Although Windows users often turn off their PCs at the end of the day, those who have a Mac leave them on indefinitely. Many Mac users are involved in this behavior because they want to start from where they left off, but experience has shown them that Macs tend to adapt to this type of behavior – probably because Apple designed MacOS and Macs to be very efficient. Power usage and performance conditions. But is this really a good idea?
There are three options open to each user when they finish using the computer for the day: turn it on, let it sleep or turn it off. Want to know which one to choose? To read.
Do I need to turn off my Mac or MacBook?
Over time, processes and apps can constrain your RAM and reduce performance a bit, especially on older Macs. As a result, a few days after you last shut down your Mac, you may feel that your Mac is slowing down or not working optimally.
You can fix this by closing and restarting apps, closing some of the many browser tabs you have open, or rebooting your Mac.
MacOS does a good job of managing memory usage, but sometimes the only way to give your device the clean slate it needs is to turn it off and turn it on again. This will clear the RAM and allow some processes that may be stuck running once more.
Also, some updates can only be applied when you reboot your Mac, so turning your Mac off and on repeatedly will ensure that everything is working fine.
But how often should you stop?
Should I turn off my Mac at night?
Turning off your Mac every night probably won’t do you any more good than saving all the things you’ve been working on since the end of the day. However, it is recommended to restart your Mac every few days, so if you can complete the tasks you are working on before the end of the day a few times a week so that you can turn off your Mac it will thank you.
Is it better to keep a Mac asleep than to turn it off?
When you fall asleep, your Mac will consume less energy and can ‘wake up’ much faster than the time it takes to power up a closed Mac. In fact, newer Macs with any variant of Apple’s M1 processor wake up virtually instantly because of the way the system is configured, making it a more enticing alternative.
A good rule of thumb is that if you only want to stay away from your Mac for an hour or two or even overnight, letting it sleep is probably the best way. You will want to reduce it for more time and for the reasons described in the next section.
It can actually waste more energy to restart the computer than to shut it down and then put it into sleep mode.
If you’re worried about the power of using an iMac or MacBook, don’t do it; This is really minimal when the screen is off and the Mac is asleep.
Laptops give very little power both off and at rest. The rest of the M1 MacBook Air will be 0.21W 0.77kWh a year if it rests for 10 hours every night without shutting down.
An iMac draws a little more power in both off and rest, but the 1.36W at rest is still not too much. 10 hours of rest per night becomes 5kWh of energy consumption in a year.
Of course, if you’re worried about how your Mac uses resources, turn it off when you go to sleep.
How to turn off a Mac
Follow these steps to turn off your Mac:
- Click on the Apple icon at the top left of the screen.
- Then select Shut down From the menu.
Some people argue against shutting down, saying that cooling and reheating of components when you turn the computer on and off can be harmful, but we think Macs are designed to be more powerful than that.
If you move away from your Mac for a short time and you know your Mac is in a safe environment, we recommend leaving it, but overnight you’ll probably want to compromise by letting it sleep or turn it off completely.
How to keep a Mac asleep
Follow these steps to keep a Mac asleep:
- Click on the Apple icon at the top left of the screen.
- Select Sleep From the menu.
You can also schedule your Mac to sleep after a certain period of inactivity, this is effective if you often move away from your Mac in the office environment and want to keep your work safe from scary eyes. It works even if you forget to do it manually at the end of the day. It will also save your battery if you work on a MacBook.
Follow these steps to set up a Mac to automatically fall asleep:
- Open system preferences.
- Click on Energy Saver. You will see two options at the top of the window (battery and power adapter) or only power adapters in iMacs and Mac minis because they have no battery.
- You’ll see a slider at the top that lets you set how long the Mac should be idle before the display stops. Choose a sensitive amount, because 2 minutes will be very annoying if you think about things while writing a document or presentation.
- Then make sure that the checkbox does not automatically tick the computer to sleep when the display is off.
There you will find a few more options to suit your Mac’s behavior, such as keeping hard disks asleep, and we recommend turning them on.
How to schedule when your Mac goes to sleep or shuts down
Instead of relying on the display method mentioned above or your own memory, you can also set a specific time when your Mac will go to sleep or turn off and wake up again. This can be an effective way to mark the end of a workday, then get your machine ready to go when you arrive in the morning shift.
To do this, follow these steps:
1. Open System Preferences> Energy Saver 7
2. Click the Schedule button in the bottom-right corner
3. You can now click on the Start Up or Awake box to choose when the Mac will be ready to work (be it on weekdays, weekends, daily or specific days).
4. Below this you will see another tickbox with slip. Select it.
5. Click Sleep to open the restart and shutdown other options.
6. Now, set the time when you want to revive your Mac, and when you are happy with the schedule, click OK to make it work.
One thing you need to keep in mind is that open applications often prevent MacOS from closing, because the operating system doesn’t want to accidentally lose you important unsaved work.
You need to turn everything off after you finish using your Mac to make sure the shutdown works automatically.
How long does it take for a Mac to switch off?
If you save your Mac for an extended period of time, Apple recommends that you do not fully charge (100%) or drain (0%) its battery.
When fully charged for long periods of time, the battery may lose some power, which can shorten the life of the battery. When fully discharged, the battery may fall into a deep discharge state, making it unable to hold a charge.
Applications that improve performance and clear RAM
If performance is the primary reason for shutting down your Mac, then you might want to consider Mac cleaning software that can automatically keep things clean from clutter and prevent apps from being greedy for your resources. We’ve had good experiences with Nektony’s Mac Cleaner Pro ($ 44.95 / £ 49.95) and MacPaw’s CleanMyMac X ($ 34.95 / £ 29.95), but you’ll find some more subtle options in the roundup of our best Mac Cleaner software and optimization utilities.
Here are some tips to help you free up your Mac’s RAM. There are some great apps that can clear your RAM without the need to turn off your Mac. An alternative is the parallel toolbox, which contains more than 30 tools – including a simple free memory tool. You can get a free 7-day trial, then it’s বছরে 19.99 / £ 15.99 a year.