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Is it better to shut down your rMBP every night, leave it on 24/7 or put it to sleep?

A

applefanboy4

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 9, 2015
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Always wondered this.

When not in use, or most likely every night, whats the best option? To shut it down completely. To put it to sleep. Or leave it on 24/7?

I would think leaving it on 24/7 wouldn't be wise.

So which of the two is better? Sleep or shut down?
 
I
T5BRICK said:
It doesn't matter, really. I put mine to sleep unless it's doing something overnight.
Click to expand...


I keep my iPhone turned on all the time. and of course it goes to sleep on its own. In the past I've shut down my macbook. Now with a new rMBP, I don't know. I feel like MacBooks get so much usage.

Is putting it in sleep mode enough for it to get rest?
 
Overnight? Sleep mode of course. That's literally what sleep mode is for.


If you're bringing it with you long distance, say traveling, then yeah, you should probably shut it off. Although I keep my iPad on when I travel and it's not a big deal.
 
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Sleep mode, no reason not to use sleep unless you are going to leave it long enough that the battery will flatten in sleep mode. Nothing wears out while in sleep vs shutdown, you just make work for the MBP shutting down and starting up again.

Mine is only shutdown for updates or very occasionally to sort an issue (like skype getting itself in a knot with the audio devices).
 
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Turn it off whenever you can, even in sleep mode the life span of the MBP gets shorter. Maybe it is not significant, but why risking it. Besides, over time you will notice that if you won't turn it off, the machine will get slower.

Also, when you travel and the MBP is 'shaking' a lot, it is not considered to be very safe to keep it in sleep mode, safer option is to have it turned off.
 
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Filipek said:
Turn it off whenever you can, even in sleep mode the life span of the MBP gets shorter. Maybe it is not significant, but why risking it. Besides, over time you will notice that if you won't turn it off, the machine will get slower.

Also, when you travel and the MBP is 'shaking' a lot, it is not considered to be very safe to keep it in sleep mode, safer option is to have it turned off.
Click to expand...

I have become a believer in shutting down all the time ever since the horrible issues of 10.10.0 (and.1 and .2). Shutting down not only powers down all the components letting them rest and reset, but it does something extremely important that sleep does not - clears the memory. (which uncleared memory can cause all kinds of problems with certain applications and system functions). Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't sleep introduced to simply save time during startup? Now that my MBP boots in 20 seconds or less, I don't see the point of sleep. And Hibernation mode hits my tiny SSD hard with huge write sectors (8GB written every time i put the computer to sleep). I know I had to do a terminal command to kill hibernation mode since it took longer to wake from sleep at times (back on 10.10.0) than a hard boot. Just my 2 cents.
 
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Filipek said:
Turn it off whenever you can, even in sleep mode the life span of the MBP gets shorter. Maybe it is not significant, but why risking it. Besides, over time you will notice that if you won't turn it off, the machine will get slower.
Click to expand...


Lifespan of what? What exactly in your knowledge or experience is shortening its lifespan? Are you saying it IS getting shorter, or just not to risk it? My MBP is 4.5yrs old having had this treatment from day one, how much longer should I expect it to last if I subject the drives to all the additional work of shutting down and restarting?

Do you actually understand what happens in sleep vs shutdown/restart?

Filipek said:
Also, when you travel and the MBP is 'shaking' a lot, it is not considered to be very safe to keep it in sleep mode, safer option is to have it turned off.
Click to expand...


Why? Considered by who? Any HDDs are spun down in sleep mode, just as when shutdown. If you have any solid info share it, your statements are just FUD.
 
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simonsi said:
That was an issue with mainframe memory about 30yrs ago (I was there), not since. You have no need to regularly "clear" your RAM. At all.
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I am happy to be wrong, but back when I was having issues with my brand new MBP 2014, a restart or shutdown was the only thing that would keep iTunes and safari from crashing. So I got in the habit of shutting down every night. Keeps the bugs at bay and has worked on this system. My desktop is a different story entirely, I keep it running once it is running smooth for days before shutting down. Computers are weird :)
 
Love this forum. People that think they know everything. Unless you guys are absolute super duper engineers on this sleep mode stuff, I will never take your advise, and keep it in sleep mode. I will turn it off each, and every time. Show me what Apple Engineers say, and maybe I'll rethink my decision.
 
