash and deleting it.

New hard drive won't sleep

I just installed a new Western Digital Caviar 200gb ATA drive (on 100 bus) as my system drive (also have a Seagate Barracuda 250gb for video on the 100 bus and a Maxtor 60gb for music on the 66 bus) and now, when I put my computer to sleep, I still hear something that sounds like a hard drive spinning when everything else appears to be asleep. I'm assuming it's the new drive that's not spinning down, but I'm not completely sure, because I'm a little wary of opening the computer when it's running.
Should I be worried about this? Is it a problem beyond using more energy? Will this make the drive die sooner?
Also, when I wake it from sleep, the fan runs very loudly for about 10 minutes before slowing down. I can live with this, but it's a little annoying.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
- Bruce
G4 dual 1ghz MDD Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hi
I wouldn't open the computer when it's actually running, but it should be okay to open it, start it and leave it running for a short period with the case already open. This may help determine where the noise is coming from.
Loud fan noise after a short sleep period seems normal. I'm guessing when the computer is put to sleep the heat sink still disipates heat for a while but the fans aren't on to exhaust it out the case, so the temperature may be slightly higher than normal for a short time. When it's woken, the variable speed fans come on at a higher setting for a while until the temperature returns to normal.

External Hard Drive Won't Sleep

I just picked up a new 20" iMac and the problem I'm having is that when i put it to sleep it wakes my Maxtor One Touch II external HD which will not spin down afterward and runs until I wake the iMac back up. My Energy Saver preference is set to sleep all hard disks. I can find no firmware updates for the Maxtor.
Any help would be appreciated.

Maxtor Support
Select: "Maxtor Product Support / Knowledge Base" then in "Search Text (optional) type in "update for intel imac" it should be the #1 answer.
Is it connected FireWire or USB?
The Maxtor should spin down after a short time even mounted as long as you are not accessing it.
What I do is eject the Maxtor then switch off befor sleeping or shutting down the iMac. Then after waking or starting up the iMac, I switch on the maxtor and it mounts every time.

IMac hard drive refuses to sleep

Hi
I have spent most of the morning trying - and failing - to persuade my late 2012 2.7ghz 21.5" iMac to sleep correctly. Running Yosemite 10.10.1, entering sleep mode turns off the display but the hard drive continues to whirr away continuously. I have tried the following: SMC reset, NVRAM reset, verify and repair disc permissions, creating a guest account and logging into that (problem still there), using Activity Monitor to close down all system and application activity, checking all energy saving and bluetooth settings, turning off file sharing, turning off iCloud drive, powering up in safe mode.
Nothing seems to work. If there's anyone with an idea - or suggestions of something I've missed - then I would be hugely grateful!
Many thanks in advance.

Problem description:
Hard drive won’t sleep
EtreCheck version: 2.1.5 (108)
Report generated 26 December 2014 15:30:49 GMT
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Hardware Information: ℹ️
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012) (Verified)
iMac - model: iMac13,1
1 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4-core
8 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M - VRAM: 512 MB
iMac 1920 x 1080
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 0:13:9
Disk Information: ℹ️
APPLE HDD HTSdisk0 : (1 TB)
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 999.35 GB (544.48 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
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Mac App Store and identified developers
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
/System/Library/Extensions
[not loaded] com.symantec.kext.symdc (1.6) [Support]
[not loaded] com.tomtom.driver.UsbEthernetGadget (1.0.0d1) [Support]
Startup Items: ℹ️
HP Trap Monitor: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HP Trap Monitor
NortonAutoProtect: Path: /Library/StartupItems/NortonAutoProtect
NortonMissedTasks: Path: /Library/StartupItems/NortonMissedTasks
NUMCompatibilityCheck: Path: /Library/StartupItems/NUMCompatibilityCheck
SymDCInit: Path: /Library/StartupItems/SymDCInit
TrackDelete: Path: /Library/StartupItems/TrackDelete
VolumeAssist: Path: /Library/StartupItems/VolumeAssist
Startup items are obsolete in OS X Yosemite
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[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[invalid?] com.amazon.cloud-player.plist [Support]
[running] com.amazon.music.plist [Support]
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Time Machine: ℹ️
Skip System Files: NO
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Auto backup: YES
Volumes being backed up:
Macintosh HD: Disk size: 999.35 GB Disk used: 454.87 GB
Destinations:
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Total size: 499.06 GB
Total number of backups: 4
Oldest backup: 2014-09-17 00:39:05 +0000
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Size of backup disk: Too small
Backup size 499.06 GB < (Disk used 454.87 GB X 3)
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Dec 24, 2014, 12:36:13 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Aperture_2014-12-24-123613_[redacted].hang
Dec 24, 2014, 12:15:37 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/locationd_2014-12-24-121537_[redacted].crash
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Dec 24, 2014, 10:45:57 AM /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/FaceTime_2014-12-24-104557_[re dacted].crash
Dec 24, 2014, 10:45:18 AM /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/FaceTime_2014-12-24-104518_[re dacted].crash
Dec 24, 2014, 09:21:06 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Google Drive_2014-12-24-092106_[redacted].crash
Dec 24, 2014, 09:17:21 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Google Drive_2014-12-24-091721_[redacted].crash

