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MacBook Maintenance

M

macornomac

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
346
0
Hey guys I usually every night turn my macbook off. For awhile I haven't left it on over night. I just now found out about this MacBook Maintenance
that runs late at night. If I leave my macbook on tonight without letting it go to sleep should it run this program and clean everything up????? I haven't run any of this since I got my macbook last June haha.
 
macornomac said:
Hey guys I usually every night turn my macbook off. For awhile I haven't left it on over night. I just now found out about this MacBook Maintenance
that runs late at night. If I leave my macbook on tonight without letting it go to sleep should it run this program and clean everything up????? I haven't run any of this since I got my macbook last June haha.
Click to expand...

First of all, there is no reason to shut off your MacBook. If you just close the top it will go to sleep. This is fine for transportation in a backpack, or anything else you want to do. Constantly turning off and on the computer may reduce the life span of certain components. Even if it doesn't, you at least get the bonus of it turning on instantly when you open it up in the morning. There is no harm from just letting it sleep. I've been using a Mac laptop from 4 years and have only shut it down a handful of times.

That, being said, the maintenance scripts that are run at like 3 am by OS X wont run if it's sleeping anyway. These are not mission critical scripts and wont result in any performance increase. They are really just behind the scenes housekeeping measures. You can get a program (like MainMenu: http://www.santasw.com/ ) which will run all the scripts (and many more maintenance and optimization protocols, of varying usefulness) whenever you want.

Either way, I wouldn't worry about it much. Most Mac users sleep their computers at night and don't run these scripts. We're all doing fine.
 
In addition, if your mac is off or asleep when these scripts are scheduled to run, they will run the next time the computer is on. So they are still happening.

I agree with the above poster in that there is no reason to turn your computer off at night...
 
I was just reading this thread and noticed that "catachip" explains no need to worry about MacBook maintenance - but then you go on to talk about MainMenu. I've also heard other talk about OnyX and other Mac Maintenance-type software.

Since I'm fairly new to Mac (I have a MacBook Pro), I am still learning about maintenance.

Is it necessary?!?! Should I be downloading some cleaning software or something that claims to do a Mac-equivalent defrag?

I always turn my MAC off every night - is this bad?

Catachip!? Anyone?!?!? Help!?!?!?
 
sometimes it is necessary to use maintenance apps if youre noticing slow downs or an app isnt working. but most of the time you dont need to do anything… seriously! Onyx, Main Menu etc. are fine. all they do is run commands and scripts that you could do in Terminal anyway.

dont download any app that claims to defrag as its not necessary. the only time you need to defrag is if you need to make space at the end of your hard drive to partition or something.

turning off your Mac every night isnt bad… why would it be!? but sleeping is much more convenient as it wakes up in a snap right to where you were. only the RAM is powered when sleeping so you dont have to keep it plugged in a t night (not that thats a bad thing ;)).
 
APB said:
I always turn my MAC off every night - is this bad?

Catachip!? Anyone?!?!? Help!?!?!?
Click to expand...

Like richthomas said, turning off your Mac is not bad. You have to decide what gives you peace of mind. I personally shutdown my MacBook and disconnect the power adapter at night, because I won't be turning it on again until 6:00 PM the next day. It gives me piece of mind because one morning, I noticed that it woke up during the night on its own. Also, because I'm worried about melting power adapter some users have complained about. I don't want a fire while I'm away. During the weekend, I put it to sleep at night.

That's just me. I'm not saying that every Mac will wake up on its own in the middle of the night nor that every power adapter is faulty.

If you want to make sure the scripts are run, then use something like OnyX. They won't run if the computer is in sleep mode. I would not recommend leaving on 24/7. If you do, the fan will gather dust quicker than they should. And you can't clean the fan as easily as on desktop PC.
 
Same here i want to to open the lid and there it is ready to use.

Download yasu, that allows to to run all the os x scripts when ever you want.
 
patrickmacrumor said:
…

If you want to make sure the scripts are run, then use something like OnyX. They won't run if the computer is in sleep mode. I would not recommend leaving on 24/7. If you do, the fan will gather dust quicker than they should. And you can't clean the fan as easily as on desktop PC.
Click to expand...

in Leopard the scripts run after you wake your Mac in the morning.
 
What about this: a friend told me to use Disk Utility once a week and do the "Verify Disk Permissions" thing. And then repair as suggested. Is this important, necessary or even accurate?
 
I'm going to have to agree with the rest of the posters and say it is totally pref. when it comes to shutting down or letting your MB sleep at night. Personally I have only shut down my MB once when I moved. Other than that, I allow it to sleep for easy access in the morning.
 
richthomas said:
in Leopard the scripts run after you wake your Mac in the morning.
Click to expand...

I did not know that. If this is the case, then I don't have to run OnyX every few days or so. I knew there should be a "plan B" if the computer is shutdown every night. I mean, Apple must have surely thought about users who don't keep their computers on all the time.
 
Domofloge said:
I'm going to have to agree with the rest of the posters and say it is totally pref. when it comes to shutting down or letting your MB sleep at night.
Click to expand...

Personal preference it is. For example, I leave my PC on 24/7, but none of my laptops. My wife switches hers off every night, because hers is in the master bedroom, and the fan noise prevents her from sleeping.
 
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