Been leaving my MBA on for about 2 weeks. Bad?

[asenna]

I got a 2012 11" MBA in Dec and it is hooked up to a TBD. A couple of weeks ago I needed something to download overnight so I set the sleep timer to never and forgot about it since so my mac has been staying on overnight (whenever plugged into ac and tbd in clamshell mode) for a couple of weeks. The screen was set to turn off at the default times thats why I never noticed it wasn't going to sleep since the screen would be off when I got to it in the morning and needed me to click the mouse to turn on.

I have been running on battery every 2 days or so and it did go to sleep in those times that I am not using it as a desktop since the setting only applied to when the AC adapter was plugged in.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by asenna

I got a 2012 11" MBA in Dec and it is hooked up to a TBD. A couple of weeks ago I needed something to download overnight so I set the sleep timer to never and forgot about it since so my mac has been staying on overnight (whenever plugged into ac and tbd in clamshell mode) for a couple of weeks. The screen was set to turn off at the default times thats why I never noticed it wasn't going to sleep since the screen would be off when I got to it in the morning and needed me to click the mouse to turn on.

I have been running on battery every 2 days or so and it did go to sleep in those times that I am not using it as a desktop since the setting only applied to when the AC adapter was plugged in.

It's fine to leave your MBA on for extended periods. Many leave their Macs on for months at a time, only sleeping instead of shutting down. As long as you're regularly running on battery power to keep it healthy, you'll be fine.

Run on battery whenever you need to and plug it in whenever you can. You can plug or unplug any time you need to, regardless of the charged percentage, and you never need to completely drain your battery. Just make sure you don't run on AC power exclusively, as your battery needs to be used regularly to stay healthy. The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

[eric/]

Yeah you should be fine. I've been running mine for months and I mean MONTHS at a time, on battery, off battery, and I haven't had an issue.

[-jc]

It will be fine, I regularly do this. I always used to shutdown my old iMac (2006), but I got a new MBP this year and most the time its left running through the night if I need to keep my web server on, or its put into sleep mode. Just put your battery through a cycle at least once or twice a week though rather than running it off the mains all the time.

[glen e]

mines been on for 10 months....i turn it off about once a month when im overnight traveling ....100 pct batt

[wgnoyes]

Close the lid to sleep. Or shut it down entirely. Battery. AC. Mix it up. That's how it's supposed to be used. It'll be fine.

[Beanoir]

Originally Posted by asenna

I got a 2012 11" MBA in Dec and it is hooked up to a TBD. A couple of weeks ago I needed something to download overnight so I set the sleep timer to never and forgot about it since so my mac has been staying on overnight (whenever plugged into ac and tbd in clamshell mode) for a couple of weeks. The screen was set to turn off at the default times thats why I never noticed it wasn't going to sleep since the screen would be off when I got to it in the morning and needed me to click the mouse to turn on.

I have been running on battery every 2 days or so and it did go to sleep in those times that I am not using it as a desktop since the setting only applied to when the AC adapter was plugged in.

I don't think i've turned mine off for over a year. Mainly run it on power rather than battery, and it's fine when i don't. I did the same with my 2010 MBA and that never seemed to suffer in the time that I had it.