App might not release power management assertions in some circumstances

[gonzalezcalleja]

Hi,

After last updates (now v.3.1.1) with macOS 15.0.1, In activity Monitor, BetterDisplay is always "YES" in Preventing Sleep so I can't sleep my computer.

This issue has never happened before.

[waydabber]

Does this happen right on after app startup or is there an activity that triggers this behavior?

[waydabber]

Note: the app intentionally blocks sleep in specific circumstances, like mode switch or reinitialization to prevent the system from entering to sleep when only one display is connected. This however should be temporary, not continuous.

These are the events when the app attempts to prevent sleep for a while (for 10 seconds after trigger):

• Connecting/disconnecting a display
• Mode switch
• Low level connection mode switch
• Setting custom EDID
• Setting factory EDID
• Changing HDR mode
• Applying display system configuration change
• VMM7100 reset

If you see the app continuously preventing sleep, then something must be wrong/stuck somehow, we should figure out what.

[waydabber]

Hmm. I was able to reproduce the issue. It seems like the sleep prevention assertion is not released properly in some situations. The OS should still let sleep back after about a minute or so anyway, but this is not ideal for sure:

pmset -g assertions | grep -i sleep

   PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep    0
   PreventSystemSleep             0
   PreventUserIdleSystemSleep     1
   pid 17573(BetterDisplay): [0x0001513b00078257] 00:04:15 PreventSystemSleep named: "Temporarily prevent sleep during operation that might cause display signal loss"  
   pid 1066(sharingd): [0x000151fe000183a8] 00:01:00 PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: "Handoff"  
   pid 572(powerd): [0x00014e710001a3ed] 00:16:09 PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: "Powerd - Prevent sleep while display is on"  

[gonzalezcalleja]

Hi @waydabber, thanks for your fast support.

Reading your first post I remembered that I wrote a hammerspoon script for restart BetterDisplay when computer sleep/wakeup for a issue with dummy displays in apple sillicon: https://ptb.discord.com/channels/903276571773771796/903276571773771799/1076823918557528137

Removing this script, BetterDisplay is in Preventing Sleep mode only a moment.

[waydabber]

Thanks for the additional info. Nevertheless, the fact remains that there is a bug in the app as the PreventUserIdleSystemSleep assertion is not released properly. I am investigating the cause and will provide a fix. :)

[waydabber]

I'll release a stable update with a fix for this as it can actually be an annoying issue. Thanks @gonzalezcalleja for reporting this!

[waydabber]

The v3.1.2 fixing specifically this issue is now out.