Switch on without opening lid

[Matt__James]

I use my MacBook in clamshell mode 80% of the time, i.e. it's closed and stored in a stand on mydesk and I use a Dell monitor and Apple Magic Mouse & Keyboard.

To power it on every morning, I have to lift it out, open it, press the power button and then return to the stand, which is a pain. Is there a way around this? I have come across the method of setting auto-wake schedules so that each morning when I plug the power cable back in it turns on, but then if I shut it down during the day and then want to turn it back on, this method doesn't work.

 

[DeltaMac]

Why not just choose to sleep your MacBook, then simply press any key on the keyboard to wake, and begin using your Mac almost immediately.

 

[Matt__James]

Why not just choose to sleep your MacBook, then simply press any key on the keyboard to wake, and begin using your Mac almost immediately.

Yes I do that sometimes and that works well. I figure it can't be good for my Mac to just permanently sleep/wake it overnight and never shut it down though?

 

[DeltaMac]

Hmmm.... I almost never shut my Mac off. Other than restarts for updates or the occasional troubleshooting, my Mac may be on, yet sleeping, for weeks at a time. It's how I have used Macs, well, since I started using my first Mac, way back in '94. (Sleep is a fairly low-powered mode, and your computer is designed to support exactly that.)

And, you are using clamshell mode. Think about what you do to enter that mode in the first place: Power on, connect external display/keyboard/mouse. Close lid on your laptop.
Older OS X systems would go to sleep at that point, simply by closing the lid. Then you would press any key on your external keyboard to wake up in clamshell mode.
After 10.7 Lion, I think, you don't need to press a key to wake up, as the system senses the external display attached, and simply switches over to the external display after the lid is closed.
Now, it's a desktop system, and you use sleep normally, by selecting it manually (or using a timed setting your Energy Saver pref pane. I never use that setting, but do it manually each time )

 

[Matt__James]

Yeah fair enough, maybe this is the way for me to go. I didn't realise using sleep so frequently was OK!

 

[deeddawg]

I figure it can't be good for my Mac to just permanently sleep/wake it overnight and never shut it down though?

What leads you to think that?

Across several macbooks and a mac mini over the years, it is rare that I've ever actually done a shutdown. Just sleep. Usually just by closing the lid.

 

[chabig]

Yes I do that sometimes and that works well. I figure it can't be good for my Mac to just permanently sleep/wake it overnight and never shut it down though?

You figure wrong. Just let it sleep. Think of all the other things that never shut off: your microwave oven, your thermostat, your refrigerator, your watch, your clocks, your AppleTV, your smart speakers...

 

[Howard2k]

I sleep unless its going to be more than 24 hours without use, then I'll shutdown.

 

[yukari]

I always use automatic startup so it turns on at a specific time each morning.

 

[Painter2002]

Yes I do that sometimes and that works well. I figure it can't be good for my Mac to just permanently sleep/wake it overnight and never shut it down though?

Totally ok and actually most likely preferred to not shut down a Mac all the way anymore.

The operating systems these days are much better at cleaning out the daily “junk” that builds up in the background, so rebooting won’t improve performance or anything unless you have a serious bug. Also the old reason to always shut down a computer when not in use was to prevent excessive wear on the moving parts of an HDD drive, since theee are no moving parts in an SSD, there’s no concern for parts to wear out.

I’d let it sleep and wake the computer by keyboard or reconnecting the monitor(s) by to the MacBook.

 

[makShot]

I use Belking Thunderbolt 3 dock + external Dell monitor at work. When I connect my MacBook Pro 2018 (with macOS Mojave installed) to the dock it doesn't switch on with the lid closed.

Previously I had a MacBook Pro 2016 with macOS High Sierra. It was switching on every time I connected it to exactly the same dock even with a lid closed.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

 

[chabig]

I use Belking Thunderbolt 3 dock + external Dell monitor at work. When I connect my MacBook Pro 2018 (with macOS Mojave installed) to the dock it doesn't switch on with the lid closed.

Previously I had a MacBook Pro 2016 with macOS High Sierra. It was switching on every time I connected it to exactly the same dock even with a lid closed.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

To clarify. You connect your sleeping MacBook Pro to your dock, and when you touch keys on your external keyboard it doesn't wake up?

 

[makShot]

To clarify. You connect your sleeping MacBook Pro to your dock, and when you touch keys on your external keyboard it doesn't wake up?

Not exactly. It works well when my MacBook is in sleep mode. But it doesn't work at all when Macbook is turned off. After I connect it to the dock, I have to open the lid. Otherwise, it won't start up.

 

[chabig]

Not exactly. It works well when my MacBook is in sleep mode. But it doesn't work at all when Macbook is turned off. After I connect it to the dock, I have to open the lid. Otherwise, it won't start up.

According to Apple's support document, your MacBook Pro should turn on when you "Connect your Mac to a power adapter while its lid is closed and it's connected to an external display."

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201150

That sounds like you need to have the display connected before you connect power. Since you've got a single cable to the dock that is both display and power, it probably doesn't meet the requirement. I would recommend you turn on the machine before you connect it. Once you're connected, it wakes from sleep as you said. Good to go.

 

[marklcfc]

What leads you to think that?

Across several macbooks and a mac mini over the years, it is rare that I've ever actually done a shutdown. Just sleep. Usually just by closing the lid.

Won't the macbook being in sleep mode every day when not in use affect the battery over time though? Do you keep your macbook plugged in all the time?

 

[deeddawg]

Won't the macbook being in sleep mode every day when not in use affect the battery over time though? Do you keep your macbook plugged in all the time?

You do know you’re replying to a post from 2018, yes?

To answer the question: no it won’t affect the battery. Believe it or not, companies have advanced substantially in how they handle battery charging since thirty years ago.

Yes I leave the plugged in most of the time with no ill effects.