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Mojer

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 30, 2011
150
8
What is the recommended practice with the M1 Macs, sleep at night or completely shut down? Depending on numerous factors, I may go several days without using my MBA, but generally not longer than a week. Thanks for any input.
 
My thought would be to not get too agonised over whether you should turn off or put into sleep mode. Modern electronic devices are robust enough to not be affected by such usage.

If you are still concerned, turn off the machine if it will not be used for weeks. Put it into sleep if it will not be used for maybe up to a few days. This would save some time not need to wait for the computer loading programs back to ram.
 
Ever since my 2015 MBA 11' --- I've been COMMAND + CONTROL + Q'ing when I get to the end of my day. Puts it to sleep. I usually leave it plugged in - goes to sleep nearly instantly.

Even on battery, my 2015 MBA, 2017 MBP, and 2020 MBP lose almost no battery in sleep even across many days. The above posters are right - tech today - it doesn't really matter.

I have a 32GB ram MBP and I really like having everything I had opened the day before instantly available when I start the next day. So I prefer sleep. (CMD+CTRL+Q) then walk away.
 
The OS has daily / weekly / monthly maintenance routines it runs, all set for the dead of night (and not a user-adjusted schedule, though there are some 3rd Party apps that will run them as part of their thing), so I usually just let the thing go to sleep so that these may be run.
 
Ever since my 2015 MBA 11' --- I've been COMMAND + CONTROL + Q'ing when I get to the end of my day. Puts it to sleep. I usually leave it plugged in - goes to sleep nearly instantly.

Even on battery, my 2015 MBA, 2017 MBP, and 2020 MBP lose almost no battery in sleep even across many days. The above posters are right - tech today - it doesn't really matter.

I have a 32GB ram MBP and I really like having everything I had opened the day before instantly available when I start the next day. So I prefer sleep. (CMD+CTRL+Q) then walk away.
CMD+CTRL+Q locks the screen
 
What is the recommended practice with the M1 Macs, sleep at night or completely shut down? Depending on numerous factors, I may go several days without using my MBA, but generally not longer than a week. Thanks for any input.
Just close the lid. Unless the machine is acting weird, there is NO reason to go through the shutdown and boot process. Today's CPUs have sophisticated low-power states and are some (like the M1) are designed to be always-on. Like an iPhone, the MacBook can and will happily run for months (or at least until the next big update).
 
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