Macbook shuts down without saving data when running out of battery

[mxrider88]

Does anyone have the same issue?

If you don't plug in the Mac, instead of going into "hibernation" until you plug it back in and then resume the session, it just shuts down, like if you pulled the power cord on a desktop basically. All lost.

It happened on my previous Air and it happens on the M2 air.

It is obviously another marvel of apple software engineering but I would like to know if many others had the same issue.
Running macOS 12.5 but it was happening on previous versions too.


I reported the bug already 3 times with no luck.

I am so fed up with this severe bugs that just go on for years before they do something about it. When Apple Pay doesn't work they run fast to get it fixed because they are losing $.

 

[Slartibart]

Which version of MacOS? I assume the SSD offers sufficient space?

While on battery open a terminal and execute

pmset -g

Please post the output here. If possible delete the empty lines 🤓

 

[Ruggy]

Yes but usually only when you get to about 2% battery.
If you have battery status showing in the menu bar you've got plenty of warning before that happens.

 

[Slartibart]

Yes but usually only when you get to about 2% battery.
If you have battery status showing in the menu bar you've got plenty of warning before that happens.

The level - as well as various other parameters e.g. the hibernate mode - can easily be adjusted. Certain parameter are only accessible via the terminal. When the OP reports the output of the pmset command, most likely the problem can be solved.

 

[DJ Rob]

Understand your concern OP, but not good practice to let the battery run completely flat- not healthy for the battery. As others are indicating, check the hibernate mode in Terminal.

 

[BanditoB]

I have several MacBooks of various vintages and have never encountered this issue on any of them, so it isn't a regular problem. Something is up with your particular systems. Besides reporting the issue to Apple, I assume via Feedback, have you contacted Support?

 

[mxrider88]

I have several MacBooks of various vintages and have never encountered this issue on any of them, so it isn't a regular problem. Something is up with your particular systems. Besides reporting the issue to Apple, I assume via Feedback, have you contacted Support?

No it is not. It was happening on m1 air and now on m2, didn't restore from backup. Same happens to a friend of mine with a m1 MacBook Pro. It is a Monterey issue.
I did report it, several times. Apple doesn't care, we aren't talking about emojis here.. As long as they keep selling a quadrillion decides per year they don't care. And I am guilty of buying too....

 

[mxrider88]

Which version of MacOS? I assume the SSD offers sufficient space?

While on battery open a terminal and execute

pmset -g

Please post the output here. If possible delete the empty lines 🤓

Yes I have more than enough space on the ssd, 16gb or ram and 278gb free on the ssd.
Using 12.5 currently, but happening since 12.0 as far as I can remember.


System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
standby 1
Sleep On Power Button 1
hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage
powernap 1
disksleep 10
sleep 1 (sleep prevented by powerd, sharingd)
hibernatemode 3
ttyskeepawake 1
displaysleep 5
tcpkeepalive 1
lowpowermode 0

 

[mxrider88]

Understand your concern OP, but not good practice to let the battery run completely flat- not healthy for the battery. As others are indicating, check the hibernate mode in Terminal.

Well yes, but sometimes it happens and having all your opened stuff and unsaved files gone on a 2k machine from 2022 is just unacceptable.

I shouldn't be worrying about terminal commands etc. It should work. As far as I remember every laptop I had in my life when is running out of battery it hibernates. Now in 2022 we have laptops that just shut down...

 

[Slartibart]

Please try:

sudo pmset -b hibernatemode 3 standby 1 standbydelaylow 180 highstandbythreshold 15 standbydelayhigh 900 autopoweroff 1 autopowerdelay 1 sleep 10

• -b settings for when on battery; use -a for global settings
• hibernatemode 3 default on portables. stores memory to persistent storage (the disk), and powers memory during sleep. Wakes from memory, unless a power loss forces it to restore from hibernate image.
• you could use hibernatemode 25 which copies memory to persistent storage and removes memory power. Then restores from disk image. This results in slightly slower sleeps&wakes, better battery life.
• standby 1 activates standby
• standbydelaylow 180 wait for 3 minutes before it enters standby mode
• highstandbythreshold 15 activate standby mode below 15% battery
• standbydelayhigh 900 wait for 15 minutes before it enters standby mode when above 15% battery.
• autopoweroff 1 activates sleep mode
• autopowerdelay 1 activates sleep mode after 1 minute.
• sleep 10 set time before it goes to sleep to 10 minutes.

