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Is Your Computer On All The Time?

Mad Mac Maniac said:
I can't believe there have been 23 responses and no one has mentioned the obvious. Laptops....
BUT my only computer is a Macbook and I do NOT want to keep it open and plugged in at all times because that supposedly reduces battery life. I always close my macbook when not using it. It would be pretty inconvenient for me to need to go open my macbook, then launch iTunes anytime I wanted to use my Apple TV... just saying...
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Actually, I wasn't excluding MacBooks. I use a Mac notebook and I leave the computer on all the time on AC. I use it for hours every day, and have for about 8 years and I replaced the battery for the first time last year after >400 battery cycles.

You have a couple obvious choices, if you believe that running on AC hurts battery life.

One is to use clamshell mode and wake on LAN. It will wake, run for a short while to let you search your library and transfer a video, then go back to sleep.

Another, assuming you would normally only use the aTV the few hours a day that you are not sleeping or working, is to set automatic on and off times so that the computer is only running a few hours a day. Chances are that's only a few hours a day and you'll be using your computer for some of that time anyway.
 
Mad Mac Maniac said:
I can't believe there have been 23 responses and no one has mentioned the obvious. Laptops.
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My 2007 Macbook has been plugged in and turned on or sleeping since I bought it new in 2007; no unexpected problems* (much like my first generation iPhone, iPad1, etc.). Leaving things plugged in does not lead to battery problems for me.

* I did have the swelling battery problem common to many Macbook batteries of that vintage.

A.
 
Alrescha said:
My 2007 Macbook has been plugged in and turned on or sleeping since I bought it new in 2007; no unexpected problems* (much like my first generation iPhone, iPad1, etc.). Leaving things plugged in does not lead to battery problems for me.
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slothrob said:
Actually, I wasn't excluding MacBooks. I use a Mac notebook and I leave the computer on all the time on AC. I use it for hours every day, and have for about 8 years and I replaced the battery for the first time last year after >400 battery cycles.
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Interesting... How much do you use your laptop not connected to power? And how long does your battery last?

One is to use clamshell mode and wake on LAN. It will wake, run for a short while to let you search your library and transfer a video, then go back to sleep.
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Hmm... this could definitely interest me. I've never used clamshell mode before, because I don't have an external monitor. Assuming it would work as you imply and I imagine (closed and asleep. I select 'iTunes' or something on my ATV. MB awakes. Music/movies appear on ATV. I pick my movie on my ATV. Movie transfers. MB sleeps once transfer completed) The only concerns I might have would be 1) additional time it would take for this occur vs Mac always on and 2) in clamshell mode how long does it take to go to sleep

edit: how do I turn on clamshell mode..
 
As far as I know, with Macs, as long as you have iTunes open with home sharing enabled, your compouter can be asleep/Macbook closed and the iOS devices can still query it to stream media stored on NAS drives. I tried this with my iPhone as my old ATV1 doesn't support this.

I should point out I use a time capsule as my router too so I don't know if that's a factor.
 
kiranmk2 said:
As far as I know, with Macs, as long as you have iTunes open with home sharing enabled, your compouter can be asleep/Macbook closed and the iOS devices can still query it to stream media stored on NAS drives. I tried this with my iPhone as my old ATV1 doesn't support this.

I should point out I use a time capsule as my router too so I don't know if that's a factor.
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Nope. I can confirm that this does NOT work for me on my iPhone 4.

Home sharing does work when my macbook is open, but does not when closed. Any settings I should change?...

Edit: Upon further investigation I have noticed that while plugged in my iPhone can play music on my macbook using the Remote app, but can NOT play music on my iPhone using the Music app. Additionally, neither will work if my macbook is not plugged in
 
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Despite what a few have said, leaving your Mac portable plugged in all the time will shorten your battery's lifespan, and is not recommended. To keep the battery healthy, unplug from AC power and run on battery for a while every few days. This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
Mad Mac Maniac said:
edit: how do I turn on clamshell mode..
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Apple Portables: How to use your computer in closed clamshell (display closed) mode with an external display
 
Great. So if I have a macbook the only way my ATV can access my ripped movies is either by keeping it plugged in/charging constantly (bad for my battery) or walk to my macbook and open it each time I want to watch a movie (not the worst thing in the world, but ATV is supposed to be about convenience. If I wanted to get up to watch a movie I'd use the DVD player.)

1st world problems... ;)
 
Of course there's a difference between running your computer on AC power and never using the battery. You should cycle the battery, but don't confuse that with having the notebook plugged in most of the time so that you don't use up the battery life by cycling it needlessly.

My first battery lasted something like 5 or 6 years, though the last year or so it had passed 400 cycles and would only last an hour or so per charge, so I just ran it on AC most of the time. Battery cycles are probably the best estimation of battery wear.

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Mad Mac Maniac said:
...or walk to my macbook and open it each time I want to watch a movie...
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Why not just leave it open and let the monitor go to sleep.
 
kiranmk2 said:
I should point out I use a time capsule as my router too so I don't know if that's a factor.
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You must have an Airport Extreme or a Time Capsule to act as the Bonjour proxy for services on your network (like iTunes, for example). It's the Airport Extreme which sends the Wake On Lan packet to the appropriate device to wake it up when some other device needs to talk to it.

A.

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Mad Mac Maniac said:
Great. So if I have a macbook the only way my ATV can access my ripped movies is either by keeping it plugged in/charging constantly (bad for my battery).
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Where does Apple tell you that leaving your Macbook plugged in is bad for your battery?

