Trying to figure out what keeps my Mac awake

I know there are dozens, hundreds or even thousands of processes (or a
combination thereof) which could keep resetting the Mac's sleep timer.
I'm nonetheless trying to nail the culprit which keeps my Mac from going
to sleep mode.

For the last 8 hours of "no activity", at least none triggered by a
human, the console shows this (Finder, iTunes and Activity Monitor running):

5/10/09 9:13:00 AM kernel PM notification cancel (pid 109, AppleFileServer)
5/10/09 9:13:01 AM kernel IOPMrootDomain: idle cancel
...many of them...one pair every two minutes...

5/10/09 1:21:29 PM /usr/sbin/ocspd[4037] starting
5/10/09 1:21:56 PM com.apple.Safari[4041] YES
5/10/09 1:25:59 PM kernel PM notification cancel (pid 109, AppleFileServer)
5/10/09 1:25:59 PM kernel IOPMrootDomain: idle cancel
...some more...then
5/10/09 1:36:44 PM /usr/sbin/ocspd[4063] starting
5/10/09 1:37:02 PM com.apple.Safari[4068] YES
...and so on

Does this look suspicious? The process table lists this:

ID Process Name User CPU RSIZE VSIZE
0 kernel_task root 1.2 140.03 MB
1.08 GB
1 launchd root 0.0 604.00 KB
586.74 MB
10 kextd root 0.0 1.20 MB
586.19 MB
11 DirectoryService root 0.0 3.41 MB
588.82 MB
12 notifyd root 0.0 480.00 KB
586.17 MB
13 syslogd root 0.0 484.00 KB
587.24 MB
14 configd root 0.0 1.74 MB
587.20 MB
15 distnoted daemon 0.0 720.00 KB
585.59 MB
16 mDNSResponder _mdnsrespo 0.0 2.66 MB
587.97 MB
21 securityd root 0.0 2.02 MB
587.33 MB
25 ntpd root 0.0 856.00 KB
586.12 MB
26 cron root 0.0 652.00 KB
586.69 MB
27 update root 0.0 288.00 KB
585.57 MB
28 SystemStarter root 0.0 684.00 KB
585.61 MB
32 RFBRegisterMDNS root 0.0 1.02 MB
585.59 MB
33 ODSAgent root 0.0 1,004.00 KB
585.73 MB
34 mds root 0.0 47.78 MB
652.68 MB
35 loginwindow stoer 0.0 8.27 MB
937.47 MB
36 KernelEventAgent root 0.0 672.00 KB
585.68 MB
37 kdcmond root 0.0 1.02 MB
585.73 MB
39 hidd root 0.0 604.00 KB
586.12 MB
40 fseventsd root 0.0 1.32 MB
591.70 MB
42 dynamic_pager root 0.0 608.00 KB
585.61 MB
44 diskarbitrationd root 0.0 1,004.00 KB
585.69 MB
48 blued root 0.0 2.15 MB
596.91 MB
49 autofsd root 0.0 672.00 KB
585.62 MB
51 socketfilterfw root 0.0 1.79 MB
585.94 MB
60 krb5kdc root 0.0 1.38 MB
586.05 MB
62 coreservicesd root 0.1 15.16 MB
605.97 MB
64 WindowServer _windowser 10.0 22.12 MB
921.52 MB
67 nmbd root 0.0 1.16 MB
586.94 MB
76 VNCPrivilegeProx root 0.0 624.00 KB
586.62 MB
89 sh root 0.0 696.00 KB
586.11 MB
108 mysqld _mysql 0.0 13.13 MB
620.40 MB
109 AppleFileServer root 0.0 6.34 MB
604.74 MB
111 racoon root 0.0 1.02 MB
586.13 MB
115 launchd stoer 0.0 580.00 KB
17.64 MB
123 AppleVNCServer stoer 5.8 6.38 MB
893.59 MB
125 Spotlight stoer 0.0 17.53 MB
1,023.63 MB
126 UserEventAgent stoer 0.0 2.22 MB
588.81 MB
128 pboard stoer 0.0 592.00 KB
18.62 MB
130 Dock stoer 0.0 9.78 MB
925.00 MB
131 ATSServer stoer 0.0 3.59 MB
632.52 MB
132 coreaudiod root 0.0 964.00 KB
586.30 MB
133 SystemUIServer stoer 0.0 11.57 MB
930.72 MB
134 Finder stoer 0.0 17.59 MB
960.89 MB
143 iTunes Helper stoer 0.0 3.09 MB
859.42 MB
144 gstlauncherdaemon stoer 0.0 4.47 MB
909.45 MB
148 usbmuxd nobody 0.0 1.34 MB
587.33 MB
156 aosnotifyd stoer 0.0 2.30 MB
587.75 MB
210 smbd root 0.0 2.05 MB
590.63 MB
212 smbd root 0.0 316.00 KB
590.63 MB
1684 AppleSpell.service stoer 0.0 2.25 MB
601.72 MB
1700 LKDCHelper stoer 0.0 860.00 KB
586.62 MB
1754 Activity Monitor stoer 7.4 15.68 MB
976.91 MB
1755 pmTool root 1.1 1.33 MB
595.69 MB
1990 iTunes stoer 0.1 42.92 MB
997.20 MB
1991 GimmeSomeTune stoer 0.0 7.50 MB
914.19 MB
1996 AppleMobileDevic stoer 0.0 4.09 MB
597.02 MB
4213 mdworker stoer 0.0 2.40 MB
599.23 MB
4469 AirPort Base Station Agen stoer 0.0 2.91 MB
322.75 MB
4510 SyncServer stoer 0.0 7.50 MB
597.96 MB
4515 PubSubAgent stoer 0.0 2.80 MB
598.19 MB
4520 mdworker _spotlight 0.0 2.13 MB
598.87 MB
4530 synchronize-pref root 0.0 792.00 KB
585.70 MB
4531 NetAuthAgent stoer 0.0 3.81 MB
854.55 MB

