Mystified about Sleep

[DanL]

I'm using a MacBook Pro with 10.11.6. I want the machine to sleep. (Funny reason. My cat likes to sit on my warm computers, and when my other laptops sleep, they cool off, so she isn't up there when I'm not around.) I pull down Apple->Sleep, and the screen goes dark. But the sleep indicator light at lower right on the chassis (you know, the one that is supposed to slowly BREATHE on and off when asleep), just sits there half illuminated. On my other machines those lights breathe normally when they're supposed to be asleep. The machine doesn't seem to cool off. So is it asleep? If not, how do I force it to sleep? No applications are running, and the activity monitor says that none of the active processes should prevent sleep. In fact, that machine still shows up as available for sharing on my Network, so it can't be asleep. Very puzzling.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hi,

Does it fully enter sleep mode if you close the lid instead of using  > Sleep?

You can try these two resets:
-How to reset the SMC of your Mac
-Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac

C

 

[DanL]

When I close the lid, the sleep light just stays on bright.

But then resetting the SMC seemed to do the trick. It's sleeping happily now, "breathing" convincingly, and cooling. Also, it's off the network. SMC reset seems to cure insomnia. Thanks!

This seems to be an understood problem and remedy.

MacBook Air Won’t Sleep? Fix it with an SMC Reset

I’ve gotten in the habit of immediately putting my MacBook Air to sleep by shutting the lid, by far the easiest method if you’re on the go. Typically this works without a hitch, but tod…

osxdaily.com

Also, when you close the lid, it takes a minute or so for the sleep light (I understand it's actually called the "SIL" = sleep indicator light) to start doing its thing. Now it does.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Yes, that is the best first step, as the SMC controls several things replacted to power and sleep.

Glad that worked for you.

C

 

[DanL]

I should add that one strangeness about Mac Sleep is that it doesn't always go to sleep immediately. Some strange delays. If you pull down to Sleep, the screen will either go blank immediately, or else it may take 30 seconds to decide to do so. Same with the terminal command "pmset sleepnow". Now, that delay is different from the SIL delay. The screen may blank immediately, but the SIL still won't start to "breathe" for 30 seconds or so after that.

So if you command it to sleep, it can take a full minute to do so. At least part of my original problem of getting the Mac to sleep may have been just not being patient enough to let it do so.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Yes, when the Mac goes to sleep, it writes things to temporary files, so that it can restore them when it wakes. It can take a few moments before it completely sleeps.

C

 

[DanL]

Lots more than "a few moments". Also, I'm surprised that anything needs to be restored. If you just stop everything, when you turn it back on, I'd think it would be just as you left it before. Maybe the proper terminal command should be "pmset sleepeventually."