Why is Sleep & Shutdown so slow!

[bmac89]

Why is it so slow to Sleep or Shutdown in El Capitan / Yosemite....?
In Snow Leopard you press sleep and it is instant. I'm not talking about the screen going black, but the actual computer & hard drive stopping. Now in the newer OSX it takes atleast 30 seconds or more.
The same goes for shutdown but that isn't quite as annoying as I rarely power-off the computer. Logging out can be pretty slow too. It reminds me of Windows and the constant force quit notification when shutting down.

Otherwise the Operating System is quite fast.

 

[RobFog]

SSD or HDD?

 

[sibelius101]

Try enabling verbose startup and shutdown, then you can see what is causing the slowdown.

 

[bmac89]

SSD or HDD?

HDD

Try enabling verbose startup and shutdown, then you can see what is causing the slowdown.

I will try verbose mode and get back to you.

 

[MacGizmo]

I've found both to be much faster than any previous OS version. RIDICULOUSLY faster, in fact. Of course, all my Macs have SSD drives, so that accounts for much of it.

 

[dyn]

Compare the specs you used when you ran Snow Leopard and what you are now using to run El Capitan. What's the difference?

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

HDD and a beta is not an ideal combination. Be patient and see how the final release version works.

 

[bmac89]

Compare the specs you used when you ran Snow Leopard and what you are now using to run El Capitan. What's the difference?

The hardware is the same! I'm currently running Snow Leopard and El Capitan on separate partitions on the same hardware.

HDD and a beta is not an ideal combination. Be patient and see how the final release version works.

I realise HDD is not the fastest and it is still beta, however I found Yosemite to be the same even after final release. I recall other people talking about slow shutdown with the newer versions of OSX.

 

[dyn]

In that case the 30s is actually quite normal. Your problem is the hdd and outdated hardware in general. Things are quite different when you equip that old hardware with an ssd, even if that is an old ssd.

 

[bmac89]

In that case the 30s is actually quite normal. Your problem is the hdd and outdated hardware in general. Things are quite different when you equip that old hardware with an ssd, even if that is an old ssd.

So what exactly is causing the sleep/shutdown to be so slow whilst every other aspect of the operating system is very fast. I understand that you can't expect new software to run as fast on older hardware and that an SSD will make a huge difference to general performance, but why the sudden jump from instant sleep (Snow Leopard & Mavericks) to excessively delayed sleep (Yosemite & El Capitan).

What is the computer doing that delays the sleep so much.

 

[campyguy]

Hmmm. I have a 2012 Mini Server and 2009 iMac with spinners, 5400 and 7200 RPM, respectively - no problems with 10.10/.11 with sleep/logout/shutdown - ever, even with Adobe CC/Little Snitch and other utilities installed. I also have a couple of rMBPs that I use that have SSDs and no issues with them either.

 

[supercooled]

Has anyone experienced their iMacs not coming back from sleep? I have my iMac running 24/7 but I will put the display to sleep but when I try to wake it, the screen stays off.

 

[dyn]

What is the computer doing that delays the sleep so much.

Writing memory contents to a file on disk is very dependant on disk speed. If the disk is slow, like any hdd, then it'll take quite some time. As far as I know there have been lots of notebooks from Apple that use a special kind of sleep where it does both sleep and hibernate (suspend to ram and suspend to disk) to prevent dataloss/corruption when the battery dies out. That means it will have to write memory contents to disk which takes time.

You can test this by changing these settings. You can do so with the pmset utility on the commandline.

 

[bmac89]

Writing memory contents to a file on disk is very dependant on disk speed. If the disk is slow, like any hdd, then it'll take quite some time. As far as I know there have been lots of notebooks from Apple that use a special kind of sleep where it does both sleep and hibernate (suspend to ram and suspend to disk) to prevent dataloss/corruption when the battery dies out. That means it will have to write memory contents to disk which takes time.

You can test this by changing these settings. You can do so with the pmset utility on the commandline.

^ Well that is what I thought was the logical reason.... only the following still doesn't make sense to me.

I have tried quitting all apps and logging out of all computer accounts and once returned to the login screen, I press shutdown or sleep and it is still just as slow. In this scenario is there really anything considerable to write to the disk before sleep or cause delay before shutdown!?

This occurs on my Imac as well as macbook.

 

[tripmusic]

Why is it so slow to Sleep or Shutdown in El Capitan / Yosemite....?
In Snow Leopard you press sleep and it is instant. I'm not talking about the screen going black, but the actual computer & hard drive stopping. Now in the newer OSX it takes atleast 30 seconds or more.
The same goes for shutdown but that isn't quite as annoying as I rarely power-off the computer. Logging out can be pretty slow too. It reminds me of Windows and the constant force quit notification when shutting down.

Otherwise the Operating System is quite fast.

