Posted by Gary Rosenzweig on 5/13/09.
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Should you shut down your Mac or put it to sleep at the end of the day? Gary Rosenzweig looks at the different advantages of each, and reveals which one he favors.
Video Transcript (Click to Expand)
Hi this is Gary. On today’s episode of MacMost Now, let’s take a look at one of the biggest dilemmas to face Mac users. To shut down or to sleep.
Well, I’m often asked should I put my Mac to sleep at the end of the day, or should I shut it down? Well, I definitely fall on the side of putting your Mac to sleep and never shutting it down. Matter of fact, recently I have been very surprised when I’ve heard some experienced Mac users actually shut down their Macs all the time and don’t use sleep mode. I think the majority of Mac users use sleep mode and I want to tell you why I think it’s the best option.
Well, the first argument in favor of shutting down your Mac is energy savings. Your Mac definitely uses less power when it’s completely shut down than when it’s sleeping, but the difference is actually very little. And then you have to weigh it against the fact that you’re using energy when you shut down your Mac and when you boot it up again. And this is time when you’re not actually doing anything with your Mac, but your Mac’s using everything in it – fans, hard drives, the works. So, how much more energy are you using during those times compared to simply having it sleeping for say 8 or 12 hours. Also on the energy side of things, is concern about batteries in MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Well, the truth is you have your MacBook plugged in and it’s sleeping. It’s not actually using the battery at all, so you don’t have to worry about that. Now if you’re actually using the battery and don’t have it plugged in, putting it to sleep is actually better for energy savings because if you need to wake the Mac up, it doesn’t — takes a second. But if you have to boot it up, it takes a long time to use a lot of battery power. Now, if you’re going to put it to sleep for say the entire day, and you’re using battery power, then maybe shutting down would be a better option. But, if you’re just doing it for a few hours, or a plane flight or something, then definitely you want to put it to sleep so you can wake it up instantly and save on your battery.
Now, some people argue that shutting down you’re creating less wear and tear on the parts inside your Mac, and this is kind of true. Things like RAM are still active. However, lots of things like the hard drive and the light on your screen, things like that, are completely shut off while in sleep mode. So, it’s not a very good argument. As a matter of fact, you’re creating a lot of wear and tear by booting up and shutting down as well, so it’s probably even.
Now one of the best arguments for sleep mode is the fact you can instantly wake your Mac up. I mean, why spend an extra 30 seconds or 2 minutes booting up your machine every morning and even the extra minute making sure it shuts down every evening when you can instantly get it on and turn it off. There are also some good organizational reasons to use sleep instead of shut down. After all, you’ve put your machine to sleep and still have the browser open with multiple tabs, you can have word processing document, you’re right in the middle of writing a paragraph; you can have to-do lists open, calendars, email, everything on your screen, and you can return to it instantly, pick up where you left off. If you shut your machine down, you have to re-launch those applications, remember what you were doing, and where you were inside uh different documents and things you were working on. So it takes longer not only to boot up your machine in the morning, but you have to boot up your mind as well and remember exactly what you were working on. And the same thing at the end of the day, you have to clean everything up, make sure you close all your documents, and you’re at a good stopping point to shut down. But putting something to sleep, you can do that in an instant.
Another advantage of sleep mode is how easily it’s reversible. So, you say you’re at the end of the day, you decide you’re done, and you put your machine to sleep, to take a few steps away from your desk, and you realize ah, you forgot to send that email, you forgot to get that phone number, do something. Well, if your machine’s asleep, you press the spacebar, you’re back to work. But if you shut your machine down, and you forgot to do something, well, now you’ve got to go ahead and reboot the entire thing and open up the application to get to what you wanted.
Now, one of the reasons people may shut down instead of sleep is because they’ve switched from pc to Mac. Now, pc’s traditionally have not had a very robust sleep or hibernate mode. Sometimes this is caused problems in the past. It’s a lot better now in current versions of Windows but definitely in the past there’s been issues with putting your machine to sleep and using many applications. Mac OS X doesn’t have this problem. You should be able to put your machine to sleep without any fear of anything going wrong.
