Server Version#: 4.54.5 (EDIT: not sure where the other # came from… 1.22.2.4282)
Player Version#: 7.13 (22846) (Apple TV 4K)
I’m sure there’s a lot of detail needed for anyone to be able to help but here’s what I’ve got so far. I’ve been accessing my Mac media server from my 4K Apple TV for a long time. After recent update to server and Apple TV side too I think, I can’t reach my media unless I touch the keyboard to wake it from sleep. This was not the case for the last years. I think I’ve found a couple other instances of people having this issue too but I’m having trouble searching on this site.
Go into System Preferences ->Energy Saver and select for the Mac not to go to sleep when the display is off, and confirm that you do not have a scheduled sleep cycle, it shouldn’t but never hurts to check. That should prevent the Mac from going to sleep…
The other thing that slows things down that is not easy to control is when the external drives you maybe using go to sleep and take time to spin up when your accessing a program.
Yeah, I get that I could tell my computer to never sleep. I just want to know what happened in the recent update. I’ve not touched my setting on the computer and somehow the client on the apply TV used to be able to wake my computer from sleep when I accessed Plex and now it can’t. Isn’t it bad for a computer to never sleep? Burn out the HD or something?
It would be nice if we could determine why things seem to mysteriously change when updates are installed. but not sure how you can do that…
If your computer is not set to Sleep and you’re still having an issue, then I am not sure where you would look next.
One example I had recently, my Apple watch, used to send alerts for my exercise achievements, then they stopped and I found out that all of them were turned off in the Apple Watch app settings… I turned them back on, back to normal, however there was no way to determine how they all got turned off. perhaps Its save to assume that some recent update did it, but how can one be sure…
Tried the SMC and power cycle on the ATV, nada. This all happened after the update where Plex is ‘pushing’ or featuring the live TV and Plex content to my homepage instead of my media. I’m considering the plex pass upgrade but without this functionality I really can’t justify it.
So, your Mac still goes to sleep? Or does Plex stop functioning between your server and ATV? Does the web interface still work from another computer? Did you try say the Plex App on a phone or tablet to see if you can get to it when your ATV Does not… Perhaps the problem is something else…
Right, my Mac is going to sleep (as it should) and Plex isn’t able to wake it when accessed from either the ATV, Web or phone apps. Pre-update I know at least the ATV was able to wake the computer. Never really tried from phone or web, those I only got to test this problem.
I guess I don’t understand, you can set the Mac to NOT to go to sleep, if you’ve done this, it will never go to sleep. if your letting the Mac go to sleep, there is a good chance even if you set it to wake on network access, it may not…
If your sitting there letting it go to sleep, and expecting Plex to wake, your probably in for a long wait… Set the Mac not to sleep, problem solved, as I think I noted earlier , in Energy Saver, set to prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off, Mac will never sleep, ever. Plex will always work.
These are every day computers not servers… they may run software that acts as a “server” for certain apps, but in this case it’s a Mac, and most other PC computers people own are NOT servers. Even PC’s will sleep if set to do so. Some even just outright power off and you have to turn it back on…
Normang, What I’m saying is that a month ago something changed with the Plex update. I agree, I was surprised it just worked before. Computer would be asleep, I open plex on ATV, computer wakes and gives me Plex. Now after update it does not.
I do not believe it ever behaved this way, if a Mac is in sleep mode, I’ve never had it wake up when trying to access it from a Plex Client, whether its on an Apple TV or some other Plex Client, I’ve always had it set so that the server would not sleep. If it was sleeping for any reason, I would have to go and wake it. a Plex Client would not do that…
If one really wants to save energy, you can in the Energy Saver control panel schedule when your Mac goes to sleep and when it wakes up, so unless your Plex server is always being used, then it would be better to just set it to not sleep ever, or schedule it so that its on when your normally using it and sleeping when your not…
While I’ve seen people discussing wake on lan, or in the Mac’s case, wake for network access. Every method is convoluted and complicated and usually only works on Windows. I do not think any version of a Plex Client will wake a sleeping Mac, however, you can try and enable wake for network access and see if things change. This setting I think though does not let the Mac sleep as deeply if it were not enabled, so energy usage could go up.
However, I do not think Plex’s behavior changed. Ultimately, the simplest solution is to stop expecting to work as you think it should, and disable sleep completely in one of a couple ways and it will just work.
Are you sure it ever actually went to sleep, and didn’t just turn off display? Anyhow, ensure wake-on-LAN is enabled (Energy Saver → Wake for network access). When relying on wake-on-LAN, also ensure your server has a static IP address, either locally configured or pre-allocated in your DHCP service.
Not sure if Plex server is a “Power Nap” application, but I’d try enabling that too, although performance would likely stink if it did since that’s usually run at a very low CPU clock.
Frankly, however, this is not likely to be Plex related, because system functions like power control are OS-mediated, and generally outside the grasp of applications.
In general I have my domestic Mac Mini server set to never sleep, since it also handles time machine backups, file/print service, and caching, for >15 local client devices, so it’d rarely be asleep anyway.
