Which is better for the battery? Sleep mode or powering off?

[tangledweb16]

Say if I won't be using my MacBook for 24 hours or so, which is better to do and better for the battery in the long run?

Also, should I calibrate the battery first thing I do when I get it? Like, charge it up and then let it drain? I just want to keep a healthy battery, thanks.

 

[Fezzasus]

Off definitely sounds better. The battery still gets some use in sleep mode, not to mention the wear that occurs to the rest of the components (mainly the hard disk) that you avoid when off.

Yeah, calibrate the battery otherwise it will drive you crazy.

 

[tangledweb16]

Off definitely sounds better. The battery still gets some use in sleep mode, not to mention the wear that occurs to the rest of the components (mainly the hard disk) that you avoid when off.

Yeah, calibrate the battery otherwise it will drive you crazy.

Thanks man. I will definitely calibrate it first thing. It sounds like I should only put it in sleep mode when I know I'll be using it in a couple of hours.

Also, is there a way I can choose to have BluTooth automatically turn off when I unplug my MacBook? Thanks.

 

[yippy]

What wear? Sleep mode does not stress the computer any more than off does. When sleeping the ONLY thing that has any power and therefore not off is the ram, which only has enough power to it to keep it from losing the data stored in it. That isn't exactly what I would call wear.

 

[bov]

so is letting your computer sleep overnight compared to shut down any worse in the long run or not?

 

[gr8tfly]

so is letting your computer sleep overnight compared shut down any worse in the long run or not?

I don't think it'll make any difference, in fact, non-use can be worse for a battery.

Also, shutting down causes you to miss out on one of the great features of the Mac - virtually instant wake from sleep. I rarely restart any of my machines - usually it's because of an update, which requires it.

 

[robanga]

Also shutting off at night, can stop the machine from running those important 3AM-6AM maintenance scripts that keeps it running well.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

Off definitely sounds better. The battery still gets some use in sleep mode, not to mention the wear that occurs to the rest of the components (mainly the hard disk) that you avoid when off.

Yeah, calibrate the battery otherwise it will drive you crazy.

In order to wear and tear on the hard drive, it needs to be powered and spinning. It isn't when the mac is sleeping, that would be plain stupid.

 

[BlackSmp]

I don't think it'll make any difference, in fact, non-use can be worse for a battery.

Also, shutting down causes you to miss out on one of the great features of the Mac - virtually instant wake from sleep. I rarely restart any of my machines - usually it's because of an update, which requires it.

Indeed... I almost never turn it off...

 

[ashjamben]

i often don't turn off my macbook when i'm home and just let it sleep most of the time. i only shut it down if i know i'm gonna be away for a couple of days.

also, i carry it about with me quite abit and always shut it down when i do this. this might sound like a stupid question, but is it safe to carry it around in a bag when sleeping? i don't see why not, but i have some crazy theory that i shouldn't.

thanks

 

[richard.mac]

normal sleep mode powers the RAM so only a little battery power is used. when in hibernation i think only the power management is powered so hardly any battery is used at all. much less than normal sleep anyway.

sleeping for long periods will do no damage at all. i find it actually better and more convienient to sleep overnight. i usually leave it plugged in over night so no battery power is used while asleep. its also perfectly all right to leave it plugged in overnight as batteries these days are smart enough to trickle charge rather than always charge on 100%.

 

[riscy]

On a slightly different tack - how long will a MB last on sleep mode?

I take mine to work most days 7.30am, in sleep mode, use it several times throughout the day and still have 89-90% charge when I get home at 5.30pm.

I think that is very impressive, no need to bother with the adapter.

 

[elppa]

Also shutting off at night, can stop it the machine from running those important 3AM-6AM maintenance scripts that keeps it running well.

I was under the impression that if these were not run the OS would just run them later.

 

[iCeFuSiOn]

I was under the impression that if these were not run the OS would just run them later.

Yes, it usually does.

 

[Trekkie]

Off definitely sounds better. The battery still gets some use in sleep mode, not to mention the wear that occurs to the rest of the components (mainly the hard disk) that you avoid when off.

Yeah, calibrate the battery otherwise it will drive you crazy.

uhm, excuse me but the hard drive shuts off when you go to sleep. There is no more wear and tear on the hard drive than turning it off/on.

the only thing active is a few states in the processor and memory to retain what was going on when its off. Since they're solid state devices they're not going to 'wear out' from use like that.

Your battery will drain when sleep mode is on, at an extremely reduced rate. However, you see a larger drain when you boot up each time because the hard drive goes nuts loading everything again. I'm sure you could do a few simple tests of putting it to sleep all day long during a course of normal use without power, then try turning on/off. See which one works better for you.

