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seasurfer

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 12, 2007
756
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Do you have to shut it down?

Is shutting down better for battery life if you are not using it for sometime?
 
I never shut down my laptops unless to conserve battery before traveling somewhere. Always set to "Sleep" at end of day.

Technically, a shut down would preserve the battery the best though.
 
Mine stays on (and awake) pretty much 24/7 because it's almost always connected to power, and I want it to run backups overnight. The only time I completely shut it down is if I'm going on vacation for a week or two and am stashing it away somewhere in the house.
 
The only time that I shut down is when I’m traveling, otherwise, I put it to sleep. It is no longer necessary to shut down the Macs. Once the Mac is charged to whatever percentage you set, it stops drawing power until needed.
 
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I have no science to back this up but I would avoid having your Mac plugged in 24/7.

Also run that battery all the way down before charging it for the first time. Might be too late for some of y'all lol
 
I have no science to back this up but I would avoid having your Mac plugged in 24/7.

Also run that battery all the way down before charging it for the first time. Might be too late for some of y'all lol
I don’t think it is necessary to drain the M1 batteries as we used to do with the earlier Macs. Others can chime in if I’m mistaken.
 
No need to shut down. Look at the power usage. 0.2 = 200mW <- crazy for a laptop.

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The new power management might not make it necessary to pay too much attention to battery health. On my new 16'' MBP M1 Max, after using it on battery, the laptop only charged it up to 80% and it has been at that level for a few days.
 
the question is: do you shutdown your phone or just put it to sleep. :p:p:p
The M1 series laptops are so efficient, there's no need to turn them off at all unless you don't use them anymore.
 
A similar question, is it damaging at all to leave my M1 Pro MBP plugged in at all times? I'm always at a desk when I use it, so I always have power nearby.
 
Battery University says that if a lithium polymer is plugged in all the time, that once a month you should run it down to 15-20% to keep the ions flowing, ie, one charge cycle a month
 
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A similar question, is it damaging at all to leave my M1 Pro MBP plugged in at all times? I'm always at a desk when I use it, so I always have power nearby.
There are claims/reports/anecdotes that as Li-ion batteries age, leaving it charging all the time can increase the likelihood of out-gassing and batteries swelling.
On my last MBP, 5 years old, it was plugged in almost all the time, and the batteries swelled a lot (but not necessarily a cause and effect) - I had to replace them before it damaged the MBP. Others have reported the same behavior.
Now I avoid leaving it plugged in all the time, but don't worry about it too much. I think it is not an issue for new batteries, but potentially an issue for aged batteries.
Worse, of course, for battery life is (nearly) fully discharging the batteries. Better to leave it plugged in than do that very often.
 
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I don’t think it is necessary to drain the M1 batteries as we used to do with the earlier Macs. Others can chime in if I’m mistaken.
This is recommended (by battery manufacturers) for battery life calibration, when replacing batteries. Should not be necessary (or desirable) for a new machine with new batteries.
 
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