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What is the longest period of time you have kept your Mac turned on....?

macdon401

macdon401

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Hello...talking with a friend about how long you can / should keep you Mac turned on....and wondering who holds the record?
I am talking about being "not shut down"...
what amount of time may be harmful....?
How long can your Mac stay runnung....?
R
 
My PowerBook regularly has uptimes of over 50 days, but I do put it to sleep whilst carrying it around.

I'm sure some of the posters here who protein fold will have uptimes that dwarf mine though.
 
I've not shut down most of my machines since Mac OS X and, except for the PowerBook, I've not been one to make them sleep, either. Sleep worked fine in Mac OS 8.x and 9.x but not since then for me.

So, I would have to say that while my uptime figure wasn't always high due to restarts, any machine would have been on for months.
 
Probably about 3-1/2 months before I even touched it (music production) and another month or so after that. I never had a problem doing so. OS-X of course.

I think the pulsing light is what I really wanted to see. It tells me that it's alive and all is well! 😉

Note to self: Need to market a hot looking box with just a pulsating blue/white light and an Apple sticker on the side! YEAH!
 
My PB usually stays up for around 8 days on average. For some reason I find that it needs a good reboot around the 8 day mark ... its probably just in my head. Although I download a lot of software and put it to sleep on and off so who knows.
 
i believe 30 days..... and it stopped at 30 days because a new release of OSX came out and it forced me to restart
 
I believe the original poster is asking about the time the Mac is powered on, not the uptime between restarts (for which we have other threads).

I power down only if I'll be out of town. Otherwise, my Macs are all on continuously.
 
I don't ever shut my Macs down. I usually don't even sleep them. So how long has my main Mac been on? Since I bought it mid 2004. When was it last rebooted? Whenever the last update required a reboot.
 
Whats the effect on your electricity bills though for leaving these on 24/7 for months at a time? Do they use negligable amounts of energy whilst idle?

All these people who are "donating" their idle cycles too folding must also have rediculous electricity bills since they are basically using 100% CPU, 24/7.
 
Rovman said:
Whats the effect on your electricity bills though for leaving these on 24/7 for months at a time? Do they use negligable amounts of energy whilst idle?

All these people who are "donating" their idle cycles too folding must also have rediculous electricity bills since they are basically using 100% CPU, 24/7.
Click to expand...

The dual processor machines are great in winter, no matter. It's cheaper than turning up the thermostat. 😉
 
My record on my mini is about 18 days, but it would be mmuch longer (as in many months) if I didn't have to reboot for updates, etc.
 
I cant remember the last time my mbp was off..perhaps after the bootcamp install.....whenever that came out

iMac the longest is 20 something days..

havent hooked the mac mini up yet, but since it will be a media center/server im sure it will get long uptimes as well
 
Rovman said:
Whats the effect on your electricity bills though for leaving these on 24/7 for months at a time? Do they use negligable amounts of energy whilst idle?

All these people who are "donating" their idle cycles too folding must also have rediculous electricity bills since they are basically using 100% CPU, 24/7.
Click to expand...
We have about 5 computers on all the time
in a 2bedroom 2 bath apartment

and our electric bill runs between 40-60 dollars a month
 
around 4 hours?

I don't know, I prefer shutting down my computers. Apple recommends that you shut down your computer if you are not going to be using it anymore in the day.
 
Is there any benefit to leaving a Mac on all the time?

How about apple laptops? I would think this would age the computer, especially the lcd screens.
 
California said:
Is there any benefit to leaving a Mac on all the time?

How about apple laptops? I would think this would age the computer, especially the lcd screens.
Click to expand...
less shock to internal components from cold booting alot. those volts of electricity that jolt thru, especially hard drives, when you reboot can be damaging.
 
wako said:
only reason why i reboot is because of the updates which requires a reboot
Click to expand...

That's what I do. I wouldn't consider that turning it off. So I've probably had mine running for several months, if not much longer than that.

On second thought, I do turn it off to clean it every month or so, which I haven't done in awhile. 😱

Better get on that...
 
Isn't it also that OS X performs it's own version of a defrag when the computer is inactive?

I was reading somewhere that because of the unix foundation, it works silently, and therefore, you should keep it on for at least some time when you're not using it. It helps keep the computer clean, like a defrag on a windows machine would.
 
My Mac mini has done about two weeks. I recently started sleeping it when not in use, but this causes me to lose my connection to the Windows machine that stores my music etc. The mini also seems to run better if I just leave it on all the time - always on, always ready. A reboot every once in a while is probably a good idea for removing temporary files and wotnot though.
 
Gwardys said:
Isn't it also that OS X performs it's own version of a defrag when the computer is inactive?

I was reading somewhere that because of the unix foundation, it works silently, and therefore, you should keep it on for at least some time when you're not using it. It helps keep the computer clean, like a defrag on a windows machine would.
Click to expand...

It has daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that are run automatically to delete old log files, etc. It's not really anything like a defragmentation but there is a version of that which runs automatically on the opening of any file of 20 MB or fewer. The daily process runs about 03:15 every night with the weekly and monthly running afterwards on the appropriate days.
 
The only time I'll power down my mini is if there is a bad electrical storm. Otherwise, it's on all the time.

My MB I power down more often so I can tote it around.
 
I turn off and on basically 3 times per day. I suppose I could put it in sleep for faster wake up time, but I am just so used to turning it off when I don't need to use it that I haven't just left it on. Longest is about 24 hours. Am I doing something wrong?
 
Badandy said:
I turn off and on basically 3 times per day. I suppose I could put it in sleep for faster wake up time, but I am just so used to turning it off when I don't need to use it that I haven't just left it on. Longest is about 24 hours. Am I doing something wrong?
Click to expand...

I don't think so. My preference is for just the opposite, but there are many examples of those who keep their systems on or turn them off regularly and have very little issues either way.

Yes, electronic components can be fragile, but today's modern day solid state stuff is better suited to use and abuse than they used to be.
 
My PowerMac has gone 90 days without being shut down or even put to sleep. My friend had a G3 rackmount server (fashioned out of a G3 iMac) that if I recall correctly he kept running for more than 130 days before shutting it down to install more RAM.
 
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