Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

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Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

Post by James Steele »

This may seem very basic, but I just discovered that somehow when I did a "Get Info" on the DP app, "Prevent App Nap" was unchecked. I don't know how that happened. It caused me to wonder if perhaps some of the time the app seemed to lose contact with the audio driver that *MIGHT* have been a factor? Probably not... it's a long shot. Still, I'd suggest that everyone verify this is checked on DP.
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Re: Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

Post by cuttime »

Thanks for this! I had this checked and had long forgotten about it, but after your post I did a "Get Info" and sure enough App nap was no longer checked. I have no idea when this changed.
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Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

Post by James Steele »

Same here. Somehow it had changed and I have no idea HOW! I wonder if Apple's OS updaters do this to apps? Weird.
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Re: Reminder: Make sure

Post by mikehalloran »

James Steele wrote:I wonder if Apple's OS updaters do this to apps? Weird.
Incremental updaters shouldn't affect this (always double-check to be certain).

Major version upgrades certainly can.
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Re: Reminder: Make sure

Post by James Steele »

mikehalloran wrote:Incremental updaters shouldn't affect this (always double-check to be certain).

Major version upgrades certainly can.
Yeah... not sure how/when it happened. Perhaps when I went from El Cap to Sierra. I can't remember, but it seems MOTU's installers don't install the app with this checked by default. Perhaps they can't and it's up to the user to remember?
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Re: Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

Post by Babz »

I had not previously heard of "app nap". I decided to do some googling. I only recently upgraded from ML to El Crapitan. I had MIDI go dead on me a couple of times over the course of my first major project. Had to unplug/replug USB cable to get it back. I wonder if this app nap stuff might be involved?

It is apparently some energy saving feature (mostly for laptops) introduced as of Mavericks. I wonder if other apps besides DP might be affected, like maybe MIDI after a period of inactivity?

I found this article, which might be of interest. Includes a Terminal command to disable app nap globally..

http://osxdaily.com/2014/05/13/disable- ... -mac-os-x/
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Re: Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

Post by James Steele »

It most definitely can affect certain apps detrimentally when realtime performance is important. Just one example... I'm still successfully using Liquid Mix in combination with 32 Lives, but it absolutely won't work properly if you don't check "Prevent App Nap" on the Liquid Mic app.
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Re: Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

Post by James Steele »

Thanks for the info about disabling globally. I may give that a try.
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Re: Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

Post by JSmith1234567 »

Thanks for this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Re: Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

Post by mikehalloran »

Babz wrote:I had not previously heard of "app nap". ...

I found this article, which might be of interest. Includes a Terminal command to disable app nap globally..

http://osxdaily.com/2014/05/13/disable- ... -mac-os-x/
Since battery life isn't an issue, I don't see any down side to running that command on a desktop Mac ... I can see a possible issue if you don't have enough RAM but I somehow doubt it. In any case, I ran the command and haven't seen any problems.

I have an issue with Word 2008 in Sierra being unresponsive if it's been open too long. App Nap might be the culprit. I've run a couple of sessions without issues now so am keeping my fingers crossed — will be great if it's taken care of, now. I have Office 2011 and really dislike the interface. 2016 looks even worse so am putting that off as long as possible (Word 5.1 and Office 2008 are the closest to liking Microsoft products as I ever got).

As far as having to run it again, sometimes I have to re-run sudo trimforce enable to re-enable T.R.I.M. after a major OS update; other times I don't — same with downloading JRE 6 from Apple. This will be one more routine I check for when I upgrade to OS 10.13 or whatever comes next.

Disable App Nap System Wide in Mac OS X
defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAppSleepDisabled -bool YES

Reboot or close and restart applications

Re-Enable App Nap in Mac OS X
defaults delete NSGlobalDomain NSAppSleepDisabled

Reboot or close and restart applications
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Re: Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

Post by Tonio »

good stuff thanks !!

hmm, I don't have that preference in energy saving- Yosemite 10.10.5 ??

I believe it was an option in Mavericks

So went to DP get info - sure enough it was not disabled. Also I turned it on ( prevent app nappy) on the MOTU audio driver. I seem to have the driver quit on long idles.

Maybe it effects the MIDI driver too? Appears to be from Babz report.

I may go with the terminal globally. Guess we should self remind on OS updates..
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Re: Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

Post by mikehalloran »

If you set it globally, it will only show up in the individual apps as you set it before.

The article that Babz linked shows you how to look at the Activity Monitor and tell whether or not it is set on apps that are active. Properly done, it will be disabled on all.

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Re: Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

Post by philbrown »

This was news to me. I'm on 10.9.5 and I had a flash that maybe this could solve some issues with my Apollo interface dropouts, but when I checked the Console and UAD Meter apps neither one have that option available in the Get Info box. Curious about this and I assume that a global disable wouldn't affect those apps either way then. Any thoughts on this?

EDIT> I just looked at Activity Monitor>Energy per Mike's screen shot above and it shows a column of "no's" like his screen shot. Apparently UA eliminated that option altogether, which makes sense.
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Re: Reminder: Make sure

Post by Killahurts »

James Steele wrote:Yeah... not sure how/when it happened. Perhaps when I went from El Cap to Sierra.
I just went from El Cap to Sierra yesterday. I remembered this thread, so I thought I would check before and after- I can confirm Sierra reenabled nap app for DP on my machine.
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Re: Reminder: Make sure "Prevent App Nap" is checked

Post by mhschmieder »

In multi-track, multi-take recording/editing/comping sessions yesterday, I did not encounter the spinning beach ball. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I will be recording drums and guitar simultaneously in a half hour, which increases the track count per take by four, so we'll see if I am out of the mess I was in before resetting the "app nap" feature.
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