Settings are stored in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

hibernatemode 25 should contribute to mitigate any battery draining issues. All other current settings won’t be effected. Adapt to your liking. 🤓

 

[mxrider88]

Please try:

sudo pmset -b hibernatemode 3 standby 1 standbydelaylow 180 highstandbythreshold 15 standbydelayhigh 900 autopoweroff 1 autopowerdelay 1 sleep 10

• -b settings for when on battery; use -a for global settings
• hibernatemode 3 default on portables. stores memory to persistent storage (the disk), and powers memory during sleep. Wakes from memory, unless a power loss forces it to restore from hibernate image.
• you could use hibernatemode 25 which copies memory to persistent storage and removes memory power. Then restores from disk image. This results in slightly slower sleeps&wakes, better battery life.
• standby 1 activates standby
• standbydelaylow 180 wait for 3 minutes before it enters standby mode
• highstandbythreshold 15 activate standby mode below 15% battery
• standbydelayhigh 900 wait for 15 minutes before it enters standby mode when above 15% battery.
• autopoweroff 1 activates sleep mode
• autopowerdelay 1 activates sleep mode after 1 minute.
• sleep 10 set time before it goes to sleep to 10 minutes.

Settings are stored in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

• highstandbythreshold 15 activate standby mode below 15% battery

Does this mean the laptop will go to hibernation when it still has 15% of battery left?

I don't quite understand.

I could try, but when it happens and I turn it back on, it boots after a system crash and prompts me to send a report and the diagnostic file mentions something about panic and timeout. I feel like it is a system crash. Unfortunately I don't have a screenshot of that at the moment

 

[Slartibart]

• highstandbythreshold 15 activate standby mode below 15% battery

Does this mean the laptop will go to hibernation when it still has 15% of battery left?

yes. you can change that of course. And of course this does not mean that it is forced into hibernation at 15% battery charge level when you work with it. But if you close it, it will make sure that at 15% charge a hibernation file is written and the MBA enters the selected hibernation mode depending on the additional parameters given. This is just an arbitrary value I used, go as low as you like. 🤓

I could try, but when it happens and I turn it back on, it boots after a system crash and prompts me to send a report and the diagnostic file mentions something about panic and timeout. I feel like it is a system crash. Unfortunately I don't have a screenshot of that at the moment

This is probably somethingelse.

I understood your original post as you had and have problems getting your MBAs to hibernate (as well as it wasn’t clear what the means). My comment relates only to that.

A system crash while sleeping is a complete different thing. I suggest to record the error messages. Open the Console and take a look into the system and crash logs. Then open a new thread related to the problem and the friendly MR community will try to contribute.
A "shot in the dark": if you have USB-C peripherals connected to your MBA, disconnect them before putting the M1/M2 to sleep and see wether the problem persists. But please open a new thread.

EDIT: if your MBA simply runs on battery till it is empty, delete the settings file I referenced. Then restart and set the available power/energy options via the System Preferences and run the above command in the terminal with hibernatemode 25.

If that doesn’t help, create a new user. logout from your account and login via the new one. Adjust the energy settings for this user. If the problem is gone, some program which runs in the background in your original account is probably causing the problem.

If that doesn’t help, start your MBAs in Safe Mode and check.

nota bene: you contacted Apple Support? They would have walk you trough all that already. 🤓

 

[mxrider88]

No, you understood correctly. It runs out of battery, then it seems to try to hibernate and ends up shutting down. On the next boot it prompts to send a report, reading that report I saw that it went on timeout and had a panic. I am not an expert so I don't fully understand the errors and the meaning but it seems to me that for some reason it couldn't save the ram on the ssd and got stuck until the battery run to 0 and shut down.


It used to happen on my m1 air too. This is a brand new air and I just copied my files, I didn't restore the backup, so its a fresh install and I still have the same issue.


I also have no devices connected to it.

I refuse to waste time with apple support because before they actually escalate to someone who understands they ask you the most stupid questions and I just get frustrated. Done a million times, like when they wanted me to reboot my iPhone that I was using to call them and couldn't understand that the line would drop.

 

[Slartibart]

Not all energy saving parameters are accessible via the GUI.
If you want to try to nail down and get rid off the problem yourself, I suggest using the pmset command sequence in the terminal - if your power settings are corrupted for whatever reason, you’ll just set them new. If the problem persists see my other suggestions.

