iMac keeps randomly waking up?

Hello,

I leave my wife's iMac on Sleep all the time.
However, I've noticed lately that it'll randomly wake itself from sleep (for no apparent reason). I go to the iMac and see if there is any pop-up or activity going on on the screen, but nothing.

Anybody else having this problem, or know of why this might happen (and how to fix it)?

Thanks,

Justin

Yes. Here you go:



Note that the "lock" needs to be unlocked using your admin password to make changes FIRST. Then UNcheck the box that says "wake on Ethernet." Done.

chas_m said:

Yes. Here you go:



Note that the "lock" needs to be unlocked using your admin password to make changes FIRST. Then UNcheck the box that says "wake on Ethernet." Done.

Click to expand...

Just looked into this solution and that "Ethernet" box IS already unchecked.
Any other thoughts?

Thanks,

J.

Have you got a connected Time Machine drive or Time Capsule router?

chas_m said:

Have you got a connected Time Machine drive or Time Capsule router?

Click to expand...

Nope.

Could I have some sort of cookie or tracker that's kicking the system on to report data on me?

It seems to be getting worse.

It woke itself up last night and so I decided to see if maybe turning off WiFi would change anything....Nope...it woke itself up 4 more times in the span of an hour.

ANY ideas as to what is going on?
I've never seen anything like this on any of my Macs.

Thanks,

Justin

It could be several things:

1. Background activity. Use your activity monitor to check and also take a look at your activity logs to see what was going on when it woke up.

2. Since it's an iMac, it's susceptible to AC line hits (power glitches) which will also wake it up. I use an UPS with my iMac which provides backup power in the event of a power failure. It also helps to smooth out any line variations that may occur.