macOS Sonoma CSPNEvaluation Wakes USB Drive/Keyboard/Mouse Hourly

Summary: This guide lets you know what macOS Sonoma CSPNEvaluation is and how you can disable it to make your device run as normally. -- iBoysoft

macOS Sonoma CSPNEvaluation

After upgrading to macOS Sonoma 14.1.1, I realized that a wake request named CSPNEvaluation is scheduled immediately after sleep is initiated by the user! This causes the machine to wake up after a specified time (typically 7200 secs, i.e. 2 hours). Does anybody know what CSPNEvaluation does? Is there a way to avoid this request? The CSPNEvaluation request goes like this:
pmset -g log | grep "Wake Request"

2023-11-12 00:58:57 +0000 Wake Requests [*process=powerd request=CSPNEvaluation deltaSecs=27742 wakeAt=2023-11-12 08:41:19]
2023-11-12 08:42:17 +0000 Wake Requests [*process=powerd request=CSPNEvaluation deltaSecs=7204 wakeAt=2023-11-12 10:42:22]
2023-11-12 10:43:21 +0000 Wake Requests [*process=powerd request=CSPNEvaluation deltaSecs=3603 wakeAt=2023-11-12 11:43:25]
2023-11-12 11:44:24 +0000 Wake Requests [*process=powerd request=CSPNEvaluation deltaSecs=3604 wakeAt=2023-11-12 12:44:28]
2023-11-12 12:45:27 +0000 Wake Requests [*process=powerd request=CSPNEvaluation deltaSecs=3604 wakeAt=2023-11-12 13:45:31]
2023-11-12 13:46:30 +0000 Wake Requests [*process=powerd request=CSPNEvaluation deltaSecs=3604 wakeAt=2023-11-12 14:46:34

Have you encountered this CSPNEvaluation process on your macOS Sonoma, too? If you did, you have come to the right place. The CSPNEvaluation appears when macOS Sonoma users start the Mac computer into Sleep mode, which wakes the built-in fans with a spinning sound and other connected peripherals like USB drives or keyboard with a slight cracking noise made by speakers.

Having investigated this further, however, we found some other users reported that this CSPNEvaluation comes out even though PowerNap is disabled via System Settings or the psmet command is run in Terminal.

Don't worry, yet. This article lets you know what CSPNEvaluation is and how to disable it with a step-wise guide.

macOS Sonoma CSPNEvaluation basic

CSPNEvaluation stands for CoreSmartPowerNap Service which is managed by the power kernel process. It moves the Mac computer installed with macOS Sonoma to wake up when the user starts it into Sleep mode or Power Nap mode, along with the wakened components including connected drives, mouse, keyboard, external display, sound, etc.

After deeper investigation, we found that this came out on macOS 14 Sonoma for the first time and it never occurred on any earlier macOS version like macOS Ventura, macOS Monterey, or more.

It has been verified that this repeated macOS Sonoma CSPNEvaluation happens due to a macOS FeatureFlag for enabling CoreSmartPowerNap in power.plist in the system folder /System/Library/FeatureFlags/Domain/.

We cannot edit this plist file directly since it is located in the secure system enclave; however, we can override macOS FeatureFlags by changing them in the /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/ folder. You can follow up to learn how to disable it from your Mac computer by yourself.

macOS Sonoma CSPNEvaluation

If you find this article informative, why not share it with your followers to help more people?

How to disable macOS Sonoma CSPNEvaluation?

There is one way to stop your Mac from waking again and again, which is, to disable macOS Sonoma CSPNEvaluastion manually. This way is involved in command lines and Terminal, if you're a Terminal newbie, please be careful to input the command lines correctly before you run them.

Launch Finder and click Go to choose Go To Folder.
Copy the following path and paste it into Finder's Go To Folder./System/Library/FeatureFlags/Domain/
Find a file named powerd.plist and copy the code, which should be like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>CoreSmartPowerNap</key>
<dict>
<key>Enabled</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>
Change the <true/> to <false/> in the text and prepare it for further use.
Launch Mac Terminal on your device via either Launchpad or Spotlight Search.
Create a folder structure in Mac Terminal by the following command line:sudo mkdir -p /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/
Enter your user password when required. You might not see the password you're typing, just make sure the password is correct and hit Run to proceed.
Save the text file you have modified as powerd.plist into the new folder that you created:/Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/
Reboot your Mac.

After these steps are done, you can boot your device into Sleep mode or activate Power Nap to test if the Mac computer along with the connected peripheral devices wakes.

Last word

macOS Sonoma CSPNEvaluation or macOS CSP Evaluation is a new feature that comes with macOS Sonoma, which will wake up your Mac and its connected devices including an external monitor, keyboard, mouse, external hard drive, sound, and so on. If you find it annoying, you can turn it off by reading this guideline.