It is designed to always be on to the point that cleaning it is becoming a pain. And it makes me wonder, who is controlling the machine, because it isn't designed to follow my instructions. If I want to clean the keyboard, I can't leave it on obviously because I'll just hit keys. If I shut it off, and clean the keyboard, the machine powers on without touching the power button every time. I'm so sick of this. Why can I just turn of the machine. I didn't ask it to power on.
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My Mac is really annoying me.
- Thread starter mashinhead
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I think you’re confusing Sleep with Shut Down. If you use Shut Down, pressing a key will not power on the computer, except for the Power key.
I think you're making assumptions. I'm not confusing anything. I'm pressing and holding down the power off button. I know how to power down a machine.
😂 So your doing a hard shutdown instead of shutting it down properly (unless this behavior has changed with Apple silicon?) I hope you’re in the habit of saving everything and closing down your applications when you shut down your computer. That’s a very risky way of turning off a computer…
Use this utility: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2021/06/04/keyboardcleantool
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I've had this annoyance too. I thought it was just me that it bothered.
Yeah, sounds strange that it would come on again by itself if shut down. This is a somewhat older Intel model I take it? At least mine has no problem being powered off to clean e.g. the keyboard. I always either turn it off from the menu bar or via Terminal tho, not pulling the nuclear option. 
I've had the same issue with my 15" M2 Air, and now my 14" M3 Pro MBP.
I shut it off, and once I hit any of the keys it turns right back on.
I shut it off, and once I hit any of the keys it turns right back on.
Looks like auto boot is on all Apple Silicon devices.
@mashinhead Regardless if the way you shut down, Daring Fireball spoke to a handy utility for just this purpose: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2021/06/04/keyboardcleantool
@mashinhead Regardless if the way you shut down, Daring Fireball spoke to a handy utility for just this purpose: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2021/06/04/keyboardcleantool
Thanks. I think my point is, I shouldn't need a utility for this.
I love how you keep going back to the well of "it's me doing it wrong" rather than the reality of, it's deliberately and poorly designed to work this way. To keep you on a computer all the time.
I don’t understand what the harm is in the few wipes that it takes to clean the keyboard.
I think all things considered, people appreciate the instant-on nature of Mac’s over the minor annoyance of the keyboard swipe. If your machine is locked it shouldn’t really matter.
I think all things considered, people appreciate the instant-on nature of Mac’s over the minor annoyance of the keyboard swipe. If your machine is locked it shouldn’t really matter.
All I was pointing out was that you’re not shutting down the machine properly by holding the power button down until it turns off. That’s not how you do it on any major platform, and there’s a reason why you do it through the menu or command line. Computers shutting down run through shutdown commands and perform actions during the shutdown.
You’re doing the equivalent of disconnecting the car battery to turn it off instead of turning the ignition to off.
It's almost comical that this is necessary. Naturally, the top apologist for everyone’s favorite three trillion dollar company has helpfully pointed out its existence.
Wait until they add in AI all over ... on machines you can't even actually fully shut down
I may be headed for generic hardware and Linux if this direction goes too far.
I may be headed for generic hardware and Linux if this direction goes too far.
Constant auto-save has been a thing across all apps for nearly a decade... Not an issue for hard reboots in nearly 100% of cases.
Typical Apple looking down upon users saying “we know better”.
But still a bad way to shut down computer unless it indeed freezes.
You could probably launch any app where any keys pressed are harmlessly collected in a document you eventually discard. Examples: Freeform.app, TextEdit.app.
A few key combos would need to be avoided, like Cmd-tab, Cmd-Q (quit), Cmd-M (minimize), and maybe Esc.
A few key combos would need to be avoided, like Cmd-tab, Cmd-Q (quit), Cmd-M (minimize), and maybe Esc.
Yeah as others have said, don't do a hard shut down - always either press and hold the button until the shut down menu pops up (apparently this isn't a thing any more), or go Apple logo menu > shut down. Much better for the machine to be able to do it's routine clean up and housekeeping tasks it does at shut down.
That said, it does sound like you have that new feature of auto-on where it powers on from any input. I believe there is a way to turn it off - but it requires setting NVRAM settings in Terminal.
This is related but I'm not sure if this solution will solve your problem. https://osxdaily.com/2017/01/19/disable-boot-on-open-lid-macbook-pro/
You could also log out of your account - Apple logo menu > log out, and clean the keyboard there as no key input except for the enter key will do anything outside of fill up the password input box.
That said, it does sound like you have that new feature of auto-on where it powers on from any input. I believe there is a way to turn it off - but it requires setting NVRAM settings in Terminal.
This is related but I'm not sure if this solution will solve your problem. https://osxdaily.com/2017/01/19/disable-boot-on-open-lid-macbook-pro/
You could also log out of your account - Apple logo menu > log out, and clean the keyboard there as no key input except for the enter key will do anything outside of fill up the password input box.
They need to be careful with this AI crap.. some of us are ex military and are fully willing to introduce the AI to the business end of a sidearm
There is no Shutdown Menu like that anymore. At least there isn't on my 4 year old M1 MacBook Air. Holding the power button simply turns off the machine - no menu ever appears.
When I clean the keyboard, I either lock my computer or open an app that can’t really mess up with keyboard all that much. Tried to shut down but it got powered up randomly while I clean the keyboard. I get it. Apple wants to flex how efficient their Apple silicon is to the point that auto-boot is on by default. It seems that whoever configure the default setting doesn’t have the need to clean the keyboard.
I love Apple products, but lately it seems as if "if it's useful, Apple will remove it".. and replace it with garbage like more emojis.