There’s also a lot of history on your side. There are tons of people that use sleep mode and have used it since the day they got their Mac. For years and years, Macs have been running, never being shut down, only being occasionally rebooted when installing a software update or a new application. So, you can go ahead and know that others are using only sleep mode and suffering no ill effects at all.
So there are my arguments for sleep rather than shut down. I suggest if you’re one of those people that likes to shut down your Mac all the time, that perhaps you take a few weeks and switch over to sleep mode and see if you like it better. And then after you’ve tried both sides of it, then you can see which one you really want to do. Until next time, this is Gary Rosenzweig with MacMost Now.
Hi this is Gary. On today’s episode of MacMost Now, let’s take a look at one of the biggest dilemmas to face Mac users. To shut down or to sleep.
Well, I’m often asked should I put my Mac to sleep at the end of the day, or should I shut it down? Well, I definitely fall on the side of putting your Mac to sleep and never shutting it down. Matter of fact, recently I have been very surprised when I’ve heard some experienced Mac users actually shut down their Macs all the time and don’t use sleep mode. I think the majority of Mac users use sleep mode and I want to tell you why I think it’s the best option.
Well, the first argument in favor of shutting down your Mac is energy savings. Your Mac definitely uses less power when it’s completely shut down than when it’s sleeping, but the difference is actually very little. And then you have to weigh it against the fact that you’re using energy when you shut down your Mac and when you boot it up again. And this is time when you’re not actually doing anything with your Mac, but your Mac’s using everything in it – fans, hard drives, the works. So, how much more energy are you using during those times compared to simply having it sleeping for say 8 or 12 hours. Also on the energy side of things, is concern about batteries in MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Well, the truth is you have your MacBook plugged in and it’s sleeping. It’s not actually using the battery at all, so you don’t have to worry about that. Now if you’re actually using the battery and don’t have it plugged in, putting it to sleep is actually better for energy savings because if you need to wake the Mac up, it doesn’t — takes a second. But if you have to boot it up, it takes a long time to use a lot of battery power. Now, if you’re going to put it to sleep for say the entire day, and you’re using battery power, then maybe shutting down would be a better option. But, if you’re just doing it for a few hours, or a plane flight or something, then definitely you want to put it to sleep so you can wake it up instantly and save on your battery.
Now, some people argue that shutting down you’re creating less wear and tear on the parts inside your Mac, and this is kind of true. Things like RAM are still active. However, lots of things like the hard drive and the light on your screen, things like that, are completely shut off while in sleep mode. So, it’s not a very good argument. As a matter of fact, you’re creating a lot of wear and tear by booting up and shutting down as well, so it’s probably even.
Now one of the best arguments for sleep mode is the fact you can instantly wake your Mac up. I mean, why spend an extra 30 seconds or 2 minutes booting up your machine every morning and even the extra minute making sure it shuts down every evening when you can instantly get it on and turn it off. There are also some good organizational reasons to use sleep instead of shut down. After all, you’ve put your machine to sleep and still have the browser open with multiple tabs, you can have word processing document, you’re right in the middle of writing a paragraph; you can have to-do lists open, calendars, email, everything on your screen, and you can return to it instantly, pick up where you left off. If you shut your machine down, you have to re-launch those applications, remember what you were doing, and where you were inside uh different documents and things you were working on. So it takes longer not only to boot up your machine in the morning, but you have to boot up your mind as well and remember exactly what you were working on. And the same thing at the end of the day, you have to clean everything up, make sure you close all your documents, and you’re at a good stopping point to shut down. But putting something to sleep, you can do that in an instant.
Another advantage of sleep mode is how easily it’s reversible. So, you say you’re at the end of the day, you decide you’re done, and you put your machine to sleep, to take a few steps away from your desk, and you realize ah, you forgot to send that email, you forgot to get that phone number, do something. Well, if your machine’s asleep, you press the spacebar, you’re back to work. But if you shut your machine down, and you forgot to do something, well, now you’ve got to go ahead and reboot the entire thing and open up the application to get to what you wanted.
