Bug Report: Fusion360's ScreenCast preventing MacBook from sleeping

[OceanHydroAU]

Since Installing Fusion360, my MacBook refuses to sleep.  The cause is a "PreventUserIdleSystemSleep" assertion which is held up by "com.apple.audio.AppleHDAEngineInput" which has been told to do that by "/Applications/Screencast.app/Contents/MacOS/Screencast".

More info about this, and other programs also making that same mistake, are on this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3349374

The important lines below are:

PreventUserIdleSystemSleep 1

and

pid 139(coreaudiod): [0x000011930001817d] 22:51:02 PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: "com.apple.audio.AppleHDAEngineInput:1F,3,0,1,0:1.context.preventuseridlesleep" 
Created for PID: 637. 

and

637 ?? S 20:53.69 /Applications/Screencast.app/Contents/MacOS/Screencast -hide

Here's the complete diagnostic investigation:-

[cnd@mac]$ pmset -g assertions
2020-10-10 08:13:31 +1000 
Assertion status system-wide:
BackgroundTask 0
ApplePushServiceTask 0
UserIsActive 1
PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep 0
PreventSystemSleep 0
ExternalMedia 0
PreventUserIdleSystemSleep 1
NetworkClientActive 0
Listed by owning process:
pid 139(coreaudiod): [0x000011930001817d] 22:51:02 PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: "com.apple.audio.AppleHDAEngineInput:1F,3,0,1,0:1.context.preventuseridlesleep" 
Created for PID: 637. 
pid 110(hidd): [0x000149a600099ce3] 00:00:00 UserIsActive named: "com.apple.iohideventsystem.queue.tickle.4294969256.3" 
Timeout will fire in 600 secs Action=TimeoutActionRelease
Kernel Assertions: 0x8=BT-HID
id=512 level=255 0x8=BT-HID mod=1/1/70, 10:00 am description=com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver owner=AppleHSBluetoothDevice
id=513 level=255 0x8=BT-HID mod=1/1/70, 10:00 am description=com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver owner=AppleHSBluetoothDevice
Idle sleep preventers: IODisplayWrangler

[cnd@mac]$ ps ax | grep 637
637 ?? S 20:53.69 /Applications/Screencast.app/Contents/MacOS/Screencast -hide

[cnd@mac]$

Good luck!

Chris.

[OceanHydroAU]

p.s. I did not have Fusion360 running and I have not recently done a screencast.

Here's a different way to see the same problem - note the "Yes" under "Preventing Sleep" column:

 

 

[OceanHydroAU]

I investigated this issue more deeply.  I discovered that if I manually start ScreenCast, it too prevents sleep:-

HOWEVER!!!  When I dismiss that pop-up dialog window, Screencast clears the prevent-sleep assertion:-

 

And, extra-cool, when I start Fusion360 after already starting Screencast - it does not prevent sleep anymore.

So - the work-around, start ScreenCast before Fusion360, manually shutting its popup window.

And - How to fix this bug !!

ScreenCast is being auto-started by Fusion360, which is cool, but, somewhere inside the screencast code, is the switch to prevent sleep, which is being turned on automatically.  Also, somewhere within the dismiss-dialog code, is the switch which turns off the prevent-sleep feature.  You need to update your ScreenCast code, so that after it has opened, it checks to see if the reason it was opened was by being called by a program which asked for it not to open it's dialogue window, and when this is the case (like Fusion360 does), ScreenCast needs to toggle that prevent-sleep feature back off.

That should save you a ton of hours looking for the problem!  Enjoy!!

[OceanHydroAU]

P.S. This is a really bad problem - most macbooks only last a couple of hours on battery, so this will be causing all MacBook owners to lose all their unsaved work if they unplug, and to not be able to use their macs away from a power point, unless they totally shut down their Machine before the leave the house.

[OceanHydroAU]

Update - this problem appears also to be interfering with O/S updates (which are set to install when the MAc is sleeping, which Screencast never allows...)

Someone REALLY should mark this bug as a very high priority - it's a huge problem for users.

[Phil.E]

Thanks for the update and key details. I missed the OP on this one, but it's logged now with the Screencast team.

[ram.mummidi]

Hi @OceanHydroAU 

When I start Screencast (I am on Catalina), I see the setting PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep is set to NO. I am wondering, how this is set to 1 on your machine. Are there any specific steps that you can provide? Are you on Big Sur by chance?

Thanks, --Ram

[OceanHydroAU]

This is normal, and the same for everyone (after you close the initial screencast popup window):-

"When I start Screencast (I am on Catalina), I see the setting PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep is set to NO. "

Note however that YOU should not be the one to "start Screencast".  Fusion 360 is the thing that is starting screencast, NOT YOU.

It is the way the Fusion360 starts screencast that is causing the problem.  It's not a problem if the user manually starts it (which never happens - Fusion360 always starts screencast itself).  Also, if the user has already started screencast manually (never happens normally) then Fusion360 bug does not show up.

To reproduce this problem, Fusion360 AND screencast BOTH need to NOT be running.

Then start Fusion360.

[ram.mummidi]

Thank you for the additional steps. I will take a look at it. Thank you.

—Ram

[OceanHydroAU]

Can someone please fix this really-easy-to-fix bug?  It's been 6 months since I reported it, and my poor macbook has not had a good nights sleep in all that time !!!

Tell your dev people this:-

  Do not set PreventUserIdleSystemSleep *until* ScreenCast window gets opened - in other words - do NOT set PreventUserIdleSystemSleep when ScreenCast is LOADED, only do that when it is OPENED.  

[Phil.E]

@OceanHydroAU  Ram is the developer, let's ask him.

@ram.mummidi  Is there any update?

[ram.mummidi]

Hi @OceanHydroAU ,

We ran into few issues with UI degradation with Screencast Recorder on Mac OS with Qt update and put the Mac update on hold for a bit. Once I get back to it, I will take a look at it. Currently, I don't have and estimate on when we will get to it.

Thanks, --Ram

[OceanHydroAU]

Any update on a resolution for this bug?

[OceanHydroAU]

I see today that the ScreenCast team are doing research!  Now might be a good time to get this bug looked into?

Fixing this one too would be convenient:-

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-support/bug-report-forum-software-broken-cannot-insert-scr...

[ddeike]

Hi @OceanHydroAU We are working on a fix for this issue in the Screencast recorder for Mac after some delays. 

[OceanHydroAU]

Update for the team working on this now: Please carefully read all my comments above - they explain exactly what the problem is and why (being: the way Fusion360 starts Screencast which triggers the bug - starting screencast manually does not trigger the bug).