Good housekeeping.....

[PsykX]

I've been using Macs for a long time, and back then the consensus was that it was a good idea to shut the Mac down about once a week.

I remember having to shut down my Windows XP PC every 3 days or so, because it would become slow, never really thought about that with a Mac though.

But since they start so fast now, and since you're probably not on your Mac 168 hours a week, I'd say it's a good recommendation to give a break to just about anything in the world from time to time.

 

[philstubbington]

I've been using Macs for a long time, and back then the consensus was that it was a good idea to shut the Mac down about once a week.
The premise was that it did a more thorough tidying of files etc. in the system and put the system into better condition than when just putting to sleep.
I don't know if that was true, but it certainly seemed to me that when you shut it down, it took quite a bit longer to power off than when you did a restart, so I figured it probably was.

I'm now using a silicon Mac and to power down takes about 9 seconds during restart, and about 9 seconds for a full shutdown.

So is that old advice I've been following still valid, or completely out of date?

I never shutdown my Mac unless I’m travelling internationally with it. Never had an issue.

 

[theorist9]

If you look at capacitors and resistors & other components, from 25 years ago, there have been enough improvements by the component makers that lifespan really is just down to software now.

I assume you're just talking desktops (obviously laptops have lots of things that can fail--batteries, screen coatings, keyboards, etc). But even desktops can still have hardware failures--fans, ports, maybe thermal paste, etc....

 

[MonkeySpank158]

I can’t be the only one to have this scene from Step Brothers come to mind when reading the title…

 

[JamesMay82]

Starting with my 2017 iMac, I only rebooted when the OS was updated, and shut down when leaving the house for more than 3 days, and same with my M1Max Studio, never a problem.
My 3,1MPro got shut down frequently as it was loud and power hungry…

That’s what I do and all my computers are still working 10 + years later.. I still have a 2008 imac that works

 

[ThunderSkunk]

I assume you're just talking desktops (obviously laptops have lots of things that can fail--batteries, screen coatings, keyboards, etc). But even desktops can still have hardware failures--fans, ports, maybe thermal paste, etc....

Yeah I just meant the PCB components failing from power cycling. I guess I own a rather large graveyard that's nothing but a reminder of your second point. ...It's making me realize, a lot of really great vintage electronic devices will not make it to peoples grandchildren as anything more than paperweights (like nearly all the sophisticated 35mm film cameras) because there's an overlap between stuff made with a million tiny low-tech wax capacitors that are already starting to fail in big numbers, but that were modern enough they were assembled by precision machines so densely & complex enough that they're practically unserviceable now. You can take anything apart, and even replace components, but without the original machinery & fixtures, a lot of that stuff is never going back together.

 

[bladerunner88]

What is this? How do you use it? How should I use it?

It is literally a line of Code executable in Terminal. It performs housekeeping on the System Cleaning out old gunk and resetting a bunch of stuff kinda like Dusting and cleaning cept for the System.

FYI Beyond here are Dragons! When you interact with the Terminal gone is the warm and fuzzy GUI you are no doubt used too. You are interacting with the UNIX Command line Interface. Be very very sure of what your type!

The Daily weekly monthly refers to the frequency of the tasks preformed, in a normal setting these task are generated internally the code forces the event to happen....As in please do Maintenance Now! Or Clean Up on Isle 9....

 

[aevan]

I've been using Macs for a long time, and back then the consensus was that it was a good idea to shut the Mac down about once a week.
The premise was that it did a more thorough tidying of files etc. in the system and put the system into better condition than when just putting to sleep.
I don't know if that was true, but it certainly seemed to me that when you shut it down, it took quite a bit longer to power off than when you did a restart, so I figured it probably was.

I'm now using a silicon Mac and to power down takes about 9 seconds during restart, and about 9 seconds for a full shutdown.

So is that old advice I've been following still valid, or completely out of date?

There is no need to shut down your Mac, unless you’re not going to use it for a long while. In fact, Macs do certain self maintenance, ML stuff, indexing during sleep, things they wouldn’t be able to do if completely shut down.

I haven’t been shutting down my Macs (other than special cases) since my first Mac, a 2011 27” iMac.

