Is it safe to leave my mac mini 2012 on over night once?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 585609
  • Start date
D

Deleted member 585609

Guest
Stupid question I know, but I am paranoid and want to check! I need it leave it on over night once as it is downloading a rather large file ....
Is it ok? Its the model with the fusion drive...
Its well ventilated also

Also what is better for it at night, off or sleep? which do you do?
 
You shouldn't have any problems. I've had Macs of all sorts over the years and leave them on overnight and sometimes for days at a time. I've had macs in the office that are never turned off. Check your System Preferences (under apple menu) and set the mac to go to sleep after a few hours and it will once it's completed its tasks.You could also set it to shut down at a certain time if you had an idea how long it will talke to finish and even to start up each day at a certain time if you like (System Preferences – Energy Saver).
 
My Mac Minis have been on constantly since I bought them and I've had one for 5 years!
 
Yep, my mac is on permanently,(serving the ATV) due to the persistent 'wake for network access' problem I have. No problem so far
 
Yep, my mac is on permanently,(serving the ATV) due to the persistent 'wake for network access' problem I have. No problem so far

Hi. What was your 'wake for network access' problem? I used to have an app called "WakeOnLan" with which I could send the WOL packet from any mac to one that was 'asleep'. Worked really well for waking my media player mini.
 
Hi. What was your 'wake for network access' problem?

Basically, since 10.8.2, it doesn't.

I serve my ATV/iPad/iPhone movie needs from my mac pro in the office, all worked fine at 10.8.1 and earlier, since 10.8.2, it wouldn't wake up when asked by a device* and 10.8.3 didn't cure it either. There are several long threads on Apple about it.

* Apparently it goes into a different type of 'deep' sleep after 3 hours, and it's this that it doesn't wake up from. Pointless and annoying to have to run up two floors to manually wake the computer to watch a film.
 
what what, there are people who turn their macs off??
 
I've left my 2011 iMac on overnight a couple of times to download a PC game (have a slow Internet connection).

There weren't any problems.

Changing the subject a bit, my wireless router has now been on 24/7 for 46 days.

joelk2, I turn my iMac off about 3 times over the course of a day when I'm off work and in all day (as I am at the moment). Maybe putting it to sleep would be better......
 
Last edited:
the only time my mac has been off since i bought it is when i moved it from one room to another and when an update required a restart. apart from that it stays on and then just sleeps when not in use.
 
I agree that there's no need to turn off, from a technical point of view, but I always shut my iMac down but quite happy to leave the Mac Mini running.

The reason being solely down to electricity cost. My assumption being that there is a massive difference in power draw between iMac and Mini during normal use, that I would imagine that the sleep cost would be the same.

No reason not to shut down when SSD's allow boot from power off in such minute timescales.
 
Can't remember the last time I turned my iMac off. It got rebooted the other week after it crashed - a notable event for its rareness. Prior to that... the only time it gets turned off is for a reboot for a software update.
 
Stupid question I know, but I am paranoid and want to check! I need it leave it on over night once as it is downloading a rather large file ....
Is it ok? Its the model with the fusion drive...
Its well ventilated also

Also what is better for it at night, off or sleep? which do you do?


This was an April Fool post yes?


My iMac was left on for its entirety!
 
I used to put mine to sleep with the Cmd-Alt-Eject buttons so it was ready to use at the touch of a button or waggle of the mouse.

I just close the lid on the MBP to do the same thing. It hasn't been shut down for 17 days so far.
 
I turn off my (occasional use) laptops to conserve battery power but my UPS-powered Macs only ever get turned off (briefly) when a reboot is needed.
 
what what, there are people who turn their macs off??

Exactly, shocking :)

Here is my mini, the figure is only so low because we had a severe power outage.
Code:
miniserver:~ thebigcheese$ uptime
 8:09  up 30 days, 12:55, 2 users, load averages: 0.09 0.07 0.02
 
Leave it on all night and feel the temperature the next day. If it is cool or cold, it suggests little power consumption and that it is OK to leave it on.
 
bratman91 said:
Leave it on all night and feel the temperature the next day. If it is cool or cold, it suggests little power consumption and that it is OK to leave it on.

This totally depends on what its been used for and how well ventilated it is in its location. Add to that the fact that the unibody design is meant to dissipate the heat, so will naturally get warm or hot during heavy use.

Leaving it powered up overnight when not used is negligible as far as heat or power consumption is concerned. Crank up the CPU usage, like when converting videos, and the heat and power consumