Sleep V. Shutdown?

Putting it to sleep just means you're pausing use until some time after and will wake up faster than your computer boots up from shut down.

Use sleep only when you plan on using it soon and shut down when you're going to sleep or something to conserve energy

If you do some more research on this forum or other forums you may find that most Mac users will tell you what I am going to tell you. There is no need to shutdown your Mac! My bad, 3 conditions:

1. After a software update (and be weary of the updates lately)
2. If you are experiencing problems a reboot my solve it.
3. If the machine is going to be away from AC power for a few days, you may want to shutdown.

Other than that there really is no need to shutdown, just let it sleep!

I thought if you were traveling with your macbook that shutting down is advised....for the safety of the drives. My understanding was that the HD is still engaged and the heads are not parked. I guess i'll have to research that further.

parab0la wrote:
I thought if you were traveling with your macbook that shutting down is advised....for the safety of the drives. My understanding was that the HD is still engaged and the heads are not parked.

No, that's not true. When it sleeps the heads are parked.

I have traveled on cross-country (or intercontinental) flights where I slept the machine the entire way out and back, never shutting down until after getting home a week or more later. It's no problem at all and perfectly safe. It's actually better, because if airport security wants to see your laptop running, you don't have to sit there and wait for startup to complete, you simply open the lid and it lights up right away.

Sleep is really the only way to go unless you will not be using it for several days. With sleep you dont have to close down all the apps and documents you are using and open them all again when you start up. That saves so much time. I don't buy the "shut down saves energy" argument because a sleeping Mac laptop with a fully charged battery will not drain the battery for the better part of a week, maybe longer with the new extended runtime battery. That's how little energy sleep uses. It isn't significant.

thinking everyone would say to shut it down.

No way, I never shut mine down. I think it's been off for a grand total of about 12 hours since I got it last October (seriously). I never, never shut down. There is simply no need.

When you're done using the computer, close the lid. When you want to use it again, open the lid. It's that simple.

If you aren't going to use it for more than two or three days, then shut it down. Otherwise, sleep is the way to go.

--Travis

I use my MBP as my primary computer (as was my older 17" MBP). The only time I shut down is when calibrating my battery or after I clean the unit before putting in my case and go somewhere with it. If it's already clean, I'll just let it sleep. After software installs, I'll do the restart, but I won't shut it down, unless I continue to have some problem.

My former 17" (which I just sold), I would say was on about 90% of the time in 23 months. And it had it's original battery until it started to get swollen, but it was covered under Apple's extended battery program for that model. I never had one issue with that Machine, it was a **** of a unit. I didn't even have AppleCare on it.

So I can say 100% that keeping your system "on" is OK to do. Apple even says as much in their documentation. They state shutdown if you are going to be away from it for a few days. So don't sweat it. Whichever you prefer, is fine.

Bryan

One consideration, due to a kind of obscure bug, is that the launchd Unix maintenance scripts automatically run properly at next wake if the Mac is asleep when they are scheduled, but if you shut down they can be missed. I'm sure Apple will fix that one eventually but for now it is true.

Good point 23... I should clarify that I don't actually sleep my machine, I just sleep the display, and have the HDD sleep after 10 min of no activity. The only time my machine is in sleep mode is when I'm transporting it.

All the scripts can run. I actually have some automator actions running early in the morning to download (mirror) my web sites so I always have a daily backup locally.

Bryan

Is there still an issue with significant battery power loss while in sleep for an extended period? I've experienced this myself!

Haven't had an issue with my new MBP. My old 17" would power down when in sleep mode sometimes. I'll be on the lookout for the issue on my new MBP.

Bryan