How often should I restart/shut down a 2019 iMac, and how to prevent sleep mode during long downloads?

Question

Level 1

4 points

How often should I restart/shut down a 2019 iMac, and how to prevent sleep mode during long downloads?

I have a 2019 iMac that I recently had serviced at the Apple Store - they rebooted and installed the software as I was getting the circle of death etc. Computer was not usable. Going forward, should I restart/shut down the computer every night or is that not necessary? I feel that contributed to the issue that I had previously - as I rarely shut down/restarted it.

Secondly if doing a long download (pictures, etc) - should I not have the computer go into sleep mode? I feel that screws up the downloading. If so, where do I change that feature?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iMac 21.5″, macOS 15.3

Posted on Feb 10, 2025 9:56 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

rkaufmann87

Level 10

149,002 points

Feb 10, 2025 10:36 AM in response to Ar1F75

Whether you shutdown nightly or not is up to you, the Mac does not care. Most experienced users do not, however some do.

In order to turn off sleep please read and follow the instructions in Set sleep and wake settings for your Mac - Apple Support (CA)

We recommend that you then:

Open System Settings
Click Lock Screen on sidebar
Turn off display when inactive and set time to the desired amount of time (mine is set for 3 minutes)

This will ensure Sleep is off but the display will go dark so the net effects are the same.

Reply

How often should I restart/shut down a 2019 iMac, and how to prevent sleep mode during long downloads?

Similar questions