 

[Bungaree.Chubbins]

I'm definitely in team 'no shut-down' since my MacBooks never got restarted except for system updates, or in the case of my old 2012 MacBook Air, whenever the battery went flat.

I'm at 12 days, 2 hours uptime, right now, and it's only that short because of the Sonoma 14.6.1 update. I expect the next reboot will be when Sequoia launches.

 

[splifingate]

So is that old advice I've been following still valid, or completely out of date?

A matter of personal preference.

I let Her sleep when I'm around, and shut Her down when I'm not for an extended period of time (unless I forget, of course).

My Mind (with all machines (including cars/trucks)) has always been that avoiding unnecessary shutdown-restart cycles helps promote the machine's longevity.

Having done both with the Studio, I have no data pro:con on the matter.

Just do what you feel you need to do

 

[ignatius345]

It is literally a line of Code executable in Terminal. It performs housekeeping on the System Cleaning out old gunk and resetting a bunch of stuff kinda like Dusting and cleaning cept for the System.

FYI Beyond here are Dragons! When you interact with the Terminal gone is the warm and fuzzy GUI you are no doubt used too. You are interacting with the UNIX Command line Interface. Be very very sure of what your type!

The Daily weekly monthly refers to the frequency of the tasks preformed, in a normal setting these task are generated internally the code forces the event to happen....As in please do Maintenance Now! Or Clean Up on Isle 9....

For people who don't know what they're doing with Terminal -- myself included -- I would recommend just downloading OnyX and using it to launch maintenance tasks (if needed), so a botched paste doesn't do something horrible.

 

[SuperCachetes]

My M2 MBA is by far the most consistent and error-free Apple product I've owned. I tend to keep all my OSs current, and in the year or so I've had it, I've only rebooted it when the system was being updated - otherwise I merely shut the lid and open the lid, ad infinitum. Unlocking with TouchID or Apple Watch has been pretty much flawless. As a shareholder, I had hoped Apple Silicon would be a transparent panacea that brought everything together. As a (admittedly casual) user, I have found that to be true.

 

[Shirasaki]

Just anecdotal evidence, but back in my Bachelor uni days, uni mates living in the same dorm floor shuts down their computer whenever they don’t use it, so a couple times a day. Meanwhile I only shut it down when the power Is cut at night and my battery runs low. Their computer broke down quickly while mine ran just fine all the way till the end of my uni degree.

Nowadays, I don’t shut down computers unless either there is a power loss or I need to carry the computer somewhere else. I don’t do “regular restart” either, for both my mac and my PC, unless there is a crash, installs updates or I suspect something is wrong and want a restart to fix it.

I just don’t see the need to shutdown computer at The end of every single day.

With that being said, companies might want to shut down their computers when not using it to lower their power bills. If I have a power hungry computer in my house, I probably would consider Shutting it down a Bit more regularly also.

 

[TracerAnalog]

I always shut my Mac down after use. I have a lot of external gear in my studio, and I found that putting my Mac to sleep generates errors on some equipment that doesn’t seem to ‘understand’ what’s going on. External equipment such as hubs, storage, audio equipment, synthesizers, monitors and more are ranging in age from 20+ years old to shiny new.

In fact, I have to shut the whole studio down after use, and start up everything in a specific order. It only takes a minute, so it’s no big deal. For instant access to computing I have an iPad 😅

 

[cocoua]

I barely shut down my retina 15” 2012 MBP alomg the 10 years I worked with it (updated to Mojave)

My 2022 Mac Studio (upadated to date) its a different story with ocasional forced shutdown around once twice a month, and constant rebooting at least 2-3 a week.

latest macOS or Apple Silicon devices has too many bugs in my IMHE (humble experience)

Though the rMBP had a lot of problems in the early years with the WIFI and Bluetooth until they could fix it in a 3 years late macOS release.

 

[applepotato666]

I never used to restart and don't do it for housekeeping purposes. But currently I have to restart at least once every 2-3 days due to macOS being full of bugs.

