Is it necessary to shut down a mac mini at the end of every day?

Is it necessary to shut down a mac mini at the end of every day? Regarding this question, what is the best practice for promoting the best use and long life of the mac mini?

Mac mini, macOS 15.3

Posted on Feb 18, 2025 07:18 AM

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Posted on Feb 18, 2025 07:30 AM

No, is not necessary to shut down your Mac at the end of every day.


This question gets asked a lot. Some users will leave their Macs on 24/7 for week’s or months at a time. Others will shut down every night. And then many others will fall somewhere in between. The long term health of the Mac isn’t really affected one way or the other.


So it really comes down to preference and what works for you in your own situation.


I believe that shutting down occasionally - several times a month or once a week - is best because that gives the OS opportunities to clear caches and run diagnostics at power on. But as I said, it doesn’t seem to matter in the end what you do.


Enjoy your new Mac.

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 18, 2025 07:30 AM in response to larry1111

No, is not necessary to shut down your Mac at the end of every day.


This question gets asked a lot. Some users will leave their Macs on 24/7 for week’s or months at a time. Others will shut down every night. And then many others will fall somewhere in between. The long term health of the Mac isn’t really affected one way or the other.


So it really comes down to preference and what works for you in your own situation.


I believe that shutting down occasionally - several times a month or once a week - is best because that gives the OS opportunities to clear caches and run diagnostics at power on. But as I said, it doesn’t seem to matter in the end what you do.


Enjoy your new Mac.

Feb 18, 2025 08:21 AM in response to larry1111

It's totally up to you.


For years we have had three different year model Mac mini's setup. Two as desktops and one as a media server.

Every two years or so, a new Mac mini cycles in as a desktop and the oldest Mac mini cycles out. It's sad to have a working 2010 and a working 2012 mac mini back in there original boxes after being rotated out. We leave all of our Mac mini's on 24-7 and have never had a hardware failure from doing so.

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Is it necessary to shut down a mac mini at the end of every day?

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