Programs Quit During Screensaver

I am having an issue with my new iMac (running 10.6.8). After the computer goes to the screensaver and I come back... it has closed and/or attempted to close all the programs. The only programs left open are the ones that I had unsaved documents open in... all of those are open to the "save" "don't save" prompt. I also only have the computer set to sleep when I tell it to. I have looked around and can't find anyone else having similar issues. Any thoughts or fixes???

Welcome to Mac-Forums!

Somehow your computer is trying to shut down or restart, therefore the prompts about saving; and the auto-quit of open (but idle) applications.

Are you experiencing significant power fluctuations, or some other interruption to a consistent power supply to your iMac?

Take a look at your Energy Saver prefs (System Prefs), but there doesn't appear to be anything there that would instigate a shut down or restart.

Yours is an interesting and challenging issue, so here's hoping others will come aboard with ideas.

Check Security Preferences

I was having a similar issue (I thought) and discovered that it was actually not related to the Screensaver or Energy Saver but instead had to do with the SECURITY preferences.

Under System Preferences->Security You can check (or uncheck) the box that says "Log out after x minutes of inactivity." If checked, the mac will shut down apps (if it can) and then log out (after x minutes). In my case, the logout time under Security and the time to start the Screen Saver were the same time (10 minutes) so I thought the screensaver or energy saver was shutting down my apps.

I hope this solution helps!

Thanks for solving the puzzle.

I really appreciate your post, so much so that I registered on the site so I could thank you. I never would have figured out that the security settings were related to my apps quitting overnight. Thank you!

@DocJohnTX: You are very welcome. I'm so glad it helped - this was driving me crazy and I just knew I couldn't be the only one! Have a good one.