Mac OS X v10.6: Sleep delayed if print job is in progress or printer isn't available

Products Affected

Mac OS Printing/Fax (any version), Mac OS X 10.6

Symptoms

Your Mac might not immediately sleep after you attempt to put it to sleep.  Or, if you have configured your Mac to sleep when idle for a period of time, it may not go to sleep automatically.

Resolution

This is normal behavior that occurs when a print job is in process or waiting for the printer.  Mac OS X will attempt to finish the current page before sleeping.  If it cannot access the printer, it will wait up to 30 seconds before sleeping.  If you notice a delay when attempting to manually put your Mac to sleep, or your Mac is not going to sleep automatically when left idle, check for pending print jobs.

  1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
  2. From the View menu, choose Print & Fax.
  3. See if any printers or fax modems show a status of "In use".  
  4. If you find that a printer is "In use", click the Open Print Queue button, then delete any jobs that you no longer want to print or hold any jobs that are attempting to print to a printer which is not currently available.
  5. Once the printer status no longer shows "In use", you should be able to put the computer to sleep.

Additional Information

A print job can remain in progress for long periods of time in some situations, such as when attempting to print to a network printer that is not connected to the current network, or when attempting to print to a USB printer that is not connected at the moment.

Not helpful Somewhat helpful Helpful Very helpful Solved my problem