Now, one of the reasons people may shut down instead of sleep is because they’ve switched from pc to Mac. Now, pc’s traditionally have not had a very robust sleep or hibernate mode. Sometimes this is caused problems in the past. It’s a lot better now in current versions of Windows but definitely in the past there’s been issues with putting your machine to sleep and using many applications. Mac OS X doesn’t have this problem. You should be able to put your machine to sleep without any fear of anything going wrong.
There’s also a lot of history on your side. There are tons of people that use sleep mode and have used it since the day they got their Mac. For years and years, Macs have been running, never being shut down, only being occasionally rebooted when installing a software update or a new application. So, you can go ahead and know that others are using only sleep mode and suffering no ill effects at all.
So there are my arguments for sleep rather than shut down. I suggest if you’re one of those people that likes to shut down your Mac all the time, that perhaps you take a few weeks and switch over to sleep mode and see if you like it better. And then after you’ve tried both sides of it, then you can see which one you really want to do. Until next time, this is Gary Rosenzweig with MacMost Now.
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That was a nice advice. Been shutting down my mac every night. Yeah ! Windows refugee.
I have a unibody MBP. At the office it is connected to a cinema display and at home it is not. I have been shutting down instead of sleeping due to the mac being confused when adding or subtracting the display. Any suggestions to make it work with sleep. Would love to be a sleeper instead of a shutter.
Randy
My previous set up was a MBP and I did exactly the same thing — but without ever shutting down. I just plugged it into the monitor at work and woke it up. Then I unplugged the monitor and put it to sleep. Woke it up at home without the monitor and used it fine.
In what way is your MBP getting “confused”?
Great summary of sleep vs shutdown. I got my first mac in 1999 and have always used sleep but once or twice I’ll use the deep sleep widget (same as pulling out laptop battery once asleep) to preserve battery charge if sleeping for a day or two.
I gave my old Macbook Pro to my father last year and when I got it back recently I had a peek at the uptime which was showing 134 days!
http://blog.scoopz.com/2008/10/17/macbook-pro-uptime-of-134-days/
I’ve still got a windows (Dell Inspiron) laptop and my workstations at the office are windows but I tell all my staff to shutdown rather than sleep, too many clitches with windows (xp) sleep imho.
Scoopz
The problem is that I have attached two USB – Hub with LED-USB-Cable by Belkin and two USB-DVB-T Sticks and I think this exalt the power-usage.
Gerit
for some reason i can’t watch over 50-55 seconds of the video..
my DSL cuts it off
then reconnects immediately but the video stops and will not continue.
i have this trouble on u-tube also
whats wrong with my connection ???
How long have you had this issue? How about at non-YouTube video sites like Blip.tv? If it happens with any large file at any site, then you might want to call your ISP.
I am currently a college student who uses a Mac, and I use the sleep mode all the time. I like it for many reasons, one of which is the quick wake-up time. This way, I can get up in the morning and quickly check the weather or my e-mails before heading off to class. This also allows me to open everything I will need for an assignment or to study for a test, and it is always where I want it when I am ready to do homework or study. I shut it down every night when I first got it, but because of the reasons listed above, I quickly realized that sleep mode was the way to go.
Your sleep vs shutdown comparisons leave me unconvinced. You say that putting your Mac to sleep uses less energy than shutting down and rebooting, but you give no figures, no data to support your assertion. Your opinion boils down to just that, your opinion, and unless you can back it up with figures, amounts to no more than anecdotal evidence.
This in itself isn’t problematic, until you consider the fact that your podcast has the potential to directly affect the behavior of millions of Mac users. A sleeping Mac may use no more that a kilowatt more than a rebooted Mac; not much when you calculate your monthly electric bill, but multiply that kilowatt by millions, and suddenly we’re in need of several new coal-fired power plants.
My guess is that most Mac users can multi-task, and can do more than one thing while their computers are rebooting. The image of a Mac user staring at her rebooting screen while precious seconds are ticking away is laughable. The image of millions of Mac users burning up resources unnecessarily may be just as laughable… or is it?
I enjoy your podcasts, and have actually learned a few things from them. I’d love to see you revisit this issue, after you’ve done your research.
