Stop entering Away Mode

technology 2019-03-05
I have finally solved an annoying problem with my Windows 10 setup which was sortof hard to Google, so I am sharing. For quite some time, the computer had refused to go to sleep when it was not running on battery. Instead of going to sleep when instructed to, it would simply turn off the screen and mute the volume while continuing to *actually not sleep*. Moving the mouse a tiny bit would swiftly end the charade. In a recent fit of rage I decided to inspect the event log, and behold, there were some Kernel Power events that said: > _The system is entering Away Mode._ Which is entirely _not_ what I wanted when I told it to go to sleep. However, there was no option _anywhere_ in the power settings to be found that turned off this _"Away Mode"_. Well, the option actually does exist, but for some reason it is not visible unless you set the Attributes value to 2 in the following, easily memorable registry key: 
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20\25DFA149-5DD1-4736-B5AB-E8A37B5B8187
Armed with this registry tweak, you can go back to the _"advanced"_ power settings, aka: 
rundll32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL PowerCfg.cpl @0,/editplan:
Navigate to Sleep and there should be an option that says Allow Away Mode Policy or something similar. And that policy should be set to no, not even when plugged in, never, just sleep, for crying out loud, why does this even exist.

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59 Replies to “Stop entering Away Mode”

  1. Thank you so much! This problem is so annoying and I've tried nearly every solution I could find online. Finally, something actually worked.
    Reply
      1. i didnt find tha attributes that i have to change the value of , can you specify where it is
  2. For some reason I kept in the away mode when trying to sleep. Even in event viewer I do not know why it is entering away mode. I also tried viewing the sources that block sleeping, which seems to be the audio recording device (for noise cancellation?). However I cannot block that either using a series commands. I almost gave up. Man you saved my tons of time with this trick! Thank you so much!
    Reply
  3. Holy shit, I almost went insane trying to solve this. Thank you!!! Why such bullshit functionality exists in the first place..
    Reply
  4. Thanks heaps rattle, I was all over Microsoft forums trying to find a solution to this but instead of answers they tend to just say reset to factory settings which helps nothing at all. One Microsoft rep even tried to say that turning off your monitor is the same as sleep. Anyways, this worked a treat, and I'm glad I have the option to disable Away mode now whenever needed
    Reply
  6. Nice . The interwebs like a giant brain, where the most esoteric tweak floats to the top on command
    Reply
  7. Trying to put your PC at sleep at 3 AM while you're tired and want to go to bed only to find out you can't and need to troubleshoot the issue first.. man I'm so glad I stumbled upon a guys comment mentioning his pc being set to away as opposed to sleep which in turn led me to this page. You better start wearing a cape from now on because you sir, are a hero!
    Reply
  8. You are a hero! All the other posts I've found did not help and it seems Windows support don't have a clue with this issue. I think it's possible a driver update caused this and you've saved me going through everything one by one.
    Reply
  9. An a I thought the problem was that I was running an 11 year old I7-920 system... It turned out to be crappy Windows code (again).... Thanks!!!
    Reply
  10. I wish this helped me. I have Win 10 v20H2 build 19042.572. The registry keys are different and in power options, the away mode feature in power options is under Multimedia settings, When sharing media. I have mine set to "allow the computer to sleep" and the issue still exists.
    Reply
  11. And another pack of thanks goes to you! BTW, I googled it a bit and it seems this mode is intended for safely leaving one's workplace with some tasks being processed but without worrying about cats on the keyboard, curious people around etc. So in fact it could be useful if only toggled independently and not randomly replacing Sleep...
    Reply
  12. Incredible. Had this problem for ages ! and only in AC-MODE. Your turn-around worked like a charm. Thanks man :)
    Reply
  14. Add one more to the "you saved me a lot of trouble" list! Absolutely the fix that I needed.
    Reply
  16. Much appreciate it for the post! This problem has been annoying me for months. I've been searched around for a possible solution and tried many, either from Microsoft form or someone's posts, none of them works.
    Reply
  17. You have changed my life with this post. There should be a special holiday named after you, my friend. I had almost given up on my laptop because I was so tired of this problem, and your solution fixed it.
    Reply
  18. THANK YOU! Setting up a brand new laptop with Windows 11 and this is the post that helped fix the issue.
    Reply
  22. Thank you so much, I began cutting myself and started worshiping satan to curse windows, but after this I am at peace
    Reply
  23. Ah, one more example of the incredible frustrating windows settings! Big thanks! And btw, who invented the registry with those totally unnecessary long, unreadable and usuless key names?
    Reply
  25. This didn't solve the problem with my Lenovo laptop. I had to enable hibernate with powercfg /hibernate on, then change all of the power settings to use this instead of sleep. It really boggles my mind why I would need to do this. This is a laptop. When I close the lid, there's a very high chance I'm about to put it in a bag and go somewhere with it. Therefore, the thing needs to STOP RUNNING THE FAN AND STOP DRAINING THE BATTERY. Either me or the person responsible for this issue is insane.
    Reply
  30. Jesus this been driving insane for months and yoursolution works like a charm dude. You are a life saver!
    Reply
  31. ive been looking for a solution to this issue for such a long time since it was driving me crazy, literally had to shut my pc down everytime i wanted to sleep since the fans kept spinning and it was technically still on, which windows calls away mode and doesnt even address it properly without messing around with the registry like youre instructed to do here, but this is the actual solution and it worked for me!!! thank you so much for this, god bless you
    Reply
  32. Thank you so much! This was the only website where I have found the fix for this annoying issue!
    Reply
  33. Holy after probably a year of having this issue for close to a year or so i was so fed up after having tried everything else and finally just reset windows which did fix it, one time. so tried once again looking up solutions and I guess i just used different search terms for a reddit post with this link to show up and this actually finally worked thank you....
    Reply
  35. this way solved my problem！thank you so much!my computer always couldn't sleep（CPU and GPU fans still work and the screen will start work after press keyboard）after I installed some game booster(a kind of VPN?) like "UU".In order to prevent acceleration from dropping，it change some system setting to make my computer couldn't sleep complete without my knowledge, now the proublm is solved.Thank you again.
    Reply
  38. 4 years later an this helped me... I love you, ur dog, and your 3rd cousin. God bless you!
    Reply
  40. Thank you so much, you both solved a very annoying problem of mine and made me chuckle with the article. You're a legend!
    Reply
  43. Thank you so much, you just saved another soul from being stuck If anyone is struggling to find this, you first need to go to resgistry editor, then HKML HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE open the folders, except for the last one, simply click on it and you will see a file which says "Attributes" double click it and set "Value data" to 2 After that the second line of code is for command prompt. Search command prompt and click on run as administrator. Then copy and paste the line of code into the command prompt and it will show advanced power settings. From there go to "Sleep -> Allow Away Mode Policy" then click no on both
    Reply
  47. You are freaking amazing, was about to lose my mental health trying every solution online. Thank you!!
    Reply
  48. OMG, you've single-handedly saved my sanity providing a solution to this! Thank you so very much
    Reply

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