A very annoying one I can think of is that I'll change the language by pressing the globe key and the switcher popup thing in the middle of the screen just stays there and will not disappear until reboot, not even with "killall Dock" I'm pretty sure.

 

[Bungaree.Chubbins]

I just remembered. When I was briefly using the 2011 i5 Mac mini as a desktop computer, I'd need to restart it a lot. It would always get glitchy. Now that it's a basic server, it only ever gets restarted after power failures.

 

[apostolosdt]

With due respect, can't we, at least for once, get some authoritative answer to this issue? lt surfaces too frequently to let it pass. I understand personal experience is what counts most. Still, I'd like to hear some expert opinion---please?

In the days of Linux reign, in the 90s, we used to read about Linux machines running non-stop for nearly 500 days, and we all wowed over our PCs. But today?

I never shut down my desktop Macs (I don't use Macbooks). If I feel like cleaning the OS, I run OnyX, which involves restarting. No problem with this approach so far, but I'm not an expert.

 

[ignatius345]

I just remembered. When I was briefly using the 2011 i5 Mac mini as a desktop computer, I'd need to restart it a lot. It would always get glitchy. Now that it's a basic server, it only ever gets restarted after power failures.

Anecdotally, I seem to remember having to do a lot more restarts on Intel Macs than on the Apple Silicon ones out now.

 

[MBAir2010]

With due respect, can't we, at least for once, get some authoritative answer to this issue?

there is really no authoritative answer to this as also plugging in a Macbook 24/7
since personal experience is the best advice, which i always use.

personally if  persuaded us to do something to our macs, i would do the opposite!

 

[Siliconguy]

I swap out the rechargeable batteries in various various keyboards and mice (and other things) the first of every month, and that is a good time to restart the two computers that are continuously on. Most of the computers are off unless in use, a shutdown computer can't be hacked of course which matters on the desktop that I use to do the financial stuff (banking, taxes, on-line purchasing, etc.)

The M1 Air doesn't seem to have issues with long run times, the 2014 mini in the stream cabinet does occasionally get grumpy, but whether that is the OS or the Music app I don't know. A reboot fixes it either way, and once a month seems to be adequate to keep it happy.

 

[ignatius345]

Just anecdotal evidence, but back in my Bachelor uni days, uni mates living in the same dorm floor shuts down their computer whenever they don’t use it, so a couple times a day. Meanwhile I only shut it down when the power Is cut at night and my battery runs low.

Wait, they cut your electricity off at night??

 

[apostolosdt]

there is really no authoritative answer to this as also plugging in a Macbook 24/7
since personal experience is the best advice, which i always use.

personally if  persuaded us to do something to our macs, i would do the opposite!

Understood, but let me see into this from another angle---and, please remember, I'm nothing beyond a regular user.

macOS is based on Unix. So, what do people who run Unix all the time say about the topic discussed here? I guess more or less what people who run Linux say: "There is no inherent need to reboot; in case there is one, use the terminal to execute the shutdown command before rebooting the system."

Now, the question is, when deciding to reboot the Mac by clicking the option from the menu, does the OS follow a Unix-based procedure? I see no reason not to. (Compare what the machine does when choosing to reboot or power off Ubuntu.) Therefore, the entire question related to the OP might be about hardware, because, from a software point of view, you only need to follow Unix procedures to be safe.

However, when the hardware is considered, it is a matter of low-power electronics, and it is well-known that switching on and off frequently is not advisable for PC/Mac-grade machines.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

Back when I used a Mac, I rarely had to restart it. Nowadays, I feel like operating systems accumulate more junk files than before. I even reboot my M2 iPad Pro at least once a day, just to be safe. 🤷‍♂️

I don't think I've had to manually reboot an iPad I've had since my third-gen (but we don't talk about that one...)

 

[dmccloud]

For people who don't know what they're doing with Terminal -- myself included -- I would recommend just downloading OnyX and using it to launch maintenance tasks (if needed), so a botched paste doesn't do something horrible.

One important caveat for Onyx. Each OS will have its own version of the app, and they do not release the new version until after the latest OS has been officially released. In other words, the most recent version that was built for Sonoma will not work on either developer or public betas of Sequoia.