MacBook – Mac OS asking for password too early/often

macbook propasswordsleep-wakesnow leopard

I have a 2008 aluminum Macbook running Snow Leopard, and I have set it to ask for my account's password after 4 hours inactivity. However, it sometimes asks for it much earlier, after just a few minutes of inactivity. This also happens when waking the Mac up from (a short) sleep, but when that happens, the screen usually stays completely dark: I know it's actually asking for my password because if I enter it, the screen "unlocks" and starts working normally; if I press Esc instead, the computer stops again (and works normally if I wake it up again).

This appears to be a random behavior that I cannot reproduce at will. It happens quite often after a stop, but only rarely otherwise (i.e. without sleeping).

Does anybody have a clue about what could be going on?

Best Answer

Go to System Preferences > Security and Privacy > General and disable Require Password.

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MacOS – MacBook does not sleep when lid is 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.

MacOS – Stop asking for password so often

OS X Mountain Lion makes it impossible to do that, because of Security Reasons. You can’t store your Mac App Store password or iTunes Store password in the keychain. For everything else, there’s 1Password.

Best Answer

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MacOS – MacBook does not sleep when lid is closed

MacOS – Stop asking for password so often

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