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Mac Mini M4 upside down? Other methods to power on?
- Thread starter Bento.Box
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This almost religious hate speech on the topic “you don’t need to turn off the poppy” is starting to get annoying. Not everything is perfect in this world. Yes, the Mac barely consumes any energy in sleep mode, but that's the only plus in all of this.
Otherwise, there are only problems:
1) The Mac continues to power all external devices in sleep mode, that is, if it's a desktop, the consumption will no longer be zero.
2) Because of point 1, you get additional heating, for example, external SSDs, sound cards, or the device itself (the same Mac Mini M4 Pro heats up very well in sleep mode, and there are also many reviews about the same behavior of the Mac Studio).
3) Any movement nearby wakes up the Mac. Any movement of the mouse (and often, it is enough for a child to just run nearby for a micro-movement) and the Mac wakes up. Monitors also actively wake up the Mac every 5-10 minutes when connected via Type-C, and this problem has not been solved for almost 10 years. That is, in the case of a monitor, there is no point in using a Type-C connection to use, for example, a built-in USB hub.
4) Memory leaks are still not gone anywhere. For example, Adobe Photoshop does not know how to free up memory normally or use the system archived memory. And if you, as a photographer, need to retouch a lot, you still want to restart the system once a day, and how is this different from "turning it off for the night"?
As a result, we get a situation in which for "normal" sleep you have to turn off all peripherals, monitors, mice, keyboards, etc. This looks much more complicated than just turning off only the Mac and not touching anything else.
P.S. unless you use narrow shelves to place the Mac Mini (which is bad for temperatures anyway), but the location of the power button doesn't create any big problems anyway. I prefer to use it even to put the device to sleep, because the shortcut almost never works.
Otherwise, there are only problems:
1) The Mac continues to power all external devices in sleep mode, that is, if it's a desktop, the consumption will no longer be zero.
2) Because of point 1, you get additional heating, for example, external SSDs, sound cards, or the device itself (the same Mac Mini M4 Pro heats up very well in sleep mode, and there are also many reviews about the same behavior of the Mac Studio).
3) Any movement nearby wakes up the Mac. Any movement of the mouse (and often, it is enough for a child to just run nearby for a micro-movement) and the Mac wakes up. Monitors also actively wake up the Mac every 5-10 minutes when connected via Type-C, and this problem has not been solved for almost 10 years. That is, in the case of a monitor, there is no point in using a Type-C connection to use, for example, a built-in USB hub.
4) Memory leaks are still not gone anywhere. For example, Adobe Photoshop does not know how to free up memory normally or use the system archived memory. And if you, as a photographer, need to retouch a lot, you still want to restart the system once a day, and how is this different from "turning it off for the night"?
As a result, we get a situation in which for "normal" sleep you have to turn off all peripherals, monitors, mice, keyboards, etc. This looks much more complicated than just turning off only the Mac and not touching anything else.
P.S. unless you use narrow shelves to place the Mac Mini (which is bad for temperatures anyway), but the location of the power button doesn't create any big problems anyway. I prefer to use it even to put the device to sleep, because the shortcut almost never works.
I turn off my M4 Mini every night fir two reasons…
1) there’s plenty of crappy software available and the one i use leaves multiple copies of itself running after about a day. I would have to go into Activity Monitor to kill these, but shutting off the machine just cleans the slate each morning, when a Terminal command line turns it on for me at the time I wake.
B) there’s plenty of crappy hardware available that have needless LEDs that will light up the room when attached to a sleeping Mac that wakes itself in the middle of the night to run a backup or some other housekeeping process.
My only question about putting it upside-down (mine is command strip velcroed to the back of a monitor); will more dust get sucked into the vent.
1) there’s plenty of crappy software available and the one i use leaves multiple copies of itself running after about a day. I would have to go into Activity Monitor to kill these, but shutting off the machine just cleans the slate each morning, when a Terminal command line turns it on for me at the time I wake.
B) there’s plenty of crappy hardware available that have needless LEDs that will light up the room when attached to a sleeping Mac that wakes itself in the middle of the night to run a backup or some other housekeeping process.
My only question about putting it upside-down (mine is command strip velcroed to the back of a monitor); will more dust get sucked into the vent.
I imagine that Apple’s user data tells them that an insignificant number of people power down their machines after every day. Hence they put the button out of the way.
With this in mind I would also imagine that they will spend very little time engineering alternate methods to power your mini up and down.
I think your solution is probably the easiest/best one you will find.
Hello,
Here is the best alternative for your issue:
3D printed power button helper for mac mini M4
Here in Germany somebody already have done it well and works.
I am not making commercial or similar and not affiliated with the link above.
Hope this help.
Last edited:
Found this on Reddit
The Mac Mini 2024 uses 0.5W in sleep, which is 28.8kJ for 16 hours, or 0.008 kWh. At average US residential electricity prices2, that's 0.135¢: $1 of electricity will keep the Mac Mini sleeping 16 hours a day for 742 days, or 2 years.
The Mac Mini 2024 uses 0.5W in sleep, which is 28.8kJ for 16 hours, or 0.008 kWh. At average US residential electricity prices2, that's 0.135¢: $1 of electricity will keep the Mac Mini sleeping 16 hours a day for 742 days, or 2 years.
You can set a power on/off schedule in System Settings, if lifting the Mac mini slightly to tap the power button stresses you out this much.
It is preferable to hang it from the ceiling with straps - I also power mine on using the flat end of a spudger so I can ensure that pressure is applied evenly, and the button doesn’t get too much wear.
