MacBook – How to wake up MacBook Pro with external display with lid closed

A lack of wake reason entries suggests your Mac is never fully sleeping. The sleep mechanism has started but never completes.

Use the following Terminal command to view a detailed log showing your Mac's power history:

pmset -g log

You will see a list of entries in form:

 * Domain: applicationresponse.slowresponse
 - Message: PMConnection AirPort configd plug-in com.apple.powermanagement.applicationresponse.slowresponse 1399 ms
 - Time: 13/03/2012 12:27:53 CET 
 - Signature: AirPort configd plug-in
 - UUID: AB482838-2D6E-0000-0000-14BF53E20000
 - Result: Noop
 - Response time (ms): 1399

Look out for applications that may be keeping your Mac awake and active. Applications and other processes can keep your Mac awake if they are providing a service, such as file sharing or remote access. However, processes should be forced asleep after 30 seconds on lid close.

The behaviour you are seeing suggests a kernel extension or IOKit problem. User level processes can not block sleep when instigated by the user.

Do you have any utilities installed that install kernel extensions (kext)? These might include screen recording or audio capture tools; utilities than need low level access to your Mac.

I have an Air that I leave in clamshell mode when it is at home.

I also have an AirPort router that connects it to the internet and have it set to have the Mac wake for Wi-Fi access in the Energy Saver system preference pane.

• On iOS, I use the paid app Screens VNC app and configure it to use SSH.
• On the Mac, I use the free Screens Connect app in conjunction with the also free Edovia remote location brokering service in case my router gets a new IP address. I don't really need that since I have a fixed IP address, but it simplifies setup and allows me to reach my Mac when it's not at home as well.

This setup works to wake my sleeping Air when I need to access my computer from any of my iOS devices through the internet.