External Hard Drive won't stop sleeping

This is really frustrating me. I have my settings unchecked to allow hard disk to sleep, also my computer is set to never sleep. However whenever I try to access my external drive, I always have to wait several seconds for it to spin up. It's as if OSX is ignoring my preferences and just putting it to sleep still. I don't understand. It's really annoying to have to deal with the lag of drive spin-up all the time. What do I have to do to get my external hard drive to NEVER sleep, so it's always immediately accessible? It's a Samsung Story 1.5gb external USB, not that it should make any difference...

jamesdstark2 wrote:
This is really frustrating me. I have my settings unchecked to allow hard disk to sleep
Some external HDs respond to that setting, some don't. Some won't respond unless you disable the built-in sleep (or "spin down") software. As Baltwo says, check with the maker.

When my screen goes to sleep and then the hard drive goes to sleep why won't the screen wake up?

I can repeat this 100% of the time. If I let the screen go to sleep (or I manually put it to sleep) and I shut the computer so the hard drive goes to sleep (or if the hard drive simply goes to sleep on the timer), when I open the Macbook Pro the screen will not wake up, although I think the hard drive does as the back light on the keyboard turns on. Any ideas on why this is happening. My computer is 4 weeks old...a bit frustrating. The best answer I have gotten is get a new one for Apple...or completely re-install the OS.
Jared

The reason why it's happening is not obvious and can't be determined without more information. The fact that you can reproduce the problem makes it a lot more tractable.
As a first step, boot in safe mode (shift key down at startup.) Can you reproduce the problem now? If so, note the time, then reboot as usual (not in safe mode) and look in the system log for error messages at the time the screen failed to wake up.

HT1776 Mac won't sleep automatically

Despite attending to all of the issues mentioned in this article, my machine won't sleep automatically. However, I've found that using SleepNow (http://www.dragonone.com/products/macosx/pleasesleep/) works like a charm. Apple should do something similar.

Wow thank you. I have been struggling with my macbook for about a year with this issue. Even after complete reinstall of the system, on new hard drives etc. nothing seemed to work. It drove me nuts coming back to my computer 2 hours later to find it completely dead because the computer would. not. sleep. ever!
This free simple tool took about 15 seconds to get on and running, and problem gone. Thanks so much.
Apple get on this...

Pro won't sleep automatically

Bought a new pro and used migration assistant to move stuff from my iMac.
Now the Pro won't sleep automatically. It sleeps when I tell it to or on Schedule at 0100 but not after x mins of inactivity.
The iMac it migrated from had no such issues.
Is there any reset I can do to cure the problem?

I have about a 2 year Mac pro (intel) and it will not sleep on its own. I can manually sleep it.
The hard drive cycles up and down about every 2 minutes or so continually and the display remains blank. It will keep cycling the drive until I manually sleep it.
I tried a few times doing the reset thing and once it helped but in a week or so it started to do it again. I went and made up a new user and it seemed to fix it for a month and then it want back to doing it again. It is very annoying. I even updated it to Leopard and it sill did it. I'll try the reset again and see.

