Windows 11 Arm VM "Preventing Sleep" i.e. preventing Mac Screensaver, Display Off and Sleep

J

JamesBeaumont

Junior Member
My Windows 11 Arm VM causes the "Preventing Sleep" flag in Activity Monitor for the "Parallels Desktop" process to always be "Yes". In turn, this prevents the Mac ScreenSaver from starting, prevents the Display turning off, and prevents the Mac going to Sleep automatically.

I cannot find any setting in Parallels that is causing this.

Please can someone help me change this behaviour. I have my Windows VM running all the time, and would like the Mac to ScreenSave when the machine is not in use.

Many thanks.Screenshot 2024-01-03 at 18.02.00.png
 
JamesBeaumont said:
My Windows 11 Arm VM causes the "Preventing Sleep" flag in Activity Monitor for the "Parallels Desktop" process to always be "Yes". In turn, this prevents the Mac ScreenSaver from starting, prevents the Display turning off, and prevents the Mac going to Sleep automatically.

I cannot find any setting in Parallels that is causing this.

Please can someone help me change this behaviour. I have my Windows VM running all the time, and would like the Mac to ScreenSave when the machine is not in use.

Many thanks.View attachment 21894
Click to expand...
Hello,
For us to further investigate this issue, kindly reproduce the issue and collect a technical report (right-click Parallels icon in Dock > Help > Send technical data > check "Attach screenshots..." > press Send Report) and provide us with the report's 9-digit ID in reply to this post.
Thank you.
 
Hi, after posting the question on this forum I raised ticket #4528965 and added the 9-digit technical data ID. Please confirm you can find it, or I will generate another report and reply here.
 
I just did some tests to try and narrow this down. It looks like the "Preventing Sleep" flag is being caused by connecting a USB device (in my case a Logitech wireless keyboard dongle) to the guest Windows 11 VM. If I disconnect it from the VM (so it is connected to the Mac) then the "Preventing Sleep" flag goes to "No" and the Mac screensaver etc all work as expected.

I need to connect this device to my guest Windows 11 VM machine though - I rely on it to be able to use my Windows keyboard in the VM.

I will paste this same update to my ticket.

Please advise.
 
I have done some further tests, and taken another technical data dump:
1. Connecting a regular USB Keyboard or USB mouse to my Windows VM exhibits the same behaviour as the Logitech wireless keyboard dongle: specifically that the 'Parallels Desktop' process permanently shows 'Preventing Sleep' in Activity Monitor and the Mac does not invoke screensaver, display off etc.
2. Connecting a USB headset to my Windows VM does NOT show this problem. So this doesn't affect ALL USB devices, but at least the keyboards and mice I have tried.

I took another technical data dump (id 447212132) when the USB keyboard was connected to the Windows VM.

Please let me know what you find, it would be great to resolve this issue. My Mac gets tired and needs to rest!
 
One more update... I just asked a friend of mine to try this on his Windows 11 Arm Parallels VM and same thing: Connecting a USB Keyboard to the VM causes 'Parallels Desktop' process to also be 'Preventing Sleep' - disconnecting it sets that Activity Monitor column back to 'No'. Would be great if anyone reading this can try the same and confirm their result but perhaps this is a Parallels bug and not due to my particular setup.
 
I created a threat about a similar issue a few months ago: https://forum.parallels.com/threads/paused-vm-preventing-sleep.362101/

In my case, only the VM process itself showed as Preventing Sleep - I had to expand the drop-down list for Parallels Desktop. My screensaver does start, and the monitor eventually turns off when expected, but I had hunch that my MBP wasn't truly asleep as the battery seemed to be draining more rapidly than usual, which is why I investigated.

In my case, I do not have any USB devices connected to the VM. When looking through logs in the Console, I saw some stuff about cameras and microphones, and I thought it might have something to do with the sharing of the Mac's camera and/or mic.

I'm actually not completely sure that Parallels was the cause of the battery drain, but it would be nice to be sure that the VM isn't unnecessarily keeping my Mac awake.
 
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