enable power nap or disable sleep when lid closed?

I'm confused. I have 10.8.1 and I thought I should have Power Nap in the energy saver prefs. But it's not there. I saw a page in a google search that showed the checkbox in Energy Saver for ML but there is none on my MBP. I have a mid-2012 13" MBP. I am trying to disable sleep or enable power nap for when I close my lid and I am plugged into power. I can't find a way to do that.

If someone could lead me to the answer, I'd appreciate it. BTW this is my first Mac so I'm not familliar with OS X as many of you are. Thanks!!

Have you tried to look for it in Spotlight.

Your machine does not have Power Nap. See this Apple KB article: LINK

chscag said:

Your machine does not have Power Nap. See this Apple KB article: LINK

Click to expand...

Aww darn! I put the SSD in it, too. Oh well. I guess I'm doomed to never be able to NOT sleep the computer when the lid is closed. Is there any app I can use that can change that setting for when it's running on AC power?

There were several small utilities which prevented the machine from sleeping when the lid was closed. Not sure if they still work with Lion or ML. One was called "Caffein".

I installed caffeine and just tested it. It does not keep my computer from sleeping when I close the lid, just has a review stated in the MAS. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to deal with it. I mainly want to keep it from sleeping when the lid is closed because I want to stay connected to Messages. It always knocks me offline and won't auto-reconnect when I wake the laptop. I have to manually go back online. Which stinks. Thanks for offering advice though. Perhaps there will be an update to caffeine or other apps soon that will allow that.

You can set display sleep to be separate of system sleep, as you probably know, so perhaps that would work for you.

I'm sure there IS a way to close the lid without sleeping the machine IF it is connected to an external monitor. Be aware that doing this -- even if OS X allows it -- increases the heat in the machine since one of its normal channels for ventilation is now closed. This is not a huge deal in most circumstances, it just makes the fans work a wee bit harder, Apple designed it to accommodate that.

chas_m said:

You can set display sleep to be separate of system sleep, as you probably know, so perhaps that would work for you.

I'm sure there IS a way to close the lid without sleeping the machine IF it is connected to an external monitor. Be aware that doing this -- even if OS X allows it -- increases the heat in the machine since one of its normal channels for ventilation is now closed. This is not a huge deal in most circumstances, it just makes the fans work a wee bit harder, Apple designed it to accommodate that.

Click to expand...

No unfortunately I don't have a second monitor hooked up. I use the MBP screen as my screen. I can see why they wouldn't allow it not sleeping in the settings.. But it stinks that I can't change that even at my own discretion. Ok I'll leave the topic alone then. Thanks for trying to help.