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I always sleep my Macs and have them last for years. I still have my 2008 black MacBook and it never got turned off. You will never shorten the life by sleeping a Mac. Even way back when I was using HP computers, I always just put them to sleep. I used to run a website on one of them and kept it on 24/7. After three years, I sold it when it was still working.

Until anyone can prove that sleeping the computer can harm it, I will never change.
 
applefanboy4 said:
Always wondered this.

When not in use, or most likely every night, whats the best option? To shut it down completely. To put it to sleep. Or leave it on 24/7?

I would think leaving it on 24/7 wouldn't be wise.

So which of the two is better? Sleep or shut down?
Click to expand...
I've been putting my Mac's to sleep for many years. I never shut them down unless I'm going to be away from home for an extended period of time.
 
I usually just leave mine on. Now that there is no mechanical moving parts, there's nothing to wear out. The screen goes to sleep but I leave the computer on.
 
applefanboy4 said:
I



I keep my iPhone turned on all the time. and of course it goes to sleep on its own. In the past I've shut down my macbook. Now with a new rMBP, I don't know. I feel like MacBooks get so much usage.

Is putting it in sleep mode enough for it to get rest?
Click to expand...

When I am done using my MacBook Pro I close the lid and it goes to sleep. When I want to use it again I lift the lid and it wakes instantaneously. It is designed to work that way. The only time I even restart the computer is if I am required to do so because of an OS X update. All the Mac computers in my house stay on 24/7 and sleep when they are not in use.

I have been using Macs since 2002 when I bought my first 17" G4 daisy iMac. I have never seen an issue caused by putting the computer to sleep when it is not in use.

What concern do you have that makes you think that turning off the computer is necessary when you are done using it?
 
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ABC5S said:
Love this forum. People that think they know everything. Unless you guys are absolute super duper engineers on this sleep mode stuff, I will never take your advise, and keep it in sleep mode. I will turn it off each, and every time. Show me what Apple Engineers say, and maybe I'll rethink my decision.
Click to expand...

I certainly don't know everything, I go by my first hand experience owning Macs since 2002. I have not seen a single issue caused by putting my Macs asleep when they are done being used. What is the concern you have for letting the computer sleep?
 
Doesn't matter; do whatever you want.

There's only one case I can think of where there would be a difference: if you use FileVault, there is a security advantage to shutting it down completely because the encryption keys cannot be stolen from RAM. However, a lot of stuff would have to go wrong in your life for that to be a problem.
 
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Sometimes a reboot of a Unix system does not hurt ;) , and OSX is Unix. Related to lifespan there may not be a big difference. I shut my computers down when there is no need to run them. No sleep mode, never. Hibernation ? Yes, sometimes.
 
Hey so I leave my 2013 iMac on for about 24 hours a day because I am automating tasks which require the Mac to be on. I put it on caffeine mode using an app so the screen is always on. I give it a restart around every week. How bad is this for my Mac? Is not even worth it using my Mac for this?
 
subzand said:
Hey so I leave my 2013 iMac on for about 24 hours a day because I am automating tasks which require the Mac to be on. I put it on caffeine mode using an app so the screen is always on. I give it a restart around every week. How bad is this for my Mac? Is not even worth it using my Mac for this?
Click to expand...

Why do you leave the screen on? You can turn the screen off and still have the machine run the tasks.
 
Chundles said:
Why do you leave the screen on? You can turn the screen off and still have the machine run the tasks.
Click to expand...
Idk I use a mouse recorder or macro which replays the mouse task and from what I have tried it hasn't worked. Is there any other solution I should try or is leaving the screen on not too harmful?
 
No offense... But I always chuckle to myself when people pull certain things from their rear ends.

A sleeping Mac causes no appreciable wear over the life of the system. New or old, desktop or portable, hard drive or fancy new SSD - doesn't matter. If it did, why would we even have the option to put it to sleep?

The last machines that I regularly shut down were my 68k desktops, but that wasn't a chore since System 6 loaded lightning quick. I've been running 'Books since my 5300ce and they've always been put to sleep except for vacations, software updates, and the occasional system hang. Since migrating to OS X, restarts have become an even less common occurrence.
 
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