After Mountain Lion upgrade Mac sleeps and stops downloads

[sweetbrat]

This is causing problems for me, too. I use an online backup service for my business files, and I usually run it at night so it doesn't slow my connection down during the day when I'm working. Used to be that if it was uploading files, the computer would stay connected until the job was finished. Not anymore. It's great that you can use Safari to keep downloads going, but there's other tasks where the only way around it is to force the computer to never sleep.

 

[Suzatlarge]

also having this problem with mountain lion, aggresively put the machine to sleep even when i'm encoding video, downloading files, streaming content to apple tv.

right now the only solution for me is set the energy saver to never.[snip]

Me too. I was using Safari to upload files for storage to an online account, and ML didn't care. Just went to sleep per the machine sleep setting and paused the upload all night. I specifically chose to use Safari in hopes it would play nicely - and according to the system settings, which include "Wake on network access" in preferences, and a wireless network via a 2011 Apple Extreme Base Station which does have "wake on wireless" supported.

The iMac also goes to sleep when in the middle of an application task, such as bulk file conversions. Unless I want to literally physically baby-sit it by occasionally touching a key or the mouse, I suppose my only option is to set the computer sleep time to "never." Which I really don't want to do, but needs must.

I've filed a bug report on this. (BTW, I performed both SMC and PRAM resets. Didn't help.)

 

[colloc]

I use InsomniaX to disable Lid sleep/Idle sleep when downloading on ML. Try it! Works like a charm.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

I looked on the net, and I found this new feature: PowerNap. Except that my mac is not the Retina one and so it is incompatible with that. But as I describe above, it used to behave just like they describe in PowerNap!!!!

No, it wasn't. Previously your macbook was not asleep for whatever reason, it had just dimmed your screen and locked your desktop.

It is now behaving as it should i.e actually going to sleep. The most likely explanation is that whatever mechanism the apps were using to keep the macbook awake are no longer working. The apps will probably need updating...

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and according to the system settings, which include "Wake on network access" in preferences, and a wireless network via a 2011 Apple Extreme Base Station which does have "wake on wireless" supported.

Those settings refer to incoming network connections, not outgoing from your Mac.

 

[Touchstone64]

+1 for annoyance.

I run AirVideo on the MBP so I can watch video on my iPad when I choose. The MBP used to 'wake for network traffic' when the AirVideo client connected, then stayed awake while the streaming server was doing something (like, er, streaming a video).

Now, the MBP goes to sleep while the video is playing. Hurrumph.

Presumably AirVideo will need to be modified to handle this change in OS behaviour.

 

[Suzatlarge]

Those settings refer to incoming network connections, not outgoing from your Mac.

And if that's true, they are being ignored by ML. Incoming network connections don't wake it. When I've left Safari windows open with my Gmail inbox and Facebook news feeds at bedtime, those pages are not refreshed when I wake the computer in the morning. I have to refresh the pages, and only then do they load any overnight content. Before ML, they displayed the new overnight content when I woke the computer, without needing updating. Last night I set "computer sleep" to "never." When I woke the computer display just now, my Gmail and FB pages already displayed the new content loaded overnight.

So, it seems there are two problems:

One: with ML, the computer ignores the "Wake on network access" setting despite it being authorized by my AEBS.

Two: with ML, the only kind of "activity" that will keep the computer from going to sleep is a manual touch of the keyboard or mouse. Ongoing computing activity - processing files or uploading via Safari, in my case - is not perceived as "activity" for purposes of keeping the computer awake.

Under Mountain Lion, my iMac has become very needy. I now must physically touch it to keep it working or rouse it from a nap. Annoying.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

And if that's true, they are being ignored by ML. Incoming network connections don't wake it. When I've left Safari windows open with my Gmail inbox and Facebook news feeds at bedtime, those pages are not refreshed

Sorry, I should have been more clear. Those options are used in a similar fashion to Wake On Lan:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3774

Apple has extended Wake On Lan and called it "Bonjour Sleep Proxy". It requires an appropriate Time Capsule or Airport device to function.

An example would be if i'm trying to connect to a shared drive on a Mac which is asleep, the Time Capsule intercepts these requests and then sends a special network packet to the network card of the sleeping Mac which then wakes up.

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Under Mountain Lion, my iMac has become very needy. I now must physically touch it to keep it working or rouse it from a nap. Annoying.

For those times when you want your Mac to stay awake but you don't want to fiddle with the power options, have you tried Caffeine?

