Category: Apple

If you Mac (particularly Mac Mini) goes to sleep or hibernates even though you have disabled sleep in the Energy Saver settings, try this

UPDATED March 19, 2018:

Apple Mac desktop system users (particularly Mac Mini users) that have attempted to disable system sleep or hibernation may have discovered that no matter what changes are made in the Energy Saver pane in System Preferences, when they go away for a while and come back they are greeted by a progress bar (perhaps accompanied by the Apple logo, similar to what would be seen during a reboot) and the only way to recover is to press the power button briefly (which may not always work).

What is weird about this is that in some cases the system for the most part continues to operate normally in the background. So, it is not truly sleeping. If you have music playing, it will continue to play. If someone sends you an instant message, you’ll hear the notification tone. If you click somewhere along the bottom of the screen, if and when the display comes back you will see you have launched some random application from the dock, depending on where you clicked. And so on. But still, that damn Apple logo and progress bar will randomly appear when you wake up the screen.

So, here are some ways to try to fix this, that may or may not work for you. First, open the Terminal application and from the command prompt enter this:

sudo pmset -g

Enter your password when requested and it should show you the System-wide power settings. Note particularly the values for these settings: autopoweroff, hibernatemode, and standby. They SHOULD all have a value of 0 (zero). If any of them have any other value (particularly autopoweroff), then try running this:

sudo pmset -a autopoweroff 0 hibernatemode 0 standby 0

Or you can change any of the values individually, for example:

sudo pmset -a autopoweroff 0

Also, you should increase the standbydelay (the time in seconds before the Mac will try to sleep, and yes it is in seconds no matter what Apple documentation says) to a larger value:

sudo pmset -a standbydelay 86400

Then run sudo pmset -g again and make sure your change was saved. What you are doing is disabling a specific type of sleep mode that has been problematic for many users. If you find that you system still tries to go to sleep, and you have disabled sleep in the Energy Saver settings, then you may need to do one of two things. One is to open a new Terminal window and enter this:

caffeinate

and just let it run until you are ready to shut down your system. Or if that does not work, try disabling display sleep – go to the Energy Saver settings in System Preferences, and move the slider bar for “Turn display off after” all the way to the right, to the “Never” setting. It will warn you that this could shorten the life of your display, but this may be the only thing that actually works. You can always turn off your display using the power switch on the display itself, or if that is in a place that’s difficult to find or hard to press, you could plug the display’s power cord into a switched outlet (such as on a small surge protector strip) and use that switch to turn the display on and off.

Note that you may want to run sudo pmset -g again to make sure that none of the above three settings have changed, if either of the following occur:

1. You make a change to the Energy Saver settings, or

2. You reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac (note that if your Mac is unplugged or loses power for more than a few seconds, the SMC may be reset).

If any of the three settings mentioned above have changed to a non-zero value, change them back to zero.

I say to TRY this because even doing all this may only reduce the frequency of the sleep states, not eliminate them entirely. The thing that finally made the difference for me was to make the changes to the pmset settings and to disable display sleep completely. There is a real bug in MacOS that needs to be addressed to truly fix this.

For more information on this, search on “autopoweroff” in your favorite search engine.

Keep local Instant Messages on your local network with BeeBEEP (Secure Lan Messenger)

When you want to send an instant message to someone else that’s on the same local network as you are, whether that be another family member or a co-worker in your office, why use an offsite chat server that leaves your messages open to interception by the company running the chat server or some other third party? This software will allow you to keep your local IM’s in your local network, and for added safety it also encrypts them! Plus, it supports multiple operating systems, unlike the proprietary chat client that might have come with your computer. It’s NOT for chatting with people elsewhere on the internet; if you need to set up secure connections with offsite chat clients then you may need to set up a private Prosody IM server. But for secure IM chats with people on your local network, this looks like just the thing!

What is BeeBEEP?

BeeBEEP is an open source, peer to peer, lan messenger developed by Marco Mastroddi. You can talk and share files with all the people inside your local area network such of an office, home or internet cafe. You don’t need a server, just download, unzip and start it. Simple, fast and secure.

Main Features:

  • Free: BeeBEEP is free and always will be.
  • Multiple OS: there are releases for Windows, MacOSX, Linux, OS/2 and eComStation.
  • Easy to use: BeeBEEP is a serverless application. Download, unzip and start.
  • Secure: encryption based on Rijndael Algorithm (AES).
  • Instant Messaging: chat with all people connected, group or single user.
  • Groups: create your favorite group of people.
  • P2P: send or share your files and folders (also by drag and drop).
  • Offline messages: messages will be delivered to offline users when they will be online.
  • Message History: all messages can be saved.

    • Source: BeeBEEP (Secure Lan Messenger)

    Detect Webcam & Microphone Activity on Mac with Oversight

    Though Mac users don’t usually have to worry excessively about “camfecting” malware and spyware, some security conscious users may find it nice to know if a process or application is attempting to access their computers web camera or microphone.

    Source: Detect Webcam & Microphone Activity on Mac with Oversight

    [OS X] Don’t Put Tape On Your Webcam, This Free App Alerts You When Someone Hacks It

    It is a known issue that a hacker access the webcam and mic on your device without your consent and awareness. You can take the help of a tape but it can’t be considered a wise solution. An ex-NSA hacker has created an anti spying tool for OS X which alerts you when an application tries to access the FaceTime camera and mic.

    Source: Don’t Put Tape On Your Webcam, This Free App Alerts You When Someone Hacks It