If you "can’t be worried" using the terminal, I suggest to call Apple Support, they might be able to offer a quick specific fix for the M2 MBA. At the least they will walk you trough a series checks to recommend an appropriate action to take.

 

[mxrider88]

I just think the issue is deeper than this, this is what I mean. The Mac tries to save all the ram to the ssd but it fails and then runs out of battery.

I guess I will try to file the 7th report about it and wait.

Thanks for your time and help!

 

[Slartibart]

I just think the issue is deeper than this, this is what I mean. The Mac tries to save all the ram to the ssd but it fails and then runs out of battery.

How do you know that specifically? Maybe you should have opened with that? 🤓 Otherwise: repair disk permission via Disk Utility, check Console… post the error or crash log, post the output in the terminal of ls -fal /var/vm/, boot into save mode, …

I guess I will try to file the 7th report about it and wait.

No offence intended - if this thread serves anything, you should seriously check the console and then talk to Apple Support with the crash report at hand to be able to provide detailed information from the start. In most cases Apple Support is quite competent to help adressing a problem. And they will guide you through a bunch of check ups. 😎

Sending a report via the MacOS provided mechanism is of course helpfull, but might not offer a solution in the short term.

Even more so if, as it seems, the problem exists only for a small user group.
It is highly uncommon that a MBA or MBP simply runs till the battery is empty when it is sleeping without writing a hibernation file with mode 3 set.
It’s even more uncommon that a MBA/P will simply run down to 0% when used without throwing reminders and shutting correctly down when these are ignored.
This indicates at best corrupted settings or interference by a background process which might be fixed by trying some of the above, or a deeper problem which probably can better be fixed in a dialogue with Apple Support or a Store genius appointment while under the current warranty. Obviously YMMV.

 

[mxrider88]

Not sure if this helps?


It sais sleep transition timed out after 35 seconds etc

 

[Slartibart]

It does. You should contact Apple.

Written that you might try:

Starting your Mac in Safe Mode and run it for at least 10 hours to see wether that stops the panics. The only thing I see that is not an Apple driver is the Paragon NTFS Kext that's loading - which has caused various problems previously on M1 for some people. If you don't suffer the problem while running in safe mode, start with deinstalling Paragon.

“bug_type 210” indicates its relation to encrypted storage and secure boot capabilities.
A future software update may solve the problem, and you could use
sudo pmset hibernatemode 0 standby 0 autopoweroff 0 to see wether this improves and reduces the number of panics after a normal boot. FileVault and secure boot effects this problem probably too - meaning that additionally turning off FileVault might help, etc..

If you want you can run Apple’s hardware check to have some additional information when contacting Apple. Arrange to bring it to the next Apple Store Genius bar or certified partner store - or arrange a send in - and let them check it.
Personally I simply would get it replaced under warranty - after making sure that the Paragon Kext is not the culprit.

 

[mxrider88]

You are an encyclopaedia!

And what does sudo pmset hibernatemode 0 standby 0 autopoweroff 0 do exactly?

Thanks

 

[Slartibart]

You are an encyclopaedia!

the word you are looking for is "user" 🤣😂🤜🤛

And what does sudo pmset hibernatemode 0 standby 0 autopoweroff 0 do exactly?

hibernatemode 0 not saving memory up to persistent storage, must wake from the contents of memory; loses context on power loss.This is sleep.

standby 0 do not hibernate after it has slept for a specified time period.

autopower 0 turn off that after sleeping for n seconds, the system will write a hibernation image and go into a lower power chipset sleep.

Again: check running in safe mode - if it’s the Paragon kext, get rid of it.
The pmset command sequence will basically make your MBA behave similar to a desktop - no hibernation, no hibernation image written, no low power sleep. It’s something which adresses some of the reported symptoms - as written, it’s possible that FileVault has effects too, etc. - I strongly recommend turning it in to a Genius bar or simply exchange it under warranty.

 

[mxrider88]

But I would like it to behave like a laptop

 

[mxrider88]

I didn't change anything, I disabled paragon, just let it run to 0 and it worked. I will do further testing.

Thanks for your time and help!!

 

[Slartibart]

If you require occasionally read&write access to NTFS-storage try Mounty. If you need that frequently consider switching these storage media to ExFat… I know that this might be a tedious task, but it will facilitate things on the long run. You’re welcome, by the way. 🤓