I’d say you’re completely overreacting. If you have to touch the tiny mini Mac so much to restart it or power it on it’s no big deal to grab with your right hand and it can be done one handed. We aren’t talking the back of a mainframe computer that’s up against the wall. Some people are here to complain and that’s all they want to do. Find a real argument to complain about. Let’s get real, Apple cares more about how it looks. How about if there was a smaller mini with a power button on the top but it had no power supply inside it so you had to have a large supply hanging out off the cord? Better? Or 3D print yourself a power button with spring and sell them to all four people who are utterly frustrated and cannot reach the extra three inches to press the button.
At what point did i say i touch the power button?
And where is this on/off schedule on an M4 Mini running Sequoia?
Read what’s written before belittling others.
I have no idea where anything is in system settings anymore. Apple has completely ruined it. Search for it. It used to be under energy saver.
Not so much if the power grid is not good enough or there are frequent power failures. UPS can only last so long.
I restart/shutdown my MacBook Pro from time to time as the system would just run slower over time to the point of being unusable, or the MacBook would be carried at long distances. Haven’t really found out the cause yet but not a fan of starting anew either. Guess I’ll just save up $9000 for an upgrade with 8TB storage.
Your English is fine
Your concern is just pointless
There is virtually no reason to ever turn it off
You need only lift it once to power it on, then there may literally never be a reason to access the power button for years!
I still don’t see how the power button being on the bottom causes the slightest bit of problem just wrap your hand around it and press the button . I stuck mine on a backpack shelf on my studio display.
I am afraid this thread has diverted from your original question, but let's see if we can answer your question.
As implied in your note, the issue isn't turnning off the Mac (best and easily done from the Shut Down menu item or button on the home screen) but rather turning it back on without using the power button which may not be physically accessible. There appears to be three current options for that:
1. Scheduled Start Up (e.g. just set it to turn on every day) - drawback is of course if you want your computer to turn on off schedule (or not turn on during holiday, etc). In addition to System Preferences/Settings, you can use "pmset" to set repeating schedules and/or automate more complex schedules.
2. Set your system to boot automatically on power loss and then use "shutdown -u" (perhaps scripted or automated from an event) to simulate a "dirty" power loss. Then cut the power using an external switch. When you turn the switch back on, the system should boot up normally.
3. Physical switch extension (e.g. 3D printed levers or perhaps there are commercial options that let you activate the power button without moving the box).
Only the 3rd option is going to work for certain maintenance/hard resets/etc but fortunately those aren't common.
Personally I would have preferred a soft power button (i.e. the software controlled button like it is now) on the front. Underneath would have been fine for a hard switch as those are rarely needed...but nice to have for those times when the alternative is to physically pull the plug (even if that, at least for me, is very very rare).
P.S.I normally keep my Mac Mini 2018 on all the time (in sleep at night, etc) but also on its side based on suggestions by others in older threads. I found it did improve cooling. Don't know for certain but assume the same would apply to the Mini/M4 while having no material difference in dust accumulation versus a normal orientation.
Please re-read my post that you quoted. You can set the Mac mini to power back on after power failure.
I don’t think it’s quite to the level of religious hate speech? I’ve heard people refer to Apple owners as cultist so maybe? I’d like to think I wasn’t part of a religion for owning an Apple product 😂
I think why it’s getting so much attention. This it would be no different if you mentioned powering off the iPhone at night. If someone mentions something that doesn’t make sense in their head, the first thing people think is why? It’s kind of like if you saw someone banging their head against the wall you would think why are they doing it? Maybe they’re doing it because it makes their head feel better but it might not make sense to the person watching it. I think for people to understand and have empathy. They have to be able to figure somewhere in their head how they can relate. Powering off a Mac might not make sense to me, but from your perspective maybe it does.
I’m not sure if anybody mentioned it but if it’s always powered off except when you’re using it, you might notice it’s sometimes laggy. This is because it’s trying to do tasks that it would normally do when it’s not being used, but has no choice to do since it’s always powered off. With modern Apple Silicon this may not be very noticeable though.
Logically thinking if I had to power off my Mac every day for some reason, I would do one of three things.
Put it upside down. I think this is the easiest method and doesn’t cost money to buy anything. The downside would be possible scratches if any debris particles were under it. For some people this might not be a problem because scratches don’t affect how it works.
Set it on its side. I wonder how stable it would be and scratches are still a possibility. Someone could easily 3-D print a stand similar to how you can stand up a PlayStation.
Buy one of the cool stands that allow access to the power button. I’ve seen them on Amazon, eBay, Etsy etc. I think that would require the least effort and not risk damage.
Glad Apple did it right and did not put the on/off button on the back or side. That would make it a two hand operation to depress the button given how small and easily the Mini would bet pushed around if attempted with one hand/finger. On the bottom (or top) makes sense. How hard is it to slide a finger under and grasp the Mini and do the deed? Really this all seems rather trivial.
I wouldn’t necessarily say the last 25 years, my old 09 MacBook what absolutely chew through the battery even if it was in sleep mode and even going from sleep mode to the desktop could take as long as a full restart.
But in 2024? When there are barely any moving parts left, there isn’t any spinning hard drives that need to spin up, there isn’t an optical slot that needs to do its thing, the chip is pulled right from a fanless 5MM thin iPad and the screens are instant on?
Literally pointless, it probably uses more power and more networking to reboot and reconnect to everything every day then it would be just to leave it in sleep mode.
I have pressed the power button once since I got the M4 mini. The day I bought it. It's in the right place.
Have you looked at many flat screen televisions? The power is rarely marked and is often hidden on the bottom or around the rear of the screen near an edge. And even then, the sets aren’t really off, there are just asleep watching for a signal from a remote.
I have a feeling if the Internet of clickbait Youtubers had never reacted to this as a world-ending design disaster, which it clearly is not, people wouldn't post here about the location of the new Mini's power button. It's such a non-issue.