I've noticed this even with Yosemite as well. Much slower compared to Mavs. Quite annoying actually. I'm even using an SSD

 

[tripmusic]

In that case the 30s is actually quite normal. Your problem is the hdd and outdated hardware in general. Things are quite different when you equip that old hardware with an ssd, even if that is an old ssd.

30 secs is NOT quite normal to go to sleep or shutdown, even with a plate drive.

 

[bmac89]

I've noticed this even with Yosemite as well. Much slower compared to Mavs. Quite annoying actually. I'm even using an SSD

30 secs is NOT quite normal to go to sleep or shutdown, even with a plate drive.

I'm glad you agree. I'm convinced this isn't simply a matter of SSD is faster than HDD etc.

Sometimes it can take longer than 30 seconds! Also as I posted above - I can boot-up the computer, not log in or open any apps and just press sleep or shutdown directly from the login screen and there it is still a huge delay.... surely there isn't much data to write to the hard disk before sleeping or processes to quit before shutting down when no one is even logged in.

 

[tripmusic]

I'm glad you agree. I'm convinced this isn't simply a matter of SSD is faster than HDD etc.

Sometimes it can take longer than 30 seconds! Also as I posted above - I can boot-up the computer, not log in or open any apps and just press sleep or shutdown directly from the login screen and there it is still a huge delay.... surely there isn't much data to write to the hard disk before sleeping or processes to quit before shutting down when no one is even logged in.

I just tried trashing caches, launch agents and launch daemons, reset pram and still nothing. Was scratching my head as it booted to one of my cloned drives afterwards and wouldn't login. . Always forget that after a reset.

I just don't get it. My setup and software really hasn't changed much since Mavs. I still use a Mavs partition for music recording and it's instantaneous as far as sleep and shutdown.

 

[GGERARD]

to supercooled,

Has anyone experienced their iMacs not coming back from sleep? I have my iMac running 24/7 but I will put the display to sleep but when I try to wake it, the screen stays off.

The same for me since the last update.
GGERARD

 

[gelie]

This is complete BS. I need to restart my comp several times a day!

to supercooled,

The same for me since the last update.
GGERARD

 

[doynton]

Do you have any extra drivers installed? I noticed in Yosemite and El Capitan that shutdown was almost instant until I installed NTFS-3G. With that installed it takes 30s or so - if I uninstall it it is quick again (2 seconds or so).

I tried looking in console but couldn't see anything interesting....

 

[RandomKamikaze]

30 seconds is not normal. I seem to remember that is close to how long a process can stop the sleep process from running until the OS force terminates it.

I had a similar issue, but can't remember the exact terminal command to run to find the problem (it was years ago)

You could try pmset -g

If sleep has a value of 0 it should also say what interrupted it (it gives a process id)

You could also do pmset -g log then do a search for sleep which may provide some information

pmset -g assertions could also provide some useful information

I'll see if I can find out the command I ran before

You could also try a different user account to see if they have the problem

 

[dyn]

I have tried quitting all apps and logging out of all computer accounts and once returned to the login screen, I press shutdown or sleep and it is still just as slow. In this scenario is there really anything considerable to write to the disk before sleep or cause delay before shutdown!?

It will write out the entire memory contents to disk no matter what you do. In case of 16GB of memory that amounts to a 16GB sleep image on disk. You can disable this behaviour with the pmset utility.

30 secs is NOT quite normal to go to sleep or shutdown, even with a plate drive.

For an ordinary earthly computer this is very normal whether you as the user like it or not. Especially if you have lots of memory and lots of services/processes running (foreground and/or background) or if certain kinds of hardware (usb, network) need a bit more time to shutdown/suspend.

Remember that booting also requires about 30 secs (you can get it to 10 with an ssd, automatic login and not loading stuff at login). Whatever you started also needs to be shutdown/suspended. If it takes long to boot it usually also takes long to shutdown/suspend.

If you want to really find out what is going on then you need to do some monitoring (again, use pmset for this) and start digging through some logs (use Console for that and look for things like "sleep" and "wake").

 

[bmac89]

It will write out the entire memory contents to disk no matter what you do. In case of 16GB of memory that amounts to a 16GB sleep image on disk. You can disable this behaviour with the pmset utility.

But how much memory contents need to be written to disk if you never even logged into your account and obviously no apps or launch agents could open. I have booted-up the computer waited and then press sleep or shutdown directly from the login screen.

Instant in Snow Leopard - Mavericks
(Even with loads of apps running)

Massive Delay in Yosemite - El Capitan
(Even with NO apps running and not even logged into account)

It seems strange to suddenly change so significantly in 1 version of OSX whilst the rest of the operating system performs without delay.

All clean installs on the same hardware and tested prior to any third-party software being installed.

 

[maxsix]

It's running fine on my MBP and MBA. about the same speed as Yosemite, I'm quite satisfied