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There are isolated problems with current patches, but they are well-known and documented on this site. |
An Apple repair technician has told me it is best to shut down your Mac “every night”. Since I bought my Mac, two years ago, I have never routinely shut it down, but use Sleep mode every night. This article advocates “every few days”. What do some of you do and think re: routinely shutting down your Mac? Every day, every few days, not at all, or Sleep mode only.
iPhone 13, 2019 iMac(SSD)
I have an iMAC new in mid 2017 with 8GB RAM and a 1TB HDD (NOT SSD) that spins at 5,400 rpm. In other words a base model – cheapest one they sold back then.
It’s generally a slug (no offense intended to slugs) but when it’s on without a shutdown for a week or so it becomes a beachball party, even if it’s been put into sleep mode every night for about 8 to 10 hours. I’m not the primary user of the computer but according to that user it’s a tradeoff between what that user considers to be interminably long boot times and more than sluggish performance. A shutdown followed by a boot with the power button does seem to refresh things and make it run better.
I’m not sure why the iMAC can’t run indefinitely without it’s performance suffering, because I’ve had Windows 7, 8.1, and 10, as well as Linux Mint computers that have all run 24/7 for weeks at a time with no performance degradation. But that’s the way it is.
Edit to add: Right now the iMAC is running Monterey. It was purchased with Sierra, then upgraded to High Sierra, Catalina, and now Monterey.
I’ll edit again to add that the hardware on the Windows and Mint computers is generally as good or slightly worse than the iMAC. Most have had only 4 GB RAM and 250 to 500 GB HDDs. I do have a Dell Precision laptop with 32 GB RAM and a 1TB SSD running Windows 10 Pro and it’s quite a screamer. The next best is a Dell Latitude with 4GB RAM and 256 GB SSD running Win 10 Pro and it’s very respectable. All the rest are 4GB RAM and 250-500 GB HDDs.
That’s good enough for me. Looks like I’ll be shutting down.
iPhone 13, 2019 iMac(SSD)
Every couple of days here pretty much, if its in Windows i’ll switch back to MacOS normally but I find it gets sluggish if its left running at about a week of “sleep.”
If I go away, oviously shutdown and unplug, including network (Ethernet).
Thank you to everyone for the Shut Down replies and input. I shut down last night instead of Sleep and the improvement today has been noticeable. Much faster and more responsive. I am now a Shut Down convert and it will be my nightly routine. BTW…this is for a 2019 iMac base model.
iPhone 13, 2019 iMac(SSD)
A bit late to the party, but I’d say that as long as you both leave it to sleep overnight at least once a week (so MacOS has time to do maintenance work in the background rather than when you’re trying to use the conputer) and shut it down at least once a week (to reset everything), it doesn’t really matter what you do the rest of the time. Doing both at least once a week should theoretically keep everything running optimally, though.
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