When I press the power button on my laptop, instead of it suspending (I have configured it to do so in Gnome Settings, Fedora 43), the following dialog shows up.
After a fresh restart the power button does suspend the laptop correctly. If the laptop stays open a while, this dialog shows up, even though the Files or other programs are definitely not busy and do not have unsaved work. Even if I close all Files instances, this dialog still shows up.
How can I fix it, so the power button always suspends the laptop?
Despite you mentioning that you are trying to suspend the machine, the dialog says “Power Off”. Does the problem also happen when you abort that dialog, then open the system menu and click “Suspend” or “Power Off” in this dialog? If yes, does it happen for both, or only one of them?
Usually, in order to install the updates, it is important to reboot the machine, so it would be useful to do this multiple times per week.
`gnome-session-inhibit --list` might give you more useful information.
For “Files”, is it possible, that Files is in fact still working on some operations? Please check the application. If it is not (and `gnome-session-inhibit –list` still lists it), this looks like a bug.
Have you updated your machine to the latest state?
If I try to suspend from the menu, absolutely nothing happens, no dialogs, no suspension.
lee@leenux-neo:~$ gnome-session-inhibit --list /usr/bin/chromium-browser: Download in progress (suspend) org.gnome.Nautilus: Moving Files (logout, suspend) org.gnome.Nautilus: Moving Files (logout, suspend) app.zen_browser.zen: Playing audio (suspend) org.gnome.Nautilus: Moving Files (logout, suspend) org.gnome.Nautilus: Moving Files (logout, suspend) /usr/bin/chromium-browser: Download in progress (suspend) app.zen_browser.zen: Playing video (suspend)
I have checked every Files instant, and there are definitely not files being moved. This happens often, so it must be a bug since previous Fedora versions.
I have not restarted since the last update. When I restart the machine, it usually goes into suspension through the button for the first few days (I restart once per week).
This strongly indicates that the power button does still try to power off the machine, not suspend.
Regarding the listed items: It would make sense to find out which behavior triggers the inhibitors, especially for Nautilus (the file manager). You might want to
Reboot your machine (once)
While using the machine, regularly have a look at the output of gnome-session-inhibit –list. You could do that by running watch gnome-session-inhibit –list in a terminal and glance at it from time to time.
For Nautilus, I suspect some problems with a remote/network/cloud storage (e.g. Google Cloud, Dropbox, NextCloud).
Using watch gnome-session-inhibit --list what I get is this:
Every 2.0s: gnome-session-inhibit --list leenux-neo: Tue Jan 13 09:46:09 2026
org.gnome.Nautilus: Moving Files (logout, suspend)
app.zen_browser.zen: Playing video (suspend)
The Nautilus issue came up after I copied/pasted several small files, even though the transfers were 100% completed and long time had gone by.
