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How often do you restart macOS?

ProQuiz

ProQuiz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 15, 2009
304
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Just wondering how often do you restart your Mac? What is your longest "Time since boot" time? I last restarted when I installed macOS Sonoma 14.2.1 and it has been running continuously since. My "Time since boot" time is currently 17 days, 7 hours, 10 minutes. I don't seem to be noticing any adverse affects. I just close the lid on my MacBook at night and open it in the morning when I need to use it.
 
Well, I just restarted just to see. Noticed that the Memory Pressure graph is quite a bit lower now for the same amount of RAM usage.
 
I stopped shutting down my macs a few years ago, when I was still running Catalina on a mac pro 3,1. I've been thru imacs, intel/ARM minis since, varying ram sizes (8-32GB), and I have never seen any reason to revert to shutting down every night. I think that, especially if you have plenty of ram, it does not make sense to empty out all the ram and have the mac start to build often-used data in memory again.

I think people can feel like the mac is "fresher" after a restart, or that it might be "bogged down" after running for a long time. I think there's no truth to this. MacOS can manage it's memory, lots or little, long-term or not.

(I'm also not worried about redundant data on disk slowing down the mac, so I don't subscribe to "cleaning-my-mac" and such utilities. That's also just a "feel-good thing IMO), but that's a different topic.)
 
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I know this is a subform about Sonoma, but the question is about restarting Macs.

Quite simply, my answer is: only when I have to.

I started just leaving my computers on with my first real computer in 1984, the Commodore 64. I haven't changed since. The laptops have made it easy because all I have to do is shut the lid. There are a multitude of reasons as to why I leave my computers running (one of the drives on my MacPro likes to drop out from the Finder when I restart) but the prime reason is that I do not wish to wait for my computers to boot before I use them. And I don't want to have to reopen apps that were already open before shutdown.

SSDs have made things faster now of course, but I'm still waiting if I have to boot. I want to light the screens and go. Monitors are the only thing I allow to 'sleep'. Full power, 24/7 for the rest (except laptops which sleep on lid close).

I have a PowerMac G4 that I use as a headless NAS on my home network. The longest it's gone between restarts is bit over a year. It would have gone longer but I needed to move it.
 
I also stopped using sleep mode years ago. I was having some issues with it. Never seen a reason to start using it again, I just let my screens sleep after an hour of inactivity.
 
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Fishrrman said:
Each and every morning.
For 37 years now.

This won't be changing (I'm old).
Works for me.

A "fresh boot" keeps the Macs running well.
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Same here, save on electricity, which is in short supply today, and all possible errors if you just leave it on.
 
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Ben J. said:
I also stopped using sleep mode years ago. I was having some issues with it. Never seen a reason to start using it again, I just let my screens sleep after an hour of inactivity.
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Boss bought a PowerMac G5 in February 2005 and I used to sleep the Mac. During the days of Panther there was some sort of bug that caused the G5 to freeze on waking from sleep. It also caused a very surprising and annoying buzz from the speaker at random intervals.

It was at that time that I abandoned sleep (except for laptops). All my Macs are on 24/7 full power and only monitors are allowed to sleep.
 
conjor said:
Same here, save on electricity, which is in short supply today, and all possible errors if you just leave it on.
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My 5-ton air conditioner does more to wreck my electric bill than any of my powered on Macs all left on at once has ever done together. And I include three PowerMac G5s all on at once in that equation.

Bill during winter for a two story 1600sq ft home is around $130-150. Bill in summer is around $550. None of that has anything to do with computers left running. It's all air conditioning costs during ~110º Phoenix, Arizona heat in the summer.
 
Confessions of a long term Windows user... I bought my first MAC (M2MBA) mid last year after seeing just how junky feeling the lightweight Windows laptops were (replacing 9yo Lenovo that I loved). I always shut off the computer when done for the day, and still do for my 6 Windows computers scattered about the house. Did so before modern Windows with OS2 and before that with DOS. Deeply ingrained. DONE with the PC?... TURN IT OFF. Now I've got this MAC... Took a while to just stop shutting down. Was apprehensive but when in Rome... Only thing I can't still get over is hitting the red X doesn't exit the program... just hides it. That still bothers me and I tend to use command+q to really exit apps when I am done with them. But at this point I can just close the lid and not get nervous about putting it in a bag. Can't do that with my DELL work laptop- it will overheat in the dang bag (good stuff, that DELL). Nothing worse than getting to a customer site (IT at a school) get out of the van only to feel that the bag is HOT, the DELL is toasty and the battery is half dead and you left the charger back at your desk a few blocks away. If I had a MAC at work that would not have happened. Maybe next refresh I will request a MAC...
 