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/caffeine/id411246225?mt=12

 

[littyboy]

Went from Lion to Mountain Lion basically fail to more fail.

 

[Suzatlarge]

Yes, I read that cited article before posting here, and my home wifi network is hosted by a 2011 Airport Extreme Base Station which supports that feature. I have checked the settings and confirmed that. I'll take your word for it that the feature doesn't apply to my mundane incoming internet connections (email, websites open on my browser).

But for whatever reason, it is nonetheless true that under ML, I am having the two issues I described above, and that's different from the iMac's behavior under prior OS's (SL and Lion for sure).

Thanks for the Caffeine suggestion, but for now it's less of a fuss for me to just tweak the power/sleep settings as needed than fiddle with another app. And to keep my home office Vornado fan aimed to circulate plenty of air around my iMac, to help dissipate some of the heat. Although I have learned now that when the display sleeps, the computer doesn't get nearly as hot even in "never sleep" mode.

 

[evertdin]

caffeinate command used for utorrent

Can't use Safari for torrent downloads, so no, doesn't solve the problems. And if I leave an encode going during the night with Handbrake, it goes to sleep after 15 min. In other words, suffering...

It's not very Apple-like that we have to resort to some command line utility. But I will check that utility, thanks.

Hi Mackan,
I have always used uTorrent on windows for my torrent-downloads. When I got my first Mac 1 month ago, Mac Mini (mid 2011), I was amazed at how Lion handled uTorrent! The Lion slept, while the torrents were downloading. For 2 days I worked like this. When I saw a FREE upgrade possibility for Mountain Lion I did not hesitate and downloaded...... expecting it to be better ofcourse..... I was wrong.

I use the mac solely for downloads and watching movies and shows(hooked up to my Sony LED 46HX820...sweet!).
After some browsing I finally found the caffeinate command to be the best work-around see (h t t p : //apple. stackexchange. com/questions/57951/mountain-lion-sleeps-too-aggressively), that is until the guys at uTorrent update the software, which they promised to do see (h t t p : //forum. utorrent . com / viewtopic . php ? id= 122652)

This is my setup:
My sleep settings for screen and hard disks are set to 1 minute, just because, I don't know, just because!

I open Terminal and use this command everytime I start downloads with uTorrent:
caffeinate -i open -W -a utorrent.app

This should keep the system awake as long as uTorrent is running and not idle. To prevent any sleep at all, use -s instead of -i.

And I always set my uTorrent to Sleep After Downloads Complete.

I hope this helps you and some others.
Ofcourse, this is not what we want eventually, but I don't find it necessary to go back to Lion for this problem and I just hope the app will get an update!
Good luck

 

[Repo]

Forgive me if someone has already asked this, but does anyone think this is Apple's sick way of screwing over Mountain Lion customers who don't own a flash-based MacBook that can utilize Power Nap?

 

[Sensamic]

I found this problem yesterday. Now I'm going back to lion. Had no problems there.

ML had been full of bugs for me. Well wait for 10.8.3 or stay with lion.

 

[desertman]

Having the same problem (especially with backups and downloads) on my iMac that came already with OS X 10.8. Caffeine is nice but unfortunately not cutting it because I want my three screens to sleep when I'm not there but I also want my backups still to happen.

I consider this to be an arrogant badness from Apple.This feature should be optional. I don't like to be forced to use certain applications for certain tasks and I don't like to be forced to buy updates when previous versions work just fine (i. e. Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.5).

 

[Birsay]

Similar issue here--very inconvenient to change something that worked perfectly fine. It seems that before I upgraded to Mountain Lion, Snow Leopard saw putting the display to sleep and putting the computer to sleep as two different things. To save power and keep things neat, I used hot corners to turn the screen black whenever I left my computer for awhile, keeping my applications running. Now in ML it puts the display and computer to sleep, cutting the wireless, stopping downloads, and so on. It also requires a mouse click to turn the screen on again instead of just moving the mouse. Why can't both of these options be available? Is there a better solution than using Caffeine?

 

[Narial Taster]

The aggressive sleep problem crops up even when the App Store is downloading updates. The fact that it is not possible to put the display to sleep without putting the computer to sleep is very annoying! Does 10.8.2 fix any of this?

 

[Mr. G4]

Before the 10.8.2, I was able to set the time with Caffeine and it would work...after 10.8.2, each time I watch flash video such as youtube in full screen or even Facetime, ML would go to sleep and even when I wake it up it would go back to sleep after a few minutes.

I read somewhere that because of video memory leaks so when the video ram is full ML put itself to sleep no matter what.

