How can I put my MacBook Air into sleep mode?

Question

Level 1

6 points

How can I put my MacBook Air into sleep mode?

My macbook will not go to sleep when clicking the apple and scrolling down to sleep. It initially appears to sleep with going to a black screen, but after 1-2 seconds the desktop opens back up. I've opened Task Manager and executed a force quit on all apps. Finder will not quit. Maybe that's normal. I'm still learning my way around Macs.

What can I do to put my laptop into sleep mode?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Air (M3, 2024)

Posted on Nov 24, 2024 8:34 AM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

154,348 points

Nov 24, 2024 7:05 PM in response to MacMiniAudio

Your MacBook Air should go to sleep when selecting Apple menu > Sleep, but since it's waking up immediately, there might be a configuration or peripheral issue causing it to stay awake.

I suggest trying the following: (Note: I'm assuming that your laptop is running macOS Sonoma.)

Check Prevent Sleep Settings

Go to Apple menu > System Settings > Battery > Options...
Ensure that "Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off" is disabled.

Verify Connected Peripherals

Disconnect all external devices (e.g., USB drives, external monitors, hubs).

Identify Apps or Processes Preventing Sleep

Open Activity Monitor
In the Energy tab, check for apps or processes with "Preventing Sleep" listed under Preventing Sleep.
Quit any unnecessary app using high resources or explicitly preventing sleep.

Check Finder and Background Tasks

It’s normal for Finder not to quit as it's a system process. If Finder feels unresponsive, try Force Relaunch:
- Right-click Finder in the Dock > Relaunch.
Make sure no tasks like copying files are running in Finder, which might prevent sleep.

Adjust Bluetooth Settings

If you’re using Bluetooth devices, go to System Settings > Bluetooth.
Uncheck "Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this Mac".

Check Sleep/Wake Logs

Open Console
Navigate to Log Reports > system.log to see if a specific app, peripheral, or task is preventing sleep.

If none of the above helps, there are three other items I can suggest:

Create a new user account. Log out of the current user, and then, log back in with the new account. See if this resolves the sleep issue. If not, go on to the next step.
Re-install macOS
Contact Apple Support directly for further assistance with this issue.

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Answer 2

MacMiniAudio Author

Level 1

6 points

Dec 5, 2024 6:07 PM in response to Tesserax

Thank you for this detailed response. I've done all of the above and still am unable to get it to sleep.

A few unclear details on my part.

1 - Under Identifying Apps or Processes preventing sleep - all either said "no" or had a "-" symbol. Does that mean none are preventing sleep?

2 - I was not able to get Finder to relaunch per your instructions. There was no "relaunch" option in the menu. However, it did let me kill the process in Activity Monitor. I assume it relaunched as it suddenly moved down in the activity list and after a few seconds resumed its previous position.

3 - I'm not currently using any bluetooth devices and disabled bluetooth. Though I'll likely use it in the future.

4 - Results of Sleep/Wake logs:

Dec 5 20:20:07 MacBook-Name syslogd[117]: ASL Sender Statistics

Dec 5 20:30:11 MacBook-Name syslogd[117]: ASL Sender Statistics

5 - Killed Brave process just to see if it was the culprit. It still would not sleep.

Update: I just read if my Mac is sharing resources it may not go into sleep mode. I have a Note that is shared with my iPhone. Could that be the culprit? If so, is there a setting that would correct for it or how do I stop sharing?

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Answer 3

HWTech

Level 9

63,068 points

Dec 6, 2024 8:05 PM in response to MacMiniAudio

Other things that can wake the laptop:

If you connect or disconnect any devices from the Mac, it can wake it up.

If you touch any key, it will wake up the laptop.

If you touch the Trackpad, it will wake the laptop.

If the laptop has a bad Lid Angle Sensor (2019+), then moving the Clamshell Lid could wake the laptop even if you are closing the lid.

You can try using the following Terminal command to see what the wake reason may be (it can sometimes be hard to understand the meanings from the output):

pmset  -g  log  |  grep  -iE  'sleep  |wake  '  |  grep  '2024-12-06 '

You can modify the last section showing the date & time. The command shown will show all sleep & wake entries for Dec. 6, 2024. The time displayed in the output will be 24 hour format. The two spaces after "sleep " and "wake " are critical for minimizing the output to the relevant entries.

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