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Just after OS updates. There was one time when I must've clicked on a bad website, machine was acting funny and got very slightly warm (I still have not heard the fan in this thing). Restarted and everything was fine; that was once in three years.
 
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Same with me—only when required.

But I do use sleep mode constantly. While it’s, power-wise, ok leaving the Mini M1 at idle state, doing that with the MP 6,1 means about 40 watts; with the 5,1, it’s 140 watts. That’s a lot of money if working on computers 6-8 hours daily.
 
apostolosdt said:
That’s a lot of money if working on computers 6-8 hours daily.
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I have often run across this argument and I have to wonder how much this actually affects people.

At one point, I had three G5s running 24/7 at full power. My monthly bill increased by $20. So, $240 additional per year.

I pay around $550 a month for my electric bill in the summer and still the G5s only accounted for $20 additional a month. MacPros use less power. So, if an additional $20 a month to my bill is the hit I take for running three PowerMac G5s 24/7 continuously, the power draw from my MacPro and other laptops/Mac Minis is considerably less. And it has been.

But if $20 is a hardship and you're doing everything you can to avoid paying that then this is why I wonder.

One explanation I got was that it's different outside the United States. IDK. But a $20 hit is only slightly more than buying two espresso-based drinks at Starbucks. And I'm not paying that anymore because I'm not using those G5s any more. Hence, running my MP 24/7 instead of the G5s reduced an already insignificant cost in my bill and now minimally impacts it each month.
 
OK, let me do an analogous calculation. Assume the MP 5,1 at idle 24/7 and I use only the MP 6,1, say 7/7, at 120 watts power. That means roughly 100 kWh from the 5,1 and 25 kWh from the 6,1. In my country (Greece), the final value of kWh (including VAT and taxes) used to be about 0.5 euros until December 2023; that's 65 euros per monthly bill. Our house bill is 90 euros WITHOUT THE MACS. Add to that my wife's Mac (she also works from home) and you get a picture.

At least with the M1 Apple CPUs (MIni and iMac), things are much better.
 
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apostolosdt said:
OK, let me do an analogous calculation. Assume the MP 5,1 at idle 24/7 and I use only the MP 6,1, say 7/7, at 120 watts power. That means roughly 100 kWh from the 5,1 and 25 kWh from the 6,1. In my country (Greece), the final value of kWh (including VAT and taxes) used to be about 0.5 euros until December 2023; that's 65 euros per monthly bill. Our house bill is 90 euros WITHOUT THE MACS. Add to that my wife's Mac (she also works from home) and you get a picture.

At least with the M1 Apple CPUs (MIni and iMac), things are much better.
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Yeah, that jives with the other explanation I've received on this. It would appear that electricity is much more expensive outside the USA.
 
Every night since my super fast NVMe drives get everything up running in seconds from a cold boot anyways. Just keeps the OS running smoother with more resources available. We also get way too many power outages and potential surges when it comes back on. Best to keep things powered off.
 
Always on. Not worried about the hardware wear and tear. M3 is super efficient also, less than 5watts idle with screen on. About 1 watt sleep if you want. Reboot once in a while because the OS no matter how good Apple says, can get bogged down as well as 3rd party apps left running or sleep. Just to clear up OS getting silly on me.
 
I do a reboot when I install programs to apply the settings.
I turn off my computer and monitor at night every day, as well as my laptop. I hate hibernation mode. If I work on the computer for a couple of hours and there is no need for it, I also turn it off.
I keep the lid of my laptop always open and close it only when I take it with me.
 
ProQuiz said:
Just wondering how often do you restart your Mac? What is your longest "Time since boot" time? I last restarted when I installed macOS Sonoma 14.2.1 and it has been running continuously since. My "Time since boot" time is currently 17 days, 7 hours, 10 minutes. I don't seem to be noticing any adverse affects. I just close the lid on my MacBook at night and open it in the morning when I need to use it.
Click to expand...
Generally only whenever a software update makes me.
 
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Anytime I see anything weird I restart and that usually smooths it out. Also a habit I started a few years ago that works for some reason is one additional restart after any OS upgrade. I run the upgrade and once finished do an immediate restart. Can't explain why but it does seem to make OS update run more smoothly right from the start.
 
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