Is it harmful to shut down my Mac Mini M4 every day?

shutting down the Mac Mini M4 every day, good or bad. I just want to know if there is any harm or is it good to put in sleeping mode after my work finished, like putting in sleep mode for about 7-8 hours.


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Nov 18, 2024 08:07 PM

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Posted on Nov 19, 2024 05:44 AM

There was a time with the old spinning hard drives that leaving a machine on was desired because of the long times it took to boot when starting up. With the current machines and the high speed SSDs, that is no longer the case.


Personally, I keep my M1 Mac powered 24/7 and simply use Lock Screen. I take advantage of having it run 24/7 by scheduling backup tasks and other activities while I am asleep. Using Lock Screen will eventually kill the video to the display and the display not seeing video for some period of time will put itself to sleep.


However, if you are not comfortable leaving it on all the time, by all means shut in off when not in use. Either way, nothing will get harmed.

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Nov 19, 2024 05:44 AM in response to SitaramGouda

There was a time with the old spinning hard drives that leaving a machine on was desired because of the long times it took to boot when starting up. With the current machines and the high speed SSDs, that is no longer the case.


Personally, I keep my M1 Mac powered 24/7 and simply use Lock Screen. I take advantage of having it run 24/7 by scheduling backup tasks and other activities while I am asleep. Using Lock Screen will eventually kill the video to the display and the display not seeing video for some period of time will put itself to sleep.


However, if you are not comfortable leaving it on all the time, by all means shut in off when not in use. Either way, nothing will get harmed.

Dec 22, 2024 09:12 PM in response to tbirdvet

Mac Mini M4 with Sequoia 15.2 here. You can use a terminal and the command line to set a wake schedule.


To see a repeating schedule:

sudo pmset -g sched


To wake or power on every day at 9am:

sudo pmset repeat wakeorpoweron MTWRFSU 09:00:00


To remove the repeat schedule:

sudo pmset repeat cancel


I leave my Mac running all day and shut it down before bed.


[Edited by Moderator]

Dec 23, 2024 09:46 AM in response to SitaramGouda

It is not necessary nor beneficial to routinely shut down a Mac, and depending on how long it remains completely shut down it can arguably result in greater overall power consumption.


Use a Mac the same way you would use an iPhone, an Apple Watch, a wireless printer, your wireless routers, or any other electronic device — when you're not using it, just ignore it.

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Is it harmful to shut down my Mac Mini M4 every day?

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