 

[robanga]

I was under the impression that if these were not run the OS would just run them later.

That is often the case, but the default setting for these i believe is to begin an 8 hour countdown clock once the machine is up and running again. Any interruptions during that next time period, restarts the clock again. All of these things can be tweaked however.

 

[pcmofo]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 6.9) VZW:SCH-i760 PPC 240x320)

computers run well in 2 states. on all the time or off all the time. the constant heating and cooling caused by turning on and off a computer will causethe components to die faster becaue of the stress from the temp change. if your going away for the weekend, turn if off. otherwise leave it on. sleep mode is just for power saving

 

[Hankster]

So mean. How would you like it if you weren't allowed to rest each night? Eh? Eh? Eh?

 

[digitalpencil]

Agreed. There's been a few of these threads lately and people spouting unmitigated nonsense about the dangers of sleep.
I love to sleep, so does my mac. I put it to bed at night with my remote and wake it up in the morning with the same. At the end of the day, OS/X is built on Unix BSD/Nextstep, it's essentially server-technology that is designed to be always-on. Hence running cron scripts and such in the early hours to help maintain the OS/hardware. These scripts don't actually run when sleeping, same as they don't when powered down so you should initiate them yourself to keep things tidy, either from the command line or with a GUI like cocktail or cache cleaner but to (pardon the pun) put this to bed once and for all... Sleep otherwise has no detrimental effect on your hardware, OS or battery health whatsoever. Plus, it means I can fire up Front Row from my bed and dance my self awake!

 

[robanga]

That is a good point that I have forgot about. Scripts do not run in sleep mode. This is why I have set both my iMac and the MBP to be awake every morning between 3 and 6.

 

[Fezzasus]

uhm, excuse me but the hard drive shuts off when you go to sleep. There is no more wear and tear on the hard drive than turning it off/on.

the only thing active is a few states in the processor and memory to retain what was going on when its off. Since they're solid state devices they're not going to 'wear out' from use like that.

Your battery will drain when sleep mode is on, at an extremely reduced rate. However, you see a larger drain when you boot up each time because the hard drive goes nuts loading everything again. I'm sure you could do a few simple tests of putting it to sleep all day long during a course of normal use without power, then try turning on/off. See which one works better for you.

You are also aware that the hard disk performs a RAM dump seconds before it goes into sleep mode? This does stress the hard disk more than simply shutting it down.

I assume that you know that it's the charge cycles that damages a battery, not remaining charged? Even charing that 10 - 15% lost during sleep will do more damage than turning the computer off. You cannot compare a night in sleep mode to a 20 second boot power surge.

 

[Dingo Dave 69]

My macbook is never on between 3am and 6am. Could someone tell me how to run the maintanance scripts?

Also, how do I calibrate my battery?

 

[atszyman]

You are also aware that the hard disk performs a RAM dump seconds before it goes into sleep mode? This does stress the hard disk more than simply shutting it down.

What about the near constant spinning as the OS is loaded at boot time? Would this not cause more wear and tear on the HD than the RAM dump/refresh when the computer goes to sleep?

If you're not too concerned about work/data retention (i.e. you save often and never sleep your computer without saving your work) you can save the RAM dump (plus some HD space) if you use the older Mac sleep mode which only kept the RAM powered and didn't dump anything to the HD. I swear my 3.5 year old PBG4 could make it a week on a battery just sleeping, I almost never shut it down.

Instructions on how to verify which sleepmode and how to change it are here.

 

[digitalpencil]

My macbook is never on between 3am and 6am. Could someone tell me how to run the maintanance scripts?

Also, how do I calibrate my battery?

Fire up terminal and run the following: sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
You can also simply run daily crons by excluding 'weekly' etc

Alternatively, you can use a gui tool like cache cleaner although be wary of the other options available labeled as maintenance as these generally are not necessary for regular maintenance and are more troubleshooting tools. Although a light cache flush from time to time can keep things running along happily.

In terms of calibration, fully charge, leave plugged in for a couple of hours, disconnect from the power supply and let it drain until it forces into sleep. Leave it sleeping or powered down for 5 hrs and then fully charge again.

 

[djejrejk]

....this might sound like a stupid question, but is it safe to carry it around in a bag when sleeping? i don't see why not, but i have some crazy theory that i shouldn't.

thanks

I do it every day with no problems.. just make sure it is totally asleep and use a slip cover. You can easily tell that it is asleep by waiting for the light to slowly begin pulsating. If you forget, your fans will continue to run and the machine will get extremely hot (happened to me once).

Just pay attention and you will be ok.