(and I mean Apple Inc., not random strangers, Internet "experts", voices in your head, etc.)

A.
 
Alrescha said:
Where does Apple tell you that leaving your Macbook plugged in is bad for your battery?

(and I mean Apple Inc., not random strangers, Internet "experts", voices in your head, etc.)

A.
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Here

under Standard Maintenance
For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her notebook on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing. If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer at work, and save a notebook for infrequent travel, Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month.
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Alrescha said:
Fair enough. I think the important sentence is this one:

"Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month."

A.
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True, but that may be more referring to keeping your battery calibrated.

see this

Quote
The battery needs to be recalibrated from time to time to keep the onscreen battery time and percent display accurate and to keep the battery operating at maximum efficiency. You should perform this procedure when you first use your computer and then every few months after that. If you normally leave your Apple portable computer connected to AC power and very rarely use it on battery power you may want to perform this process once a month.
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But regardless, keeping it plugged in a lot isn't crazy bad. It's not going to kill your battery overnight doing so in moderation is fine. But ideally it should always be charging or discharging, because keeping the electrons flowing does help keep the battery "alive".
 
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Mad Mac Maniac said:
But regardless, keeping it plugged in a lot isn't crazy bad. It's not going to kill your battery overnight doing so in moderation is fine. But ideally it should always be charging or discharging, because keeping the electrons flowing does help keep the battery "alive".
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We interpret it differently. I don't think keeping it plugged in 24/7 is bad at all; what is bad is not using it once in a while, and Apple confirms that by saying that you should discharge and charge the battery at least once a month. In other words, it's not the 'being plugged in' that is the problem, it's the 'not using it at all'.

To reiterate, I've had a 2007 Macbook plugged in since I bought it new; it's currently on it's original battery with hours of usability, and I don't bother to discharge and charge it every month. And I'm not the only one.

A.
 
Mad Mac Maniac said:
But regardless, keeping it plugged in a lot isn't crazy bad. It's not going to kill your battery overnight doing so in moderation is fine. But ideally it should always be charging or discharging, because keeping the electrons flowing does help keep the battery "alive".
Click to expand...
That's what I was trying to explain above. You are misreading the instructions. What they are saying is that it is bad to never use the battery, not that it is good to use the battery all the time.

Essentially the battery life can be measured in how many times it uses it's full charge. (Using 25% of the battery 4 times is about the same as using the full charge.) Doing things like using up a full charge over the course of every month just helps guarantee that you will get closer to the full potential number of charges for that battery.

Constantly either charging or discharging your battery will speed up the battery's death by using up it's total potential charges. For example, if you get ~400 cycles from your battery, using a full charge every 2 days will mean that your battery will last a little over 2 years. Using a full charge twice a week means that the battery could last 4 years, with good care.

As for waking the computer, I see that I have mine set to sleep the monitor and hard disk, but not the system, which works without me having to go to the actual computer and responds quickly, but I think wake on LAN should be able to wake the system, too.

I used to use my notebook on battery a lot, but it's just as convenient for me now to leave it plugged in most of the time. Every couple weeks I unplug and run it down to 40%. My current battery is something over a year old and seems to last for 4-5 hours of near constant use, which is about how long it lasted when new.
 
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My iMac 27" is on 24/7 365.... I only restart it if I have an issue, or when I recently performed a non destructive re install of Lion to remove the final legacy of SL. No reason to turn it off...It simply sleeps when I'm using my MBP, MBA or iPad.
 
You can stream "purchased" Movies and TV Shows from iCloud without a running computer. So having to leave a computer on really only effects people with "ripped" movies. Most of the digital copies I got with Blu-Rays are streamable from the cloud already.
 
Alrescha said:
Fair enough. I think the important sentence is this one:

"Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month."
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That means put at least one cycle per month on the battery. It doesn't mean you have to drain the battery to zero, then recharge it. Read WHAT IS A CYCLE? in the Battery FAQ that I posted.
Mad Mac Maniac said:
True, but that may be more referring to keeping your battery calibrated.
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The built-in batteries in the newer Mac unibody notebooks come pre-calibrated and do not require regular calibration like the removable batteries.
 
Mad Mac Maniac said:
BUT my only computer is a Macbook and I do NOT want to keep it open and plugged in at all times because that supposedly reduces battery life.
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"Supposedly" maybe, but in reality, it's not true. My 3 year old MBP has spent most of its life switched on and on the mains adapter and the battery health is still 97%. When I do use it on battery power it's not really any different to when it was new.
 
GGJstudios said:
That means put at least one cycle per month on the battery. It doesn't mean you have to drain the battery to zero, then recharge it.
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In fact, it's best to generally avoid fully discharging lithium ion batteries, if you are trying to prolong their life.
 
slothrob said:
In fact, it's best to generally avoid fully discharging lithium ion batteries, if you are trying to prolong their life.
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GGJstudios said:
That means put at least one cycle per month on the battery. It doesn't mean you have to drain the battery to zero, then recharge it. Read WHAT IS A CYCLE? in the Battery FAQ that I posted.
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Then why does it explicitly state in the Apple calibration article to let your battery drain all the way, or "go to sleep" as it puts it, for 5-6 hours before letting it charge all the way up?
The built-in batteries in the newer Mac unibody notebooks come pre-calibrated and do not require regular calibration like the removable batteries.
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Good to know. My 2007 MacBook doesn't fall in that category, but I should be buying a new portable this year.
 
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