Hibernate is disabled by default since it's not well supported.
GNOME Documentation Project
gnome-doc-list@gnome.org
Ekaterina Gerasimova
kittykat3756@gmail.com
Jeremy Bicha
jbicha@ubuntu.com

# How do I hibernate my computer?

When the computer hibernates, all of your applications and documents are stored and the computer completely switches off so it does not use any power, but the applications and documents will still be open when you switch on the computer again.

Unfortunately, hibernate doesn't work in many cases, which can cause you to lose data if you expect your documents and applications to re-open when you switch your computer back on. Therefore, hibernate is disabled by default.

# Test if hibernate works

## Always save your work before hibernating

You should save all of your work before hibernating the computer, just in case something goes wrong and your open applications and documents cannot be recovered when you switch on the computer again.

You can use the command line to test if hibernate works on your computer.

Open the Terminal by pressing Ctrl Alt t or by searching for terminal in the dash.

Open the Terminal by searching for terminal in the Activities overview.

As root, type pm-hibernate into the terminal and press Enter.

Enter your password when prompted.

After you computer turns off, switch it back on. Did your open applications re-open?

If hibernate doesn't work, check if your swap partition is at least as large as your available RAM.

# Enable hibernate

If the hibernate test works, you can continue to use the pm-hibernate command when you want to hibernate.

You could also install the Hibernate Status Button extension from the GNOME Extensions website:

Switch ON the Hibernate Status Button on its extension page by pressing the status button at the top left.

You will be asked to confirm that you want to install the extension. Press Install.

The button will now be added to the system menu on the right side of the top bar and can be pressed to hibernate your computer.

You can also hold down Alt while pressing the hibernate button to use the hybrid-sleep feature. The hybrid-sleep mode is a mix of the hibernate and sleep modes. This means that your computer remains powered on, so you can wake it up by pressing a key on the keyboard and all your open applications and documents are saved in the same state as before pressing the hybrid-sleep button.