M1 Mac Air remains connected to Wifi/Router

[animatedwallpaper]

Okay, so is this normal. As none of my other Macs have done this and can't find any help from the support people. For some reason, my new Mac Book Air with the M1 chip straight out of the box, not messed with settings, remain connected to Wifi - it even downloads podcasts and emails etc. I can see it on the Router, from my other device.

When My other Mac is asleep, it disconnects from the Wifi and router, but for some reason my M1 Mac Air remains connected when its asleep.

Is this normal. I have since gone back into settings and there is nothing obvious that suggests it should wake up or run connections in the background. Prob a lot don't know it is doing it as they don't log into their router, but I've setting up partial locks, and time limits for the devices around the house as well as changing to a new router which is why I noticed it. I have now also noticed the battery life going down pretty fast for a machine that is suppose to be in sleep mode. We're talking 10% over night.

So is his normal. Or have apple by sorting out the connection issues they were suffering at the start of year managed to cause another issue. Or is it because the M1 chip works like a a phone and will always be active.

Hope it all makes sense.

Thanks.

 

[barbu]

there is a setting for Power Nap inside the energy settings, that might explain this behaviour. It wakes up occasionally to update email etc, check for system updates, and so on.

Mac User Guide

Learn what’s new in macOS, how to get started with your Mac and use it with your Apple devices, and how to control privacy and security on macOS.

support.apple.com

 

[DeltaMac]

On a laptop with Monterey, that would be in the Battery pref pane, then click on the Battery tab, where you can turn off Power Nap while on battery power.

Turn Power Nap on or off on Mac

Choose whether Power Nap is on or off when your Mac is connected to a power adapter or using battery power.

support.apple.com

 

[fivenotrump]

On a laptop with Monterey, that would be in the Battery pref pane, then click on the Battery tab, where you can turn off Power Nap while on battery power.

Turn Power Nap on or off on Mac

Choose whether Power Nap is on or off when your Mac is connected to a power adapter or using battery power.

support.apple.com

Oddly, I don't have any 'power nap' setting in System Preferences, although searching for 'nap' at the top level of System Preferences points to the Battery pref pane.

 

[chabig]

M1 Macs don’t have Power Nap. That was a feature specific to Intel Macs that allowed them to do some tasks while asleep. M1 Macs have highly efficient cores that don’t draw significant power, so they just do it. There is no setting to turn it off. It is, like you said, always active like a phone.

 

[fivenotrump]

M1 Macs don’t have Power Nap. That was a feature specific to Intel Macs that allowed them to do some tasks while asleep. M1 Macs have highly efficient cores that don’t draw significant power, so they just do it. There is no setting to turn it off. It is, like you said, always active like a phone.

Thank you. It would have been useful had Apple elaborated on 'If your Mac supports it...' in the support document referenced upthread.

 

[animatedwallpaper]

M1 Macs don’t have Power Nap. That was a feature specific to Intel Macs that allowed them to do some tasks while asleep. M1 Macs have highly efficient cores that don’t draw significant power, so they just do it. There is no setting to turn it off. It is, like you said, always active like a phone.

Wonderful. So to confirm, my Mac Air is always connected to my wifi as with the M1 chip here is not way of turning it off apart from disconnecting from the wifi before I close the lid.

 

[chanerz]

My Lenovo Yoga laptop does this too. Eventhough the lid is close, it is still connected to wifi. It will only disconnect if I shut it down.

 

[Tagbert]

Is there a problem that you are trying to solve?

It seems appropriate that you MBA remains connected while asleep. There are always some housekeeping processes running. Some of them might use the Internet connections occasionally such as to check for messages. That is what I would expect and want to happen.

 

[animatedwallpaper]

Is there a problem that you are trying to solve?

It seems appropriate that you MBA remains connected while asleep. There are always some housekeeping processes running. Some of them might use the Internet connections occasionally such as to check for messages. That is what I would expect and want to happen.

No other mac stays connected. Off the other 3 in the household, when the lid is shut they no appear to be shown on the network. When you open the lid or wake the mac up, the first thing it does is search for wifi. this is what I am finding strange.

 

[Tagbert]

No other mac stays connected. Off the other 3 in the household, when the lid is shut they no appear to be shown on the network. When you open the lid or wake the mac up, the first thing it does is search for wifi. this is what I am finding strange.

It is likely that the older Macs need to go into such a deep sleep and shut off their wireless connections to save power. The M1s have a very efficient low power mode when they sleep that they can maintain the network connection. The benefit is that they do a much faster wakeup after sleep and are already connected to the network. They can do data updates, like email, in the background while asleep.