Putting my Mac on Sleep Mode Vs. Shutting it down?

Hi all,

I have a 2010 Mac Mini. When it is not in use am I better off shutting it down or putting it in sleep mode?

I am assuming if I do not use it for more than 3 days I can shut it down. If it's less than that then sleep mode would suffice.

Please advise.

Thanks

I have an iMac at home and here's what I do:

When I'm going to be away for any length of time (8 hours or more) I shut it down. I do that because here in the Dallas - Fort Worth area of Texas we get thunderstorms that are usually severe.

Any short time that I'm away and if the weather forecast is OK, I'll put it in sleep mode. I should also mention that I use an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) between the AC main and the iMac.

I live in an area rarely affected by thunderstorms, never (yet) by earthquakes or similar catastrophes; power outages are very infrequent. So I put my iMacs into sleep mode all the time unless I go on holiday. So far, in the last 4 years sleep mode seems to have worked fine. There have been numerous discussions on this subject in the past and there are as many opinions as there are people willing to vouchsafe them. Apple products seem to be very robust and so unless you envisage unusual weather or similar, do as you like. It really doesn't seem to matter.

I live in two places - the iMac is where I live during the week, and I put the Mac to sleep whenever I'm away from it including when I go to bed. When I go 'home' of a Friday, I shut it down.

Shutdown for me like chscag. After losing several routers to lightning strikes up to 50klms away (30 miles) everything is closed down and even disconnected from mains supply if storms imminent.

harryb2448 said:

Shutdown for me like chscag. After losing several routers to lightning strikes up to 50klms away (30 miles) everything is closed down and even disconnected from mains supply if storms imminent.

Click to expand...

Wouldn't a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) that costs maybe $30 be a better option there?

Your method is more absolute I suppose, but you'll drain the PRAM battery a lot quicker that way, and in some models that can be an absolute PITA to replace.

The manual for the Mac Mini (and most Mac models) says that you would normally sleep the machine unless you're going to be away from it for "an extended period of time." I interpret that as "a few days or longer," but YMMV.

Yet to replace a PRAM battery but it is a snack with a Mac Pro ~ like everything else.

My general rule is as follows: always sleep the computer unless you're going out of town for more than a weekend. If it's a laptop with a working battery, I'll sleep regardless. In fact, I'd say my laptops only get shut down once or twice a year at most, and those would be forced shut downs due to crashes.

The only computer I shut down whenever I use it is my Mac Classic, which doesn't have a sleep mode. Everything else gets slept 99% of the time.

Thanks for your input all! - I appreciate it!

I noticed something else interesting with my Mac Mini 2010 regarding Sleep Mode -

If I put it on Sleep Mode through the Apple icon on the Desktop the power light dims and then brightens to a rhythm similar to a heart beat. But if I let it go to the scheduled sleep I set up on Energy Saver through System Preferences the light does not dim, it stays solid. I called Apple on this and they mentioned I have to reset the SMC in order for the Sleep Mode through Energy Saver to act the same as through the desktop. But this did not change anything.

Does anyone have any input on this?

Thanks

What are the advantages/dissatages between sleep mode vs shutdown,,,and unplug? Also, dos an uninteruptable PS protect against lightning sturges? Not much lightning here in Vegas, so is one method more efficient in saving power consumption (Shut down) vs (Sleep) which will continually draw power, or is the power draw negligible vs the wear and tear of shouting down, then starting up again? Or is Time to boot up the primary beneficiary of Sleep mode?

Up here in the Seattle area, we do not get many Thunderstorms. But I still don't want to take any chances. So, for all the machines I have ever owned (starting with the Apple IIE back in the early 80's), 99.9% of the time, I shut the machine down. Never have had any issues doing that.

I leave my machines running 24/7. They sleep when I am not using them. I've done that for decades and had zero problems. I avoid shutdowns because of the phenomenon of inrush current into the capacitors in the system. Apple does have inrush protection in place, but I see no reason to challenge those components any more than I have to. There is also inrush into the fan motors and the motors in any spinner drive. Most electronics fail at the on/off state change.

If I'm going not going to be using the equipment for a long time (more than a day), then I do shut down. However, I have an iMac that powers my home automation system that has been powered on for 10 years.