External hard drive won't shut down after switch from OS10.5 to OS10.4.11

i recently chanded my OS from 10.5 to 10.4.11 (as a programme i want to use is not compatible with leopard), but since i have done this my external hard-drive won't shut down automatically when i shut down my mac. i have to switch it off at the plug instead.
can anyone suggest how i can get it to do this again?
i'm a little concerned that i'm damaging the external drive by turning it off manually all the time..
thanks

Some hard drives shut off with shutdown, some don't. Sometimes hard drives that did shut off with one system will not do the same with a different system. My hard drives which did shut off, prior to 10.5 now stay on.
This is not really a problem as all hard drives spin down after 10- 20 minutes when not in use, whether your computer is on or off. Leaving the drive on is fine, shutting it off manually is fine.
-mj
[email protected]

HT4914 if you use iTunes match in order to create space and remove music from your hard drive, does that happen automatically when you subscribe and upload your music or is there another step to remove the music from your hard drive once you've uploaded t

if you use iTunes match in order to create space and remove music from your hard drive, does that happen automatically when you subscribe and upload your music or is there another step to remove the music from your hard drive once you've uploaded to iTunes match?

Welcome to the Apple Community.
iTunes match won't automatically remove content from your computer, if you want to do that you will need to do it manually yourself.

IMac (late 2009) won't sleep automatically

Hi everyone,
I hope anyone can help me out with this:
My iMac doesn't go to sleep automatically after the time I set in the preferences menu. The only thing that happens is that the display switches off.
I already tried several things:
deleted the file com.apple.PowerManagement.plist (Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration)
detached all external devices
SMC reset.
turned off all running applications
None of these solutions worked for me.
I know that the auto sleep worked some months ago, but I don't know what made it not work anymore.
The sleep mode still works when I manually enter it by clicking the sleep button in the Apple menu or by pushing the Mac's power button.
Any ideas except using PleaseSleep?
Thanks for any help!

Hey Mad-Hias, greetings from the US. I use dyndns.com, you can get a free dynamic ip there as well as a Mac client. Many routers have a built in Dynamic DNS service but my Apple Extreme doesn't so I ended up using dyndns...
As for the sleep issue and my take on PleaseSleep. I think that the computer should work, period. If there is something going on that is preventing it from going to sleep when it is idle, I want to know about it in a log file or something, I want the system to do a better job logging this than it is currently doing in the console so that I can troubleshoot and fix and not have to resort to third party software. In OSX, if it is possible to have a process prevent sleep, then there should be a log file to show which processes are preventing sleep...
My latest bought with this lasted 5 months with my 2010 iMac before I decided to fix it:
My findings:
1. Computer will not sleep automatically.
2. What I tried:
PRAM and SMC reset, creating new user accounts and testing, erasing some plist files, unplugging everything, uninstalling hp and brother printer and scanner drivers, closing all apps, restoring default energy saver, looking for stuff in console and activity monitor, NOTHING worked...
for me the combination that fixed it was to make sure your time machine backup is good, deactive your computer in itunes, reinstall your OS from scratch + updates, DON'T restore using the Migration Assistant, this always broke sleep for me. Manually copy back your data using finder + time machine but NOT your apps. For me even the seemingly unrelated act of copying my apps from time machine even to a different drive (not the boot drive), broke sleep! Re-install your apps one by one and everything should work. This is a lot of work but I now have a sleeping computer.
After doing all of this, I discovered that I had installed the dns update app which talks to the update service over the internet every two minutes, breaking sleep...
For the sake of putting a nail on this coffin and putting this issue to "sleep", at least for me, I will do a complete re-install this weekend with a full Time Machine restore using Migration Assistant of all apps + data of my working system and test again. This will give me confidence of using the Migration Assistant in the future.
One thing I almost forgot to mention is that you can use the command "sudo fs_usage" after you've closed all open apps and disabled all types sharing temporarily for your system to quiet down. I discovered the dns update problem this way...It was writing to the hard drive frequently, preventing sleep...

