Monitor sleep problem

[Ben J.]

I never saw anyhting like this in my 30+ years w/macs:

Recently, when I wake up in the morning, my mac mini is running screensaver on my two displays, Samsung TV and Benq 32", despite settings being: screensaver after 10 min, screen sleep after 60 min, and "Prevent mac from going to sleep when screen sleeps" (not shure about exact translation).

First thing I tried was a SMC reset; shut-down, pull out power cable 15 sec, insert cable wait 5 sec, and turn on. Worked fine and I thought I'd solved the problem because the next morning the screens were black. Next day - problem back. After a couple of days, I did SMC reset again, next morning - screens asleep. Next day - problem back. I've cycled this a couple of times to no avail. It seems the reset won'"stick". (Mac never sleeps. That's how I like it.)

Only things changed recently is I started using a USB iLok for software licenses, sits in a port on the mini, and I enabled the "Prevent mac from sleep" option. Now, I have not yet tried to disable this, because I really don't want the mac to go to sleep. Of course, I will eventually try that.

Any thoughts welcome.

Added: Also, automatic "night mode" option in system prefs general have been resetting itself lately.

 

[bogdanw]

You can try to identify what’s waking the displays

pmset -g log | egrep "\b(Sleep|Wake|DarkWake|Start)\s{2,}"

pmset -g log | grep 'Display is turned'

Commands discussed here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-can-i-tell-whether-my-mbp-is-sleeping.2329858/

 

[Ben J.]

Thanks.
I got:

2022-04-21 23:39:18 +0200 Notification Display is turned off
2022-04-22 00:59:39 +0200 Notification Display is turned on
2022-04-22 00:59:51 +0200 Notification Display is turned off
2022-04-22 01:14:39 +0200 Notification Display is turned on
2022-04-22 01:14:52 +0200 Notification Display is turned off
2022-04-22 01:29:39 +0200 Notification Display is turned on
2022-04-22 01:29:52 +0200 Notification Display is turned off
2022-04-22 14:04:58 +0200 Notification Display is turned on
2022-04-22 17:38:16 +0200 Notification Display is turned off
2022-04-22 22:43:15 +0200 Notification Display is turned on
2022-04-22 23:35:41 +0200 Notification Display is turned on
2022-04-23 05:50:09 +0200 Notification Display is turned off
2022-04-23 18:29:02 +0200 Notification Display is turned on

and it is now 2022-04-26

seems like it has stopped working…
I'll keep on keepin on.

 

[Ben J.]

And what does this mean:
pmset -g log | egrep "\b(Sleep|Wake|DarkWake|Start)\s{2,}"
2022-04-21 20:22:13 +0200 Start powerd process is started
2022-04-22 23:35:38 +0200 Start powerd process is started
2022-04-25 20:58:36 +0200 Start powerd process is started

 

[Ben J.]

I've found:
screen sleep problem; might be simply that I've had my mac set to sleep, that's why they've shut down - then I enabled "prevent mac from sleep when monitors sleep", and my mac mini simply does not support shutting off external monitors, but would work on a imac or laptop?
Automatic dark mode problem:
I found a tip about the setting "Wake on network activity" in energy settings should be enabled; I just did, and I think it might be working.

 

[Ben J.]

UPDATE: My mac mini just now managed to shut down signal flow to both my monitors automatically at set time!

 

[Ben J.]

Just to wrap this up; enabling "Wake on network activity" in Energysavingsystemprefs (orwhatever is the correct translation) has fixed both my problems, my screens now sleep while my mac is awake, and the night/day mode thingy works as it should.

 

[Ben J.]

Just to wrap this up; enabling "Wake on network activity" in Energysavingsystemprefs (orwhatever is the correct translation) has fixed both my problems, my screens now sleep while my mac is awake, and the night/day mode thingy works as it should.

This was not the problem.
I feel like such an idiot.
I've confirmed the cause - running solitaire 1.09 made by Sylvian Becker in the background. I got it thru the App Store, and this is what I just posted there as a 1-star review:

It took me a few weeks, but after I stopped using this particular solitaire app on Mac Mini 2020 w/Big Sur 11.6.3, four big problems went away. Running Solitaire in the background would cause:
- MacOS screensaver not to start
- mac sleep mode not to work
- mac screen sleep mode not to work
- automatic mode in dark/light in prefs/general not to work

At least I've reported it here; I hope it can come to some use.