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bobng · Nov 21, 2011, 11:39 AM

My MBA shuts down after 30" of playing Spotify tunes. I have the screen set to go off in a minute that works. I have the drive set to NEVER shutdown and yet it does about every 30 minutes. Am I missing a setting or something?

I have a Macbook Pro and it would just keep chugging forever?

Waragainstsleep · Nov 21, 2011, 11:41 AM

When you say shut down, you mean sleep?

bobng · Nov 21, 2011, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep

When you say shut down, you mean sleep?

Yes, music stops and I have to sign back in and restart a song for it to continue for another approximate 30".

Big Mac · Nov 21, 2011, 01:17 PM

If you set your MBA to sleep after 30 minutes and you're idle (no mouse/keyboard activity), it could go to sleep regardless of what apps are running. Go to Energy Saver and increase the sleep timer.

Athens · Nov 21, 2011, 01:32 PM

how hot is it getting. Are you using it on a blanket or anything that would prevent it from breathing?

Could be over heating. Could be a defective battery. Could be other defects. Could be software. There is a lot of things that can cause this.

bobng · Nov 21, 2011, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

If you set your MBA to sleep after 30 minutes and you're idle (no mouse/keyboard activity), it could go to sleep regardless of what apps are running. Go to Energy Saver and increase the sleep timer.

I have sleep set to "never"; screen saver to one minute that's what confounds me.

bobng · Nov 21, 2011, 01:53 PM

Originally Posted by Athens

how hot is it getting. Are you using it on a blanket or anything that would prevent it from breathing?

Could be over heating. Could be a defective battery. Could be other defects. Could be software. There is a lot of things that can cause this.

It isn't getting hot and is located on a wood shelf?

Athens · Nov 21, 2011, 03:21 PM

to be clear when you turn it back on its start from a clean startup, or is it waking up from sleep with everything as it was or is it restoring session similar to Windows Hibernate?

Also what all is open.

If its consistent at doing this every 30 minutes, I would like to ask you to try 2 things after you verify sleep settings in the control panel are correct.

1) Start it up, close anything that is open and leave it. See if its still on after 30 minutes. If it reboots or shutsdown then I want you to start up in Safe Boot and leave it to see if it shutsdown. Hold the shift key when starting up.

To start up into Safe Mode (to Safe Boot), do this:

Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).

Purpose, I want rule out a software glitch in a program you are running causing the reboots. If nothing happens with nothing running then we can look at whats running as the cause of unexpected rebooting. Could be a program set to turn off when its done like Handbrake. Could be a program causing a grey screen of death or shutdown. Could be a timer in spotify?

Athens · Nov 21, 2011, 03:22 PM

And remember you have 2 sets of sleep settings in the control panel, one for plugged in and one for on battery. Make sure you told it to never sleep for plugged in, in case you only set it for on battery.

bobng · Nov 21, 2011, 04:39 PM

Thanks for your input. I will try all that you suggested. I had both Battery & Power settings to never. I just tried letting the MBA run without any programs on. I just received a message saying " Are you sure that you want to close your programs & close down" (close) It had a timer under it saying that it would do it in X seconds; then OK or Cancel. I cancelled.

I have to go out shortly so won't get to experiment more today. Again thanks!

bobng · Nov 21, 2011, 05:07 PM

Originally Posted by Athens

And remember you have 2 sets of sleep settings in the control panel, one for plugged in and one for on battery. Make sure you told it to never sleep for plugged in, in case you only set it for on battery.

I found the problem; it was me. Under Security & Privacy under General is a line that says to log out after X minutes of inactivity. It was selected for 30 minutes.