**Intro** So, you’ve been working on your Mac computer
all day, and you’re finished for the day, maybe even finished for the weekend.
What do you do?
Do you just shut the lid on your Macbook, or do you go to the Apple menu, and choose
Shut Down?
If you answered that you shut your computer down, you should stop, at least most of the
time, and in this video, I’m going to take the time to explain why.
Stick with me until the end of this video, as some of this information could really help
you keep your expensive Mac computer working as good as new, for as long as possible.
OK, let’s get into it.
**Sleep vs Shut Down** First up, let’s be absolutely clear about
what I’m talking about here.
When you’re not using your Mac computer, you’ve got two options for what you decide
to do with it.
You can either put it to sleep, or you can shut it down.
If you’re an older computer user, there’s a good chance that you’re familiar with
how you used to end your computer sessions on computers ten-plus years ago, which would
have always involved powering your computer off at the end of the day.
Plus, if you’re a PC user, especially one who uses a work laptop on a company network,
there’s a good chance that your IT department encourage you to shut your computer down frequently,
as this is usually the time that major company updates get pushed out to Windows machines.
Essentially, for many people, shutting down a computer at the end of the day becomes kind
of a muscle memory.
But on Macs, things are a little different.
And whilst you might be sitting there thinking, well modern Mac computers take seconds to
boot up, so why does it matter if I shut it down or not, there’s actually quite a bit
more to it than that.
Shutting down your Mac is exactly what it sounds like.
When you shut down a Mac computer, the operating system and all running applications are closed,
and any unsaved data or changes are lost.
The computer's hard drive and all connected peripherals are also powered off, and the
computer's memory, it’s RAM is cleared.
When you put a Mac computer to sleep, the computer enters a low-power state where the
screen and most hardware components are turned off, but the computer remains on and in a
"standby" mode.
You might think that the idea of flushing out your computer's RAM at the end of every
day, and of course saving power usage sounds like a win-win, but you'd be wrong.
Let me try and explain why.
**Benefits of putting a Mac to sleep**
By putting your Mac to sleep rather than shutting it down, you allow it to go into a super low-energy
mode, where key tasks can still be performed, even though the screen isn't on, and even
if you've got the lid down on a MacBook.
Any apps that you had open will remain open when you wake the computer up again, in fact
modern Apple silicon computers will be ready for you to continue working on immediately,
any browser tabs that you had open, an email that you were in the middle of drafting, perhaps
a document that you were working on, all of that will still be there, exactly as you left
it, ready for you to pick up when you next wake your computer up.
So, from an efficiency and a productivity perspective, putting your Mac to sleep is
great, as it essentially gives you an uninterrupted experience, where the work you’re doing
at any moment in time is right there, just as you left it, when you wake your Mac up.
It's a bit like the experience of putting your phone down in the middle of writing a
message, then picking it up a moment later.
You don't get this if you shut your computer down, as shutting a Mac down closes all apps,
meaning that you have to open everything up again, and load all of your documents the
next time that you power on.
But there are other benefits to leaving your Mac in a sleep mode, that might not at first
seem beneficial to you.
When your Mac goes into sleep mode, it will remain connected to your wifi network, even
if you don't have it connected to power.
This means that any emails that you receive overnight, or messages would show up the moment
that you lift the lid on your Mac the next day, in much the same way that they do on
your iPhone when you pick it up first thing in the morning.
So again, from a continuity perspective, putting your Mac to sleep makes for a much more enjoyable
experience than shutting it down each time.
But this network connection also provides additional benefits.
Your Mac, whilst in sleep mode, can run a number of maintenance tasks.
If there's a software update available, your Mac can install it, saving you valuable time
that you might have had to devote to it during your working day.
This would include security updates, which Apple are now rolling out separately to full
software updates, and more frequently, so honestly the best way to guarantee a safe
and secure experience while using your Mac is to enable automatic updates, and allow
your Mac to go into sleep mode as often as you can.
If you use Time Machine, which is an Apple service that creates regular backups of your
computer, these will happen when your Mac goes into sleep mode.
While antivirus software isn't quite as important on a Mac as it is on a PC, if you have any
kind of antivirus or anti malware software on your Mac, that will often update itself
and perform scans when your machine is in sleep mode.
Your Mac can also perform indexing and optimisation tasks, which can often use up quite a bit
of your computer's available power resources, and are vital for the smooth running of your
machine, so having these happen when you're not using the computer is really important.
**PDF Shoutout** By the way, if you prefer to have content
like this in a written format, there’s a PDF to accompany this video, and you can access
it by joining my membership programme, where for a small monthly fee, you’ll get access
to all video PDFs moving forward, plus the growing library of old ones.
Just follow the link in the description of this video that says ‘Become a Channel Member’.
