MacBook Pro Insomnia • Hacker News Board

Re: MacBook Pro Insomnia

#221

Post by matthewfcarlson » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 3:41 PM UTC

I also have a MacBook that does not sleep. You click on the sleep button in the menu and nothing happens. You shut the lid and nothing happens. If I have anything running when I finish for the day I'll wake up to a completely dead laptop. Like dead as in time lost, clock is 12:00. I was hoping this post might provide some helpful tips, but sadly not. Definitely going to use this tool in the future.

It's a really nice machine (128GB ram, 4TB machine). The default for devs here is to get re-use units (ie laptops that people returned or were store demos). Part of me wonders if this laptop was returned for a reason.

Re: MacBook Pro Insomnia

#222

Post by Nezteb » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 3:51 PM UTC

causal wrote: post #220

teejmya wrote: post #51

I've worked around this problem on each mac laptop I've owned over the years by configuring "hibernate on lid close." When I open the lid of the mac it takes maybe 20-30 seconds to resume. I consider this a small price to pay in exchange for reliable sleep and less battery drain with the lid closed. If you want to try this, run in the terminal: sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25 If you don't like it, you can restore defa…

Can you explain what this does?

From `man pmset`:

    SAFE SLEEP ARGUMENTS
        hibernatemode supports values of 0, 3, or 25. Whether or not a hibernation image gets
        written is also dependent on the values of standby and autopoweroff
    
        For example, on desktops that support standby a hibernation image will be written after the
        specified standbydelay time. To disable hibernation images completely, ensure hibernatemode
        standby and autopoweroff are all set to 0.
    
        hibernatemode = 0 by default on desktops. The system will not back memory up to persistent
        storage. The system must wake from the contents of memory; the system will lose context on
        power loss. This is, historically, plain old sleep.
    
        hibernatemode = 3 by default on portables. The system will store a copy of memory to
        persistent storage (the disk), and will power memory during sleep. The system will wake from
        memory, unless a power loss forces it to restore from hibernate image.
    
        hibernatemode = 25 is only settable via pmset. The system will store a copy of memory to
        persistent storage (the disk), and will remove power to memory. The system will restore from
        disk image. If you want "hibernation" - slower sleeps, slower wakes, and better battery
        life, you should use this setting.
    
        Please note that hibernatefile may only point to a file located on the root volume.

Re: MacBook Pro Insomnia

#223

Post by bartvk » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 6:51 PM UTC

matthewfcarlson wrote: post #221

I also have a MacBook that does not sleep. You click on the sleep button in the menu and nothing happens. You shut the lid and nothing happens. If I have anything running when I finish for the day I'll wake up to a completely dead laptop. Like dead as in time lost, clock is 12:00. I was hoping this post might provide some helpful tips, but sadly not. Definitely going to use this tool in the future. It's a really nice…

128 GIGABYTES of memory? I didn’t even know that was possible. I know your point was that the sleep malfunctions, but I am curious: this is a beast of a machine, what do you use the memory for? Do you ever quit an app completely? Have you ever tested the limit? If you ever worked with one, is it noticeably faster than the base model?

Re: MacBook Pro Insomnia

#224

Post by zarzavat » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 6:54 PM UTC

dannyw wrote: post #191

zarzavat wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not crack the lid a little? No way I'm letting the display of my very expensive laptop contact the chassis while it's in operation.

It’s Apple and I trust that they have thought of this, and designed to support this.

Every single one of my Apple rubberized cables has disintegrated. Every. Single. One. MagSafe chargers and iPhone cables.

Yes Apple build quality is high, but it's not perfect. It's an iron law of electronics that heat shortens lifespan, so taking a large surface that is used for heat dissipation and putting your screen directly on top... I wouldn't do that with mine but you do you.

Re: MacBook Pro Insomnia

#225

Post by m463 » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 6:59 PM UTC

t-sauer wrote: post #192

m463 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish ios had insights (and controls) like this. So many apps have telemetry and data collection and notifications that eat up your battery and bandwidth for business (no good) reasons.

Can't you effectively check that through the background activity time in the battery usage overview?

I don't think that tells you anything except gross offenders.

I ran this app call Adblock which creates an on-device VPN (checks dns request)

Found for example the kindle (or audible?) app still does telemetry even if cellular data is turned off (to a2z.com)

Re: MacBook Pro Insomnia

#226

Post by tiagod » Fri, Aug 01, 2025, 7:05 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #42

In my case the culprit is always all the security spyware/crapware that my employer has installed on the macbook.

I had an issue when building large js projects would be very slow. Tracked it down to endpoint security.

Running ripgrep on / would use 1 core, with the remaining 11 at 100% from the probe service...

Re: MacBook Pro Insomnia

#227

Post by martin82 » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 6:56 AM UTC

bhattisatish wrote: post #214

bredren wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I use this all the time now. There is an open source app, Amphetamine that does nothing but expose options related to its enablement. Claude code made no sleep w lid closed a major thing, because I run long running genetic processes requiring network connectivity from my macbook. Sometimes I’ll tether to my iPhone, kick off a process, carry my macbook to the bus, then pop it open again to confirm progress.…

`caffeinate -s ` should do the trick. You don't need anything else. `caffeinate -d` will disable the shutting down of display. `caffeinate -w ` will watch a process and will goto sleep once that process is finished.

oh wow... 10 years on MacOS and I had no idea this is a thing

Re: MacBook Pro Insomnia

#228

Post by yawz » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 1:29 PM UTC

jessriedel wrote: post #144

duderific wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It took me a while and a couple of re-reads to parse out the same conclusion. Basically they're batched instead of happening continuously.

Batching isn't mentioned anywhere. Do you have a positive reason to think this, or is it just the easiest hypothesis (besides a typo) explain what the author wrote?

> "With the setting disabled, the Mac got into a kind of wake-up frenzy, instead of waking up and processing events in batch every hour"

Re: MacBook Pro Insomnia

#229

Post by ThePowerOfFuet » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 2:13 PM UTC

mlyle wrote: post #65

cruffle_duffle wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah. Your answer just has more questions. What on earth is requesting so many DHCP leases?

You've never accidentally spun something up that consumes all the leases? It's just been a couple of times, but I've definitely done it (e.g. bridged a couple of networks that shouldn't have been). But mostly, it's the other two things: it provides me with a list of hosts active now, and if the DHCP server is subtly broken I get a sentinel signal of something being wrong earlier (and it tends to be a partial instead…

Yeah, there's a lot of room to play between 900 and 86400 seconds.

Extremes of any sort generally aren't good. You fucked around and you found that out.

Re: MacBook Pro Insomnia

#230

Post by mlyle » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 3:06 PM UTC

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #229

mlyle wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've never accidentally spun something up that consumes all the leases? It's just been a couple of times, but I've definitely done it (e.g. bridged a couple of networks that shouldn't have been). But mostly, it's the other two things: it provides me with a list of hosts active now, and if the DHCP server is subtly broken I get a sentinel signal of something being wrong earlier (and it tends to be a partial instead…

Yeah, there's a lot of room to play between 900 and 86400 seconds. Extremes of any sort generally aren't good. You fucked around and you found that out.

> You fucked around and you found that out.

I haven't had any notable issues with values in the 600-1200 second range, actually. (My macs don't wakeup to keepalive network on battery, though).