External Hard Drive Won't Mount- Need to recover files

Hello Everyone,
I am hoping that one of you fine mac experts may be able to assist ~
Problem: External Seagate FreeAgent Desktop USB external hard drive
won't mount on desktop=ie: no access to my important files.. Please Help!
Details:
External seagate freeagent 500 GB Desktop USB HD ( only 2 months old)
(using for document / file backup-not as a startup disc)
on my Mac G3 350 MZ Blue & White Tower /768 ram/ running OSX 10.1.5 & OS9.2~
~
Problem: Started using the external 500 GB HD 2 months ago -with no problems-until this morning. Tried to double click to open it to access files
and got the "beach ball of death" and needed to restart.
My trusty G3 started up fine, however, the external HD was now
not showing up on the desktop as normal. I troubleshooted -by restarting,
trying different a/c plugs/ different USB ports , ran disk utility..called
seagate -not much help . Seagate said to try the HD on another mac-which I did-
a G5 tower- same problem.
~
The External hard drive will show up in disk utility, but is grayed out.
and when click "mount" same two messages keep showing:
message 1: "a disk attempting to mount as unknown has failed verification or has failed to
mount.please use disk utility to check the disk"
~
message 2- when unplugging and repluggin the usb in-and upon
restart:" you have inserted a disk containg no volumes that mac osx
can read to use unreadable volumes,click initialize to continue with the disk inserted ,click continue"
~
( I really need access to these files- and do not want to re-initialize the HD!!)
I ran Disk Utility /first aid "verify & repair , the following info came up:
Repairing disk "main backup 2007 ".
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid key length ( <<<IN RED )
Repair completed. "
~~
Though it said the repair was completed, the "invalid key length" issue
still comes up when re-running disk utility...Hard drive would still not
mount on desktop-even after restarting .
~~~~~
If there is a mac genius out there that can help?- it would be greatly
appreciated. I have tried to call seagate several times in the last several hours-
1st time-they disconnected me after being on hold 10 minutes-2nd call
I was put on hold for 40 minutes ..Finally spoke to someone ( they are not mac users or mac experts!)and he said I would need to send it to Seagate's Data Recovery-... for a fee of course!
~~~
At this point, I am hoping to just get the files and photos off
the hard drive- I heard about Disk Warrior-should I use that and if so
what version?
Thank you very much!
L

Will zapping the PRAM be of any use in getting the external to mount on the desktop?
Your external Hard drive is already recognized. But it cannot be mounted on the desktop due to its directory damage. You can certainly Zap the PRAM, and it will not hurt anything, but I am skeptical that it will change the situation.
Do you think the Disk Warrior 4.0 cd will even work on my G3 350MHZ running Mac OS 10.1.5?
If you boot from the CD and run it from the CD, absolutely yes. If you attempt to INSTALL it from a download or a CD, probably not.
Have you ever used Disc Warrior and is using it complicated?
I own and use Disk Warrior. You select the drive to be rebuilt, it builds a proposed new directory from the information and file fragments available.
When complete, it will provide a list of problems encountered, tell you what files have been placed in the "Rescued Items" folder, and allow you too look at your drive using the proposed new directory. Your only decision is whether the new directory seems to be an improvement over the old \[in your case, hopelessly corrupted] directory. You then tell it whether to replace the old directory with the proposed new directory, or to abandon its work and leave your Hard Drive unchanged.
Is there a good chance that the ext HD will still have my files on it- or do you think from what I've described that they are gone ?
From what you have described, your files are very likely to still be there. Sometimes in a situation like this, a handful of files cannot be recovered.
My other thought was to take the external HD there and have them try to recover the files.
Make sure you completely understand the costs involved. File recovery using a service like DriveSavers can run into many hundreds of dollars. They are prepared to disassemble your drive in a clean room and replace controller boards and read/write heads to achieve success. Your drive has serious, but not fatal, Directory damage. The Hardware, and most of your files, are likely just fine.

External hard drive won't mount, even after disk repair.

My Toshiba external hard drive won't mount on my MacBook Pro 10.8.5. I can see it in my disk repair, and when I repair, "the partition map appears to be ok." But I can't access the icon to be able to open the hard drive contents on my desktop. Help!

Hello maccynicwhoalwayshasmacs,
Thanks for the question. After reviewing your post, it sounds like trouble with an external HD mounting. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help you resolve or isolate the issue.
USB and FireWire Quick Assist
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Have a nice day,
Mario

New hard drive won't recognize my iPhone

My hard drive crashed and my replacement hard drive won't recognize my iPhone. I can see all my content, but can't move or replace it. I was able to access content on my iTouch just fine and luckily synched my contacts back into my laptop, but no dice on the phone. Any ideas? BTW, my phone is a jailbroken original iPhone and I am not particularly proficient with this kind of stuff.

Does it boot into Open Firmware with CMDOption+of ?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42642
reset-nvram (press Enter)
set-defaults (press Enter)
reset-all (press Enter)
Have you done a PRAM reset...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Hard Drive won't Sleep automatically

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