Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
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.
There’s still no good reason to just cut the power like that. Put a computer in verbose mode and then tell it to shut down. Tons of operations happen to shut down the system properly behind the scenes, simply cutting the power works but there’s always a chance you’ll cause a problem by doing so.

And auto save isn’t system wide. It’s only there by default if an app dev follows Apple’s rules on implementing it, which plenty don’t.


I guess I don’t really under the problem here. If you’re just cleaning the keyboard what harm is there in a few errant keystrokes at the login screen?
 
Last edited:
My M1 macbook air would auto-boot whenever I opened the lid.
There was coffee spilled on it and I was trying to open the lid, clean up the keyboard and let it upside down so that at least the coffee won't make it deep into it and it was autobooting every time I tried, drove me nuts.
Ridiculously annoying design.

I had to disconnect the battery.
 
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.
That's not what to do. Go to the Apple logo in the top left of your desktop, select Shut Down, and then ONLY pressing the power button will turn it on.

Additional edited side note: If you close it and open it, it will turn on. So don't close it upon shutting down.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thing is auto boot should’ve never existed in the first place. I don’t know what auto boot brings other than Apple flexing their Apple silicon.
It brings “aways on” functionality to normal people. Normies enjoy that. Techies are not Normies.

As with many features that us Techies complain about, on a technology forum (making us a niche of a niche), this isn’t designed or aimed at you. It’s part of the ease-of-use that draws Normies to Apple products.
 
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.
Holding down the power button is a hard shutdown and not recommended. The power off menu still exists although holding the power button won't show it. It is accessible from the  Menu Bar item under "Shut Down…" or by hitting Ctrl+Power (for keyboards without TouchID sensor)
Really? Dang! I never thought they'd take that away. I stand corrected!
You were correct initially just not in how to spawn the menu
 
That's not what to do. Go to the Apple logo in the top left of your desktop, select Shut Down..
It doesn't work like that anymore. When I use the Apple logo menu to Shutdown my MacBook Air M1 2020, after waiting for it to fully "shutdown", pressing any key or the trackpad instantly powers up the machine. I don't think macOS actually shuts down on Apple silicon - in order to know a key is pressed, or the trackpad is pressed, then something in the system has to still be running. Granted, I'm not an Apple system engineer but I have been running Linux and BSD operating systems for over 25 years so I'm not entirely computer ignorant.

I also recently saw a reference in a system log to bridgeOS, which is what the touch strip ran on older MacBook Pro's - this replaced the F1-F12 keys on some models. Is bridgeOS still running in the background when you power down an Apple silicon MacBook? This would explain why it knows when a key or trackpad is pressed.
 
It doesn't work like that anymore. When I use the Apple logo menu to Shutdown my MacBook Air M1 2020, after waiting for it to fully "shutdown", pressing any key or the trackpad instantly powers up the machine. I don't think macOS actually shuts down on Apple silicon - in order to know a key is pressed then the system has to still be running.
Oh, wow. I did not know that.
 
Do new Apple Silicon macs still do this? I thought this ‘feature’ was only on intel macs. Turns on when pressing any button.
 
I’m vaguely afraid that generic PC hardware won’t survive the next 20 years, or only on a Raspberry Pi level.
Oh I think generic hardware will survive.. there is still a community of people (Linux/BSD) who want their computer to do what the user wants instead of what the manufacturer wants. As long as the open source community is encouraged to audit/improve the code and share their findings this will survive. Keep in mind that the top 100 fastest supercomputers in the world still run Linux.
 
  • Like
Reactions: crjackson2134
Honestly everyone is seriously overthinking this. Why does it matter whether the machine is on or not to clean the keyboard? I get that you don't want random input, but that's very very easy to get around by simply locking the screen. Your password field will end up full of bullet points, and that's the extent of it.
 
Oh I think generic hardware will survive.. there is still a community of people (Linux/BSD) who want their computer to do what the user wants instead of what the manufacturer wants. As long as the open source community is encouraged to audit/improve the code and share their findings this will survive. Keep in mind that the top 100 fastest supercomputers in the world still run Linux.
The question is if the market will remain big enough for hardware manufacturers to design and produce consumer-level but high-perfomance hardware (as in PC gaming and workstations) that isn’t closed-platform like Macs. If Windows migrates to ARM, there is a risk this will result in a closed platform as well, regarding the hardware. Supercomputers are custom-built.
 
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.

*Apple drops emoji support.*

"I think it's dumb that with all that money and all those people, they can't keep up with a simple font standard. I think greedy Apple is intentionally trying to break compatibility to keep us locked in."
 
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.
You have to choose Shutdown from the Apple menu at this point, they removed the functionality of the Power button to shutdown or sleep the machine back in 2016, I believe. Pressing the Touch ID once locks the screen now. I checked Settings and found no way to enable the old behavior.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KeithBN and Iwavvns
Honestly everyone is seriously overthinking this. Why does it matter whether the machine is on or not to clean the keyboard? I get that you don't want random input, but that's very very easy to get around by simply locking the screen. Your password field will end up full of bullet points, and that's the extent of it.
For me it’s more that I’d really prefer if it booted only when I press the power button. Not when I lift the lid, not when I press a random button 🤷‍♂️
 
I suppose you could run the battery all the way down (not good for it), or even put the machine in DFU mode… 🤣 Although I probably would not recommend either option… Apple should provide an option for a shutdown without automatically powering back on when you touch it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DCIFRTHS
The question is if the market will remain big enough for hardware manufacturers to design and produce consumer-level but high-perfomance hardware (as in PC gaming and workstations) that isn’t closed-platform like Macs. If Windows migrates to ARM, there is a risk this will result in a closed platform as well, regarding the hardware. Supercomputers are custom-built.
I’ve suspected since the M1 intro (my thoughts are somewhere in that MR thread) that Microsoft is eventually going to split Windows into a consumer version and then some other “business/enterprise” version.

Consumer would allow the inevitable death of x86 (there is just no way that architecture is ever going to come close enough in battery life to ARM) for normal people, while the enterprise version would continue support for the legacy systems (think custom apps for banking systems, logistics, etc) that the world runs on that simply cannot be rewritten.

I think it’ll be years before that comes to fruition, but I really don’t see another way forward as emulation is never going to be able to support some of the legacy systems I’m speaking of (we’re talking 16/32 bit production applications that haven’t been rewritten in 20+ years but make the world go round).

🤷‍♂️
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.