Does anyone have the same problem?

 

[Mr. G4]

I did the PRAM and SMC reset...everything seem back to normal.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3819550?start=0&tstart=0

 

[IeU]

This seems to be affecting me when running Handbrake. Any one else experiencing the same (Mac going to sleep while Handbrake is converting something)?

 

[Mr. G4]

Well it didn't fixed it completely...I noticed that if I have itune on, and I watch hiDef streaming, Facetime or even hiDef VLC film viewing it would do that and I have to reboot my iMac then it will go away.

 

[mrbkk]

This seems to be affecting me when running Handbrake. Any one else experiencing the same (Mac going to sleep while Handbrake is converting something)?

Yes, I'm having the same problem with Handbrake.
Ridiculous.

 

[jmpage2]

This seems to be affecting me when running Handbrake. Any one else experiencing the same (Mac going to sleep while Handbrake is converting something)?

Yes this happens to me regularly. I have been using caffeine to keep the Mac awake when I am doing a big encode. It's annoying.

 

[MacMan988]

I'm having the same issue with downloads. I will try a PRAM and SMC reset as previously mentioned by someone.

Edit: my computer is a macbook pro late 2011 and I have upgraded from Lion to Mountain Lion.

 

[colloc]

Forgive me if someone has already asked this, but does anyone think this is Apple's sick way of screwing over Mountain Lion customers who don't own a flash-based MacBook that can utilize Power Nap?

I don't think Power Nap lets you download files during sleep. It only allows downloads from the App Store. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[parish]

Sorry for dragging up an old thread, but I've just discovered that this problem affects App Store. Set it d/ling XCode on my rMBP, connected to a power source, and went for a shower and rustle up some food. Came back an hour later to find the MBP had gone to sleep and paused the d/l.

Other posters have suggested using Safari for d/ls as it keeps the Mac awake, but you can't d/l apps with Safari. Why the hell haven't Apple made App Store behave like Safari????

EDIT: Just been to Energy Saver prefs to enable Power Nap and found it is already enabled!!!

 

[jacurtis]

Problem is More Serious than Most Realize

It seems that many of you are happy with the safari work around or by doing the caffienate terminal command. I'm sorry, but for me that won't cut it.

This is a serious issue for me, it is borderline bad enough that I am thinking about downgrading back to Lion. This sleep function needs to be fixed.

Maybe it is just that I am a power user, but I am surprised that no one else has encountered any of the following issues that I have because of this annoying bug:

1) I can not access my computer via TeamViewer when I am away, because the computer is essentially turned off. I have to call someone that is at home (if someone is) to tell them to wake up my computer

2) Running long rendering processes which require the computer to run without my babysitting, such as torrents, downloads, movie renders, uploading large files to FTP server, etc.

3) This is especially horrible with After Effects. Most AE files take hours to render, I have done one once that took a full 24 hours. I can not sit and babysit my mac from falling asleep during the process and fear it going to sleep and ruining the whole render.
-- Sidenote, I never use my computer when an AE file is rendering. I always run them when I know I will not need the computer because they use 98% of your computer's resources making even basic web surfing impossible.

4) AppleTV will not find my mac when it is in sleep mode now (it used to in Lion)

5) I run lots of Batch Processes and Scripts on my computer, those can not run when mac goes to sleep.

6) My iPhone stops charging if I leave it plugged in and then mac goes to sleep.

7) I have a program that sets up automatic backups (it isn't time machine, its a 3rd party software). It used to work fine on lion, my stuff was always backed up, but now it will not work because my mac is always sleeping. Then I turn it on and I get annoying messages, "Your Mac has not been backed up for more than 24 hours, make sure your computer is turned on and connected to the internet"

8) Junk mail filters, I run them on my mac, they filter out my junk mail on my private server and delete them before they ever make it to my iPhone or iPad. But because of this new feature, I go to sleep at night, so does my computer, and then i wake up with all this junk mail, and even if I wake it up then and let it run, then it will be there when i am at work because it goes back to sleep.

These are incredible annoyances. I love my mac, but this makes the mac incredibly useless in many fashions. I understand that there is the little app, caffeine, and I have had that for a long time, it works if I remember to turn it on. But in reality, i don't ever want my computer to go to sleep. I will turn if off when I don't want it on, otherwise I want it on. Dear Apple, I am old enough and spent enough money on my computer to make decisions for it as to when it turns off and when it is turned on. Please don't mess with it, and lets bring back the way it worked in Lion.