You are right. There is no hard data to back it up. You are welcome to perform experiments with equipment yourself if you like. I considered it, of course, but the time and budget would be way too much.
It is not debatable, though, that a Mac shutting down and a Mac booting up take up energy and that during that time the computer is not in use by its owner. It is also not debatable that a sleeping Mac uses some energy. So it is a matter of where the break-even point is. My background in computer software and hardware and in science suggest that as long as someone is using their computer frequently, as they would if it is part of their job and/or life, that sleeping is the better option.
My only concern is when I have a lot of applications open. Shuting down closes them and the computer will run more efficiently when started up if not as many applications are open, isn’t that true?
Thanks,
Blossom
If you are concerned about that, just shut down some applications. No need to shut them all down and restart.
I am glad that sleeping and shutting down don’t vary much in energy consumption. Thanks Gary!
For <>, in case that you’ll have a chance to see it:
I’m really sorry m8, for you… but technically speaking, Gary Rosenzweig has right.
And I’ll tell you why.
First of all, what you have to know …. is that on booting up process … the computer consumes all most the same power like where it is in the IDLE-ON stage (something between 70-85 W).
When a Mac is in a sleep mode – SLEEP-WOL off (Wake On LAN) consumes no more than 2 W … yeah ….. you read it right, 2 W.
And now … for example …. you’re sleeping 10 hr/night … 10 x 2 = 20 W … when you’re turning ON your computer it gets 60-80 W ….
how come you can tell about that the SLEEP mode is takes almost 1KW ?
if you don’t know some technical facts …. and because, maybe, you don’t want to know them … is much better, I think ….. to search before writing something like that.
And to prove you that I’m right ….. check the file below:
http://images.apple.com/environment/resources/pdf/APES_20-in_iMac_10-09-07.pdf
the message above is for John Whitman :)
Do you recommend shutting down VMware Fusion prior to putting a MBP to sleep? Is that not necessary as well?
I dont think you mentioned that MBP’s store a hibernation image when you put them to sleep. This is a wonderful thing to know and seems to be another great thing about sleep mode.
Lastly, when I don’t enter my password quickly enough after awake from sleep, I sometimes have trouble getting the screen to turn on. Have you seen that problem? Any advise?
I’m not sure. I have Parallels and I often leave that running as my Mac goes to sleep. But I’d ask VMware and do what they recommend.
Haven’t seen the screen problem, sorry. Any other reports of it at the discussions.apple.com forum?
Thanks Gary!
Hi Gary,
Thanks for reviewing the sleepmode. its a nice feature indeed!
I stopt using it though, because both mij iMac and MacBook woke up in the middle of the night to many times. The iMac lit up the sleepingroom, so I woke up too… I did not find a solution for this. Thought it maybe was waking up because of the router, but I am not sure.
Any sugestions Gary (or anyone)?
Thanks for your show, I like it very much!
Could be network access. There is a preference for that. But it could also be a USB device or a bluetooth keyboard. You’ll need to experiment.
Hi Gary,
It took me forever or so it seems… but today I finally found out that my iMac woke up because of a power surge caused by the refrigerator… weird I know. So science says “can you repeat this phenomena?” I shut down the fridge, put the Mac to sleep, turned the fridge back on… and yes the wake-up call for my Mac. I will try another power outlet for the fridge, or by a new one :-)
Greetz,
Pete
okay, but what if i need to carry my macbook with me to office ?
should i sleep it or shutdown it ?
thanks!
I used to do that all the time. Every advantage is to sleep — you go faster, you set up faster.
A good reason to shut the computer down once a week is to reload the OS.
Since the OS is just another program, it can become corrupted in RAM. Restarting or Shutting Down gives the OS a chance to be loaded into RAM fresh and gives the computer a new lease on life.
I tend to shut down my mac before any travel (home to work..etc) but if I do sleep I make sure that nothing that deals with Databases or open files are open. Mail programs…etc also make sure all devices are disconnected (USB devices, monitors..) I noticed that even in sleep mode sometimes it will continue to supply power to the USB ports and drain your battery.