Sleeping MacBook suddenly stopped being woken up by Bluetooth keyboard or mouse

[madihavu]

I have the MacBook under a monitor stand most of the time, with the lid closed whenever it's under there; ever since I hooked up the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, they've woken up the Mac when the screen or Mac sleeps. I've been using Catalina and Big Sur; it auto-updates everything possible.

Today, the keyboard and mouse don't wake up the computer or screen. Nothing's changed except the day and the keyboard batteries (after noticing the Mac wouldn't wake). The keyboard and mouse are from different manufacturers. The keyboard batteries running out doesn't explain the Mac refusing to wake from mouse movement or click, and the mouse isn't having a battery issue. I have to pull the Mac out from under the monitor stand, which is cumbersome, pull open the lid, press the power button, close the lid, then put it back to wake the Mac or screen. Then I can log in and use the computer.

This is driving me crazy. Mac's instructions for allowing Bluetooth keyboard or mouse to wake things up is already enabled.

Mac User Guide

Learn what’s new in macOS, how to get started with your Mac and use it with your Apple devices, and how to control privacy and security on macOS.

support.apple.com

I'd paste a screenshot of my settings but I don't seem to be able to do that here. If you have Big Sur, you can see it for yourself following Apple's instructions above.

Please tell me what you did to fix this.

 

[madihavu]

I restarted and the "sleeping" Mac recognizes the keyboard; what can I say

 

[Lufbrarunner]

 

[madihavu]

I know I hate when the solution is reboot.

The problem is that in this case I had to do a physical reboot, and the problem with that is that my MacBook is closed under a monitor stand, with USB-C wires and adapters coming out the side, so if I can't access the interface, I have to disconnect the wires, pull the laptop out carefully without scratching it, open it up, then either the screen comes on and I can soft reboot, or I have to push the power button, or hold it down if that doesn't work... then when it's rebooted, reassemble it all again. Giant PITA that I have to do multiple times a month for some weird software glitch with macOS or a peripheral.

If the MacBook had its ports on the back like convenient laptops had in the past, I wouldn't have to disconnect anything, I could just pull it forward then open the lid. However, since there's things on my desk on the sides of the laptop, it's this giant rigmarole to fix a glitch. What a pain. Just bad design. Thanks Apple. It's already bad enough I don't have a hardware switch to enable mic when the lid is closed, now I have to deal with this side-cable nonsense unless I completely rearrange my desk to be convenient for the side cables and inconveniencing me more with other things.