Why is there no application that would keep track of sleep timer resets?

--
Marcel Stör, http://www.frightanic.com
Blog: http://frightanic.wordpress.com
Couchsurfing: http://www.couchsurfing.com/people/marcelstoer
Skype: marcelstoer
-> I kill Google Groups posts: http://improve-usenet.org.

 

I tried switching off file sharing just for the heck of it. Now instead of

PM notification cancel (pid 109, AppleFileServer)

I see

PM notification cancel (pid 132, coreaudiod)

all the time. What would be the logic behind that?

Regards,
Marcel

--
Marcel Stör, http://www.frightanic.com
Blog: http://frightanic.wordpress.com
Couchsurfing: http://www.couchsurfing.com/people/marcelstoer
Skype: marcelstoer
-> I kill Google Groups posts: http://improve-usenet.org.

 

What Mac? There's a problem with Mac Pros (books and towers) where
Firefox 3 keeps them awake:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=428565
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=479001

There's also a more general problem:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9061764

My Mac Pro won't sleep at all; the MacBook Pro sleeps if I quit FF3.

 

[...]

There's a lot to go through, and for me there are some things that have
to be running when the computer is awake, so the easy way out was to use
this utility -

http://www.northernsoftworks.com/lightsout.html

It costs US$9.99, but it definitely solves the not automatically going to
sleep problem.

Billy Y..

 

Marcel Stšör wrote:
[...]

It looks like my problem - or my Mac mini's rather - has got something
to do with the AASync application. I don't know the real cause, but I'm
getting close. The mini definitely goes to sleep if I quit AASync.
I'll keep this newsgroup posted in case someone else comes across the
same issues.

Regards,
Marcel

--
Marcel Stör, http://www.frightanic.com
Blog: http://frightanic.wordpress.com
Couchsurfing: http://www.couchsurfing.com/people/marcelstoer
Skype: marcelstoer
-> I kill Google Groups posts: http://improve-usenet.org.

 

Well, the purpose of that is to keep things synchronised with
anothercomputer, and that can't happen if the Mac is asleep. Seems
logical.

Another thing to check is USB devices. Try unplugging anything that
wasn't made by Apple and see if it helps.

 

No, not if it runs on a daily schedule...

The only USB adapter hooked up is an iPod data cord to which the iPod is
connected maybe twice a week.

--
Marcel Stör, http://www.frightanic.com
Blog: http://frightanic.wordpress.com
Couchsurfing: http://www.couchsurfing.com/people/marcelstoer
Skype: marcelstoer
-> I kill Google Groups posts: http://improve-usenet.org.

 

/You/ know it runs on a daily schedule, but the Mac part of the
software might be keeping the Mac awake in case the Windows computer
wants to make a backup. For instance, if the Windows computer is
establishing an FTPconnection every 15 minutes to the Mac that might
well keep it awake.

If it's not one manufactured by Apple, try disconnecting it when it's
not in use.

 

Ummm..... how would it run on a daily schedule if the OS is asleep?

That's why, for example, there's Macaroni. The basic Unix cleanup
routines don't run during sleep, so "someone" has to catch them up.