New Mac Is Waking Stuff Up...

[Ginsly]

I'm loathe to post this here, but... anybody a Mac wiz?

I just upgraded to a 2022 Mac Mini Studio for recording, and it's the first time I've used a separate monitor (been using iMacs for many years). I have a Samsung C34J791WTN monitor connected via Thunderbolt 3/USB-C cable and my Scarlett interface connected via USB C/A.

When I walk by the room I'm randomly seeing that the monitor has woken up, albeit briefly - it does go back to sleep by itself. Seems to happen a lot, though. The green "USB Connected" LED on the Scarlett also lights up, then eventually goes back off as it does when I put the Mac to sleep. That tells me it's likely not the monitor. The Mac itself does NOT seem to be waking up by itself, though - I'd need to click the mouse in order for that to happen. It's like the Mac's ports are getting little bursts of juice while asleep that wake up any connected peripherals. I have all three Energy Saver settings Off, including Wake For Network Access.

I called Apple and they were spectacularly unhelpful. Any idea what might be going on and how to stop it? It seems unnecessarily taxing on the monitor.

I'd be HUGELY appreciative of any help. This is kinda driving me crazy.

 

[Brett]

Check preferences and power save/efficiency settings. Change your idle time/wake times to prevent background wakeups that refresh things like mail, etc.

 

[jwin615]

I'd check this stuff

If your Mac won’t go to or stay in sleep

Check your sleep settings, Bluetooth settings, sharing preferences, system activity, and other possible causes.

support.apple.com

But it could also be the webcam/it sensor causing activity. Especially if it happens every time you get near it.
Network activity and printer sharing are the major culprit though.

 

[Brett]

See if you can screenshot your energy saver settings.

 

[Ginsly]

In Energy Saver, I have all three settings “off”:
- Prevent Automatic Sleeping When The Display Is Off (off)
- Wake For Network Access (off)
- Start Up Automatically After A Power Failure (off)

The Mac itself doesn’t seem to be waking randomly, just both peripherals.

Other than setting when the screen saver starts and the display goes to sleep after inactivity I don’t really see any other wake/sleep options. I have absolutely nothing set up on the Mac yet, and as far as I know I have all “background activity while sleeping” kinda things turned off. Time Machine isn’t set up either.

The monitor’s Thunderbolt/USB-C ports are capable of charging laptops so I considered that may be part of the issue, but it doesn’t explain why it’s also happening with the USB-A connected interface. Weird.

 

[derevaun]

Are certain USB-C ports always powered for charging? They might have a routine that would do that. Some ports might not have that feature?

 

[Ginsly]

Are certain USB-C ports always powered for charging? They might have a routine that would do that. Some ports might not have that feature?

The monitor’s Thunderbolt/USB-C ports can charge a laptop, and I‘m thinking this is part of the issue. Then again, the Scarlett interface is also waking up when the monitor does and it’s connected via USB-A…

 

[jimilee]

I'm loathe to post this here, but... anybody a Mac wiz?

I just upgraded to a 2022 Mac Mini Studio for recording, and it's the first time I've used a separate monitor (been using iMacs for many years). I have a Samsung C34J791WTN monitor connected via Thunderbolt 3/USB-C cable and my Scarlett interface connected via USB C/A.

When I walk by the room I'm randomly seeing that the monitor has woken up, albeit briefly - it does go back to sleep by itself. Seems to happen a lot, though. The green "USB Connected" LED on the Scarlett also lights up, then eventually goes back off as it does when I put the Mac to sleep. That tells me it's likely not the monitor. The Mac itself does NOT seem to be waking up by itself, though - I'd need to click the mouse in order for that to happen. It's like the Mac's ports are getting little bursts of juice while asleep that wake up any connected peripherals. I have all three Energy Saver settings Off, including Wake For Network Access.

I called Apple and they were spectacularly unhelpful. Any idea what might be going on and how to stop it? It seems unnecessarily taxing on the monitor.

I'd be HUGELY appreciative of any help. This is kinda driving me crazy.

Mine does the same thing.

 

[RetiredUnit1]

Not a mac guy.... Does your mouse wake up the system? They're very sensitive to vibration. I have a wireless and have to turn it off.

I started programming in 1974.... WAY before microcomputers

 

[Ginsly]

Not a mac guy.... Does your mouse wake up the system? They're very sensitive to vibration. I have a wireless and have to turn it off.

I started programming in 1974.... WAY before microcomputers

I considered that for sure, but the computer itself would be waking up. The same thing happens with an external drive I have connected; occasionally the drive will “wake up” and start spinning for a bit before going back to sleep, even though I don’t have any syncing/backup/etc set up.

 

[jwin615]

I would say unplug everything. Then add 1 device back at a time.

 

[RetiredUnit1]

I considered that for sure, but the computer itself would be waking up. The same thing happens with an external drive I have connected; occasionally the drive will “wake up” and start spinning for a bit before going back to sleep, even though I don’t have any syncing/backup/etc set up.

I would consider that to highly likely be a part of the problem. I keep my external drive turned off unless I'm doing a backup. I've been building PC's since the 386 was released back in the very early 90's. MAC O/S is very different than Micro$UCK but hardware is no longer proprietary Apple.

 

[Ginsly]

I would consider that to highly likely be a part of the problem.

I'd tend to agree with that, but the external drive was detached during all of the initial troubleshooting. I think whatever "wakes up the ports but not the Mac" is affecting anything plugged in - it doesn't seem to be one peripheral setting things in motion.

That being said, I did switch from Thunderbolt to HDMI for the monitor. I haven't seen it wake up since. I then plugged in the external drive and IT has been waking up as I had mentioned... argh, I think it's just something I have to live with. It's not a huge deal, other than unnecessary wear and tear on the external drive. There's some important stuff on there (backed up elsewhere, of course).

 

[RetiredUnit1]

I'd tend to agree with that, but the external drive was detached during all of the initial troubleshooting. I think whatever "wakes up the ports but not the Mac" is affecting anything plugged in - it doesn't seem to be one peripheral setting things in motion.

That being said, I did switch from Thunderbolt to HDMI for the monitor. I haven't seen it wake up since. I then plugged in the external drive and IT has been waking up as I had mentioned... argh, I think it's just something I have to live with. It's not a huge deal, other than unnecessary wear and tear on the external drive. There's some important stuff on there (backed up elsewhere, of course).

Maybe post this some place where the computer can see it!

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

 

[RetiredUnit1]

I'd tend to agree with that, but the external drive was detached during all of the initial troubleshooting. I think whatever "wakes up the ports but not the Mac" is affecting anything plugged in - it doesn't seem to be one peripheral setting things in motion.

That being said, I did switch from Thunderbolt to HDMI for the monitor. I haven't seen it wake up since. I then plugged in the external drive and IT has been waking up as I had mentioned... argh, I think it's just something I have to live with. It's not a huge deal, other than unnecessary wear and tear on the external drive. There's some important stuff on there (backed up elsewhere, of course).

I have an annoying problem with my system. When I'm connected to the internet it will just suspend the keyboard for a half a second. Since I can type three letters in that time, it SUCKS. So anytime I'm not on the web I reach over and yank the Ethernet cable out of the back of my PC.

If you do that, does it still wake up? This problem began right after a Windoze automatic update. I'm hoping they fix it soon....