Is it better to shut down my iMac or put it to sleep during the night?

altoon wrote:

I have a new iMac and it has frozen a few times.

That simply does not happen on a Mac that's working properly. The tech's advice to routinely shut down or restart was meant to get you off the phone. That's addressing a symptom while the problem remains.

A Mac that has "frozen" or is unresponsive to the point you have to force it to shut down is a broken Mac. Broken Macs don't fix themselves.

Contact Apple again. Tell them your Mac is broken and don't settle for a frivolous answer.

... and to answer your question my Macs are shut down about as often as my iPhones — which is never. When I'm not using them I ignore them. When I need them they're ready to go. It has been my experience they work better that way, and so do I.

Is there any pattern to the circumstances when your iMac freezes? You should have further diagnostics done to determine why your iMac freezes.

To answer your specific question about sleep vs. shutdown, you will find arguments in favor of both. You will have to make up your own mind which you prefer.

That said, it has always been my practice to shut down my Macs and turn off the surge protectors my devices are are plugged into when I am not using them. That means at least once every day, when I'm done for the day. I believe it's in the best interest of protecting my Macs from misuse, burnout, surges, potential hacking and more.

Plus, the power savings over the course of years by turning off devices I am not using. (Macs, external drives, scanners, printers, sound system, etc.)

Since there is nothing you can do while you are asleep, the Mac might as well be turned off, as is my policy for the Macs in my house. All of my hardware is still working correctly after more than a decade of powering off the Macs at night.

As you will see in the accompanying posts, there are different approaches and ultimately, it is what works best for you.

Neither, my Mac is normally running 1-2 weeks at a time without shutdown and I have never let any of my Macs sleep. I've used them for well over 20 years now.

That being said, as VikingOSX says, use what ever works best for you.

I haven't put a Mac to sleep in 20+ years. I don't normally shut them down either. Shutting it down would save you a few pennies in your electric bill.

It'a up to you. I normally shut down my computer about once a week. I often put it to sleep when not using it.

+1 for each of the posts above. 👍🏽

Suspenders or belt? Either way, your trousers will stay up. 😉