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Sleep Macs via SleepWatcher based on monitor state
Authored by: processfive on Aug 06, '08 10:39:31AM

I have a habit of leaving Firefox running with an open Gmail tab, and that seems to prevent sleep from kicking in on my Mac Mini. This seems like a great solution, but I have one concern:

How does this affect things like Time Machine backups or lengthy file transfers? Will SleepWatcher put my Mac to sleep in the middle of a backup, for example?



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Sleep Macs via SleepWatcher based on monitor state
Authored by: Balthamos on Aug 06, '08 09:11:37PM
For lengthy file transfers, this solution will make the computer fall asleep in the middle, and you will probably have to restart the transfer. For Time Machine backups, it will stop those as well, but not to the extent where it would harm your computer/backups. If you want to do something and you don't want your computer falling asleep on you, I suggest you use Caffeine. Just make sure you turn the brightness down on your monitor so you don't have burn in.
Alternatively, you could rework the logic a bit to include a check for a frontmost app (eg if iTunes is frontmost, don't fall asleep). But that may defeat the purpose of this fix. And if you want to check for HDD activity, that's exactly what Apple's standard sleep option does, so you will be stuck back at ground zero (because that's why your computer isn't falling asleep in the first place).

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