After 10.8.2 update, screensaver not starting.

[Whitehill]

I have changed settings on the system preferences pane a few times, and rebooted a couple times. No dice. Any ideas?

 

[DeltaMac]

Are you saying that you can't get the screensaver to do anything (even manually, or with a "hot corner"), or just that it won't start automatically, after some arbitrary time delay?

 

[Whitehill]

Sorry. Yes, I can start it with a hot corner. No, it won't start automatically.

 

[DeltaMac]

Will screensaver start when you are logged in to a different user account?

 

[Whitehill]

I logged into another account. Same behavior. It starts at a hot corner, won't start on the timer.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Sounds like something is keeping the Mac "awake."

What sort of software have you installed that may run upon boot/login? Dropbox? Any synchronization software? Printer monitoring software?

 

[Whitehill]

Dropbox, yes. But I have had it for at least 3 years. One recent addition is AirPrint Activator to serve up printers to iPads, etc. I have LogMeIn, too, but also for years.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

I would begin troubleshooting by deactivating those two (AirPrint Activator and LogMeIn, but I suspect it's the AirPrint Activator which would require the computer to be awake in order to serve up the print server on the network).

You may be able to deactivate through the "Login Items" if those are programs that run upon login, or they may be "system-level" services which start upon boot and run regardless of whether someone is logged in or not.

 

[Whitehill]

I turned off AA - problem remains. The console contains clusters of the messages below, every 2 minutes. Do you know what these items are?

9/27/12 11:16:59.172 AM mdworker[49833]: Unable to talk to lsboxd
9/27/12 11:16:59.264 AM sandboxd[49841]: ([49831]) mdworker(49831) deny mach-lookup com.apple.ls.boxd
9/27/12 11:16:59.000 AM kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(49841) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd

 

[Whitehill]

I turned off LogMeIn - problem remains. So, I shut down and booted into "Safe Mode", twiddled my thumbs for quite a while, then rebooted normally. After the timer expired - Lo! - the screensaver started up! And the weird console messages stopped.

I re-enabled LogMeIn. Waiting ... All OK.

Starting AA ... All OK!

Moral of the story, boys and girls: Safe Mode is our friend.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Strange, I just stumbled across that same fix from the Apple Support Communities:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4352126?start=0&tstart=0

...although that individual went and deleted some plist and cache files as well.

Let us know if it stays sorted, or if the problem returns!

 

[jbarley]

I turned off LogMeIn - problem remains. So, I shut down and booted into "Safe Mode", twiddled my thumbs for quite a while, then rebooted normally. After the timer expired - Lo! - the screensaver started up! And the weird console messages stopped.

I re-enabled LogMeIn. Waiting ... All OK.

Starting AA ... All OK!

Moral of the story, boys and girls: Safe Mode is our friend.

This Apple link helps explain what happens in a Safe Mode boot.

 

[Whitehill]

Rats! The screensaver is again not starting. It was OK when I left yesterday, about 4pm ET. Something happened over night.

Good news. The "lsboxd" messages have not reappeared in the console.

 

[Whitehill]

After ignoring this issue for months, I have stumbled over the solution: Update to 10.8.3. It works properly again.

Thanks, Apple. Now, please fix the memory leaks in Safari.