MacBook Pro Sleeping During Backup

[Ric]

Last week I upgraded my 2015 MacBook Pro to macOS 10.13.4 and SuperDuper! to 3.1.4. I have a scheduled backup that occurs at 4:14 every morning -- the MacBook Pro is scheduled for wakeup at 4:14 and SuperDuper! is scheduled for 4:14. Ever since the upgrade, my MacBook Pro wakes up at the correct time and SuperDuper! launches, but the computer goes back to sleep before the backup starts. This morning, SuperDuper! had stopped on the countdown pop-up, but resumed backing up once I woke the computer. Some mornings it gets past the pop-up, but goes to sleep before the backup gets started and resumes when I wake the computer. Any thoughts on what might be causing this?

[dnanian]

We're doing two things to try to keep the Mac awake. First, as soon as our time-based schedule driver recognizes it's going to have to run copy (this should only take fractions of a second), we hold the Mac awake with "caffeinate":

/usr/bin/caffeinate -t 180 &> /dev/null &

That should keep the Mac awake for three minutes, which should be long enough to get going.

Second, when SuperDuper! starts a copy (basically, when it gets to the status window), we hold the Mac awake with a power assertion that says "don't go to sleep".

When you saw this happen, did we go to sleep before three minutes had elapsed?

[Ric]

I'm pretty sure the MacBook went back to sleep before three minutes was up. I'll check the system log when I get back home later today.

[dnanian]

Was the lid closed?

[Ric]

The lid was open.

[Ric]

One more thing to add -- I upgraded to macOS 10.13.4 last Thursday and Friday morning was the first time I noticed sleep interfering with SuperDuper!, which I had not upgraded to 3.1.4 yet (I did later that day). Something must have changed on the macOS side.

[dnanian]

Yes, that's quite likely, and I'm trying to determine what.

[Ric]

One more piece of the puzzle -- The SuperDuper! log doesn't show it starting at 4:14, it shows it starting at 4:58, which is when I logged on. Since it was active, I had assumed it had started at the scheduled time and paused, but it looks like it started when I logged on.

For what it's worth, when I upgraded, I deleted the existing SuperDuper! schedule entry and re-entered it.

Nothing jumps out at me in the macOS system.log file.

[dnanian]

It's possible that they either put the Mac to sleep, ignoring our caffeinate call, or they are refusing the allow us to run until you're logged in, because we have a UI.

If you set it to run a few minutes from now, lock your screen (I assume you're not actually logged off) and wait, say, five minutes so you can see if the backup drive is going, does it go while you watch and it's definitely not sleeping?

[Ric]

I think you're on to something, Dave. I scheduled a 5:23 backup and locked the screen. I came back at 5:28, unlocked the screen, and SuperDuper! was on the countdown pop-up, like this morning.

[dnanian]

Yep. OK, so this is why the Scheduling section of the User's Guide warns that it won't work if the screen is locked - Apple keeps changing the behavior here, and it's obviously not letting our app launch when the screen is locked...

[Ric]

At least now I know what is going on. Thanks!

[dnanian]

We'll see if we can get around the new behavior somehow...but, it shouldn't be too bad running while you're at the Mac. (I do it all the time.)

[Ric]

I made another observation last week on this. As stated before, SuperDuper! is not starting at 4:14 am when my MacBook Pro wakes. However, when I get up later, if I tap a key or click the mouse to wake the screen and don't do anything else, SuperDuper! will run even though I am not logged in.

[dnanian]

I think we've managed to work around this in the next update, Ric.

[Ric]

Cool -- thanks!

[nriley]

I'm still having problems getting SuperDuper! copies to run reliably on a server Mac that almost never has anyone sitting at it. This has been happening since at least February (SD 3.1.4); previously it was 100% reliable.

Typically what will happen is that I'll connect to the Mac via Remote Desktop to look at something, and I find SuperDuper! will be running but the copy will start immediately after I connect.

You can see how the schedule ends up running way late (it's supposed to be nightly at 3 AM), and my Energy Saver and screen lock settings as attached.

225

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[dnanian]

Please set a wake event in the energy saver preference pane for the same time as the scheduled copy, and ensure you're running 3.1.7.

[nriley]

Thanks, that worked last night! Weird that my Mac isn't actually going to sleep fully but a "wake" is still needed.

[dnanian]

Welcome to macOS. :)