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My MacBook won’t sleep without immediately waking up, and won’t shut down without immediately restarting. I can turn it off by holding down the power button, but it still turns back on when the magsafe is plugged in. It seems like I need to reset the SMC, but when I follow the instructions to do that (turn off computer, push left shift-control-option-power) it just turns on. Is there another way to reset the SMC, or is there something that I’m missing?

Depends on the age of your Macbook: Resetting the SMC on Mac portables with a battery you can remove

  1. Shut down the computer.
  2. Disconnect the MagSafe power adapter from the computer, if it’s connected.
  3. Remove the battery.
  4. Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
  5. Release the power button.
  6. Reconnect the battery and MagSafe power adapter.
  7. Press the power button to turn on the computer. Resetting the SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own
  8. Shut down the computer.
  9. Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
  10. On the built-in keyboard, ‘‘‘press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
  11. Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.’’’
  12. Press the power button to turn on the computer.
    Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC. If this answer was helpful please remember to return and mark it Accepted.

Sure, you can trigger an SMC reset with the SmcFlasher tool. Grab the appropriate SMC firmware update for your machine from Apple. Locate and extract the SmcFlasher.efi from the firmware update package and tuck it somewhere on your system drive. The Pacifist tool is of great help here. Next boot into an EFI shell such as the one included in the rEFInd boot manager, navigate to where you put the SmcFlasher.efi and run it with the parameters -reset 1 Let’s say I put it in a folder named “smc” on the root of the system drive, I would then fs1: cd smc ./SmcFlasher.efi -reset 1 Voila.

Isn’t unplugging the battery the same as resetting SMC?

I have also tried to reset as per the instructions, but when I release the option/shift RP and power button, thr machine powers up without me being able to hit power button again. it then comes up in safe mode but because the keyboard doesnt work properly i cannot input my password. any ideas??

Hey, Was there ever a resolution for this issue? My issue is the same as in I can shutdown my laptop off with my power chord plugged in however when I press Shift+Control+Option and the Power button all at the same time, my magsafe light doesn’t change colour but instead just turns the laptop on. The issue is still apparent, being that my USB ports no longer work. I had this issue a few weeks ago and somehow I managed to fix my ports by doing the reset. I have seen the reset work, where I have pressed the buttons, my light on my charger has flickered and then i’ve been able to power on my laptop and everything was working again. The problem has returned and therefore I need to reset again but struggling. I know my SMC has not been reset as my laptop just powers back on. Any help appreciated on how to force this. I have been trying the traditional method of holding all 4 keys and releasing for some time now and had no luck.

Same problem here! Tried several times to reset with the Shift+Control + Option keys and Power Button. No LED changes. I would like to understand Royolse instructions better. Can anyone can help? Thank you

hey i changed the batery and never start again.

Left shift +Ctrl + option + power button Immediately turn off my Mbp 2009 13. SMC used to work but now when I press those 4 buttons together, it turns off my Mbp immediately. Help!

Hi, I have a Macbook air from 2017, just got it under a month ago… I have tried resetting the SMC many times and it has successfully worked fine… although after a couple of days, it is back to normal again… I do this because the batterylife is draining a little too fast and the fan makes loud noises without having barely anything open. I was thinking if there was a way so I didn’t have to reset the SMC all the time? Thanks

If you are able, I highly recommend removing the back cover of the laptop and unplugging the laptop battery from the mother board for 5 minutes. Then perform an SMC reset with the power cord plugged in. Then reconnect the battery.

I have an issue thats similar with my macbook pro mid 2014 15” it does not appear to do an SMC reset. I also have sound issue where the speakers start the bong at start up but the bong then goes as if someone has muted the speaker there is nothing wrong with the speakers, they just work sometimes. However i have to use this laptop now with my 27” apple monitor. Thought it could be the mini display port or the usb socket causing the issue, but i have no idea. I also feel like apple does not help with older models. I think that the update to Big Sur had seriously screwed it, however running latest patch and it still does not work. I feel like leaving this outside , and then reporting stolen.

I have similar problem, Just transfer my laptop to a “new” (ebay) top case with new battery. this is the power profile data: Charge Information: Fully Charged: No Charging: No Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 9267 State of Charge (%): 36 Health Information: Cycle Count: 7 Condition: Normal the battery icon shows power cord connection. but says battery not charging. I have tried SMC reset and nvram reset. My laptop is a MacBook Pro retina 15-inch late 2013. Fan are working ok, keyboar back light ok, Light sensor and auto screen regulation ok. Just the freaking battery not charging. Hopefully won’t have to get a new battery again… (at least were 60 bucks)