**Negatives of shutting down**
OK, so we've talked about the benefits of using sleep mode, how about if we look at
this from the opposite angle for a moment?
What about the drawbacks of shutting down your Mac every day?
The most obvious drawback of shutting your Mac down at the end of each day is the time
that you have to spend booting up when you next power your Mac back on.
Like I mentioned earlier, for newer Macs, certainly any of the newer Apple silicon Macs,
this time is admittedly pretty negligible, my M1 Macs boot up in less than 30 seconds,
but if you're running an older Mac, perhaps an Intel powered Mac with a hard drive as
opposed to an SSD, this could be a minute or two that you lose, waiting for the machine
to power up.
Once that's done, you're then going to have to load up all of the apps you'd been working
on previously, load any files you'd been working on, navigate to any web pages that you were
browsing, all of which is going to, let's be honest, impact your productivity in a negative
way.
You're also not benefiting from the things I mentioned in the previous section, the software
and security updates, the iCloud backups.
But there are other drawbacks to shutting down which have more of an impact on the computer
itself, rather than your workflow.
For example, each time you power up your Mac, it carries out something known as a POST test,
short for power-on-self-test.
This is where your Mac quickly tests a number of functions to ensure they're running correctly,
before booting up.
On a Mac, this typically involves; 1) Checking the CPU to ensure it's present,
and operating as it should.
2) Checking the RAM, or memory, to validate that it's installed correctly and running
as it should.
3) Checking the hard drive or SSD on newer Macs.
4) Checking any connected devices, like your mouse, keyboard and monitor, to ensure these
are all present and operating as intended.
5) Finally, it will check the current firmware, to ensure it's properly configured and functioning
correctly.
This test is both quick and energy efficient, especially on newer Macs, but it does put
some strain on your computer each time it's carried out, and because of that, it's not
really designed to be happening several times per day, or even every day.
**The Proper Weekly** By the way, if you’re enjoying the content
here, why not consider signing up to my newsletter, the proper weekly.
I include some tech news from the week, a behind the scenes of what’s happening here
on the channel, as well as a tip for an item in the Apple ecosystem.
The newsletter goes out each Friday, it’s free to join, and I’ll include a signup
link in the description of this video.
**Energy Consumption and Sleep Mode**
So, if you've stuck with me up to this point, I hope it's pretty clear that, in general,
my advice is going to be to always put your Mac into sleep mode, rather than shutting
it down.
The most obvious followup question that most people have then, is whether this is bad in
terms of power consumption and energy usage, and how this impacts the Macbook's batteries.
The good news in both cases, is that it's good news.
According to Apple, a MacBook computer in sleep mode, should use as little as a single
watt, even as little as half a watt, for each time it's put into that mode.
Whilst this is technically more than it would be if the computer was completely shut down,
it's such a tiny amount that it's almost not worth considering, and the benefits of sleep
mode massively outweigh the drawback of your computer using a minuscule amount of power.
Also, for MacBooks specifically, sleep mode can actually help to prolong the life of your
computer.
With MacBooks using lithium ion batteries, which benefit from a slower draw-down of power,
sleep mode serves to not only massively reduce the stress on the batteries, but also allow
them to slowly deplete, even if just a percentage or two at a time.
**Should you EVER shut down your Mac?**
OK so, should you ever shut down your Mac?
Honestly, for me, the answer is almost entirely 'no', simply because there aren't any reasons
for most people where I think a shut down is more beneficial than the other options.
Firstly, use sleep mode, for all the reasons that we've discussed in this video.
You can do this by going to the Apple menu on your Mac and choosing Sleep, or if you've
got a MacBook you can simply shut the lid, and open it again when you're ready to continue.
Every now and then, you might need to perform a restart, but this is different from shutting
down your computer.
When you restart your Mac, the operating system is shut down and the computer is rebooted,
but the RAM isn't cleared, and a number of the computer's hardware components remain
active also, as the machine immediately powers back on.
Macs are incredibly capable when it comes to managing their RAM effectively, and so
shutting your computer down simply to wipe the RAM isn't really something you need to
worry about with a Mac, especially one that you've bought in the last few years, and one
that you're keeping up to date.
If you're the kind of person who would like to have some structure to all this, then I'd
say maybe shut down once a month or so.
Otherwise, use sleep mode, and reboot the computer when necessary.
Oh and, if you don't plan on using a MacBook for an extended period of time, perhaps because
you're putting it into some kind of storage for weeks or even months, I would recommend
first fully charging the battery, and then powering it off.
Ideally in this situation, you want to ensure that the battery drain is as minimal as possible
for the time that you're storing the computer, and a full charge and shut down will allow
you to do this.
**End**
So there you go, that's why I think you should stop shutting down your Mac.
What do you think, anything you'd add to this?
Drop me a comment and let me know.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like, and
subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.