Hi everyone, I have a dilemma and I was hoping the MacRumors community would have some answers. I have the 2011 MacBook Pro 15-inch (low end model) and I take it to school every day. I usually shut it down in between classes, but is shutting it down and restarting it around 3 or 4 times a day good for it? Should I just put it to sleep in between? I just put it to sleep between classes today, and it didn't really affect the battery life.. I have heard constantly shutting it down can reduce the life of the internal parts. Is this true? What should I do? Thank you!
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MacBook Pro: Sleep or Shut Down?
- Thread starter Flightfreak
- Start date
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Either way is fine. There's no need to shut down unless you want to. Sleeping will consume about 1% of battery power for every hour of sleep.
Sleep or Shutdown?
New to Mac...Please Help (sleep mode vs. shutdown)
Shutdown vs Sleep...which is better for the laptop?
Shutdown vs Sleep
Does your Macbook Get put into Sleep or Shutdown?
Sleep or shutdown at night?
Do you shut down or sleep your MBA?
MBP with SSD better to sleep or shut down?
Sleep or Shut down..
Sleep vs Power off
Sleep or Shutdown?
New to Mac...Please Help (sleep mode vs. shutdown)
Shutdown vs Sleep...which is better for the laptop?
Shutdown vs Sleep
Does your Macbook Get put into Sleep or Shutdown?
Sleep or shutdown at night?
Do you shut down or sleep your MBA?
MBP with SSD better to sleep or shut down?
Sleep or Shut down..
Sleep vs Power off
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If I were you I would just put it to sleep. I only restart mine once or twice a week. Having it sleep between classes won't use up much of the battery, and it would be much more convenient than having to restart it and wait for it to boot up every time.
Sleep is fine. I restart much less frequently than sweetbrat (one or two times per month), and I havn't run into any issues yet. Sleep is much more convenient - that's what it's there for, so use it! 
Look at my first post, regarding consuming battery in sleep mode. If you're plugged into AC power, you can let it sleep as long as you like. Yes, closing the lid puts it to sleep.
When I got my MacBook the concept of just closing the lid and trusting that the OS wouldn't do something retarded like "hibernate" "stand by" or "sleep" all of which windows did and my computer always died anyways was hard. I don't get why windows laptops just can't be as simple to use as Mac OS X...whatever. My MacBook Pro hasn't been shut in quite some time...I like opening the lid and starting right where I left off
Alright thank you, I don't have an ssd so I think the time saved will add up quickly. I'm used to shutting down 5+ times a day
My computer gets brought to school nearly every day, and goes for weeks on end without a shut down. According to iStat Pro, my computer's been on for the last 9 days, 4 hours and 49 minutes.
Same deal here haha. I throw it in my bag and pull it out 4 5 6 times a day and it holds up fine. Open it up and its there. Professor's usually aren't patient when your computer takes forever to boot up like half the windows laptops in my writing class :O
You don't need to turn off your computers if you can keep them in good shape, no matter if they are desktop PC, laptops or MBP desktop.
You should be just fine sleeping your MBP between classes. I have the base 15" 2011 MBP as well and I've shut down mine many times without any problems.
No, shutting down is not bad for it. But sleeping it is not bad for it either. I'd go with sleeping just because it'll be easier when you want to go and use it again. Shutting it down 3-4 times a day is pointless. In the manual it says you only need to shut it down if your not going to use it for a few days or more.
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When you sleep the computer the hard disk head parks itself. The main problem with keeping it on sleep if its in, say, a bag, is if it somehow opens and the computer wakes up. Then it'll get damaged. But a tight sleeve would eliminate that problem.
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Can you please tell me where on iStat Pro it says how long your computers been on for? I haven't shut mine down for ages either and I'm interested to see how long its been on for.
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When you sleep the computer the hard disk head parks itself. The main problem with keeping it on sleep if its in, say, a bag, is if it somehow opens and the computer wakes up. Then it'll get damaged. But a tight sleeve would eliminate that problem.
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Can you please tell me where on iStat Pro it says how long your computers been on for? I haven't shut mine down for ages either and I'm interested to see how long its been on for.
When the white LED starts pulsing, the hard drive has stopped spinning. The guy at the store that told you this is wrong.
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Uptime section, to the right completely(in my case, might depend on your settings).
Thanks for all the replies!
I'm just like you, iphonenub. I came from a Windows world where batteries only held their amazing 6 hour capacity for a few weeks, then go down to about 3. Since my MBP has way better battery capacity, I was a bit timid on whether to shut it down or not. Now I leave my computer on sleep mode between classes, and GGJStudio's comment pretty much had me convinced. We should sticky this (or whatever makes it permanent, I don't have much forum activity as you may be able to see). Thanks guys!
I'm just like you, iphonenub. I came from a Windows world where batteries only held their amazing 6 hour capacity for a few weeks, then go down to about 3. Since my MBP has way better battery capacity, I was a bit timid on whether to shut it down or not. Now I leave my computer on sleep mode between classes, and GGJStudio's comment pretty much had me convinced. We should sticky this (or whatever makes it permanent, I don't have much forum activity as you may be able to see). Thanks guys!
It is the same as in Windows you never need to restart unless there are updates or installed programs demand it.
Even in Windows I only used stand by or hibernation over night if I wanted to save power.
Todays notebook the power draw on the plug is about the same in Standby as it is shut off. I think it is 0.6W Standby and 0.4 shut off with the MBP.
Even in Windows I only used stand by or hibernation over night if I wanted to save power.
Todays notebook the power draw on the plug is about the same in Standby as it is shut off. I think it is 0.6W Standby and 0.4 shut off with the MBP.
I sleep mine, although... when does the Daily, Weekly and Monthly scripts run? I would leave my Mac pro on over night at times, but not my MPB. there are utils to run these scripts, but how many of us even get around to doing such.
If your Mac is shut down or asleep at the time those maintenance scripts are scheduled to run, they will simply run the next time your Mac is awake. You don't have to do anything to ensure those scripts run.
Hopefully, you've shut down long enough to restart after Software Updates.
Shut down or SmartSleep for when my MBP is not plugged in for awhile and I want to save some battery? Basically my main question is does hibernation wake up that much more faster that shut down? Is it worth it to buy SmartSleep?
Unfortunately I game a lot on my rMBP with bootcamp, as well as use a visual studio for some coding so I end up just shutting down my laptop after I use windows. (I use windows about 40-50% of the time I am on my laptop) That way I can either boot back into windows or boot into OSX. With it taking less then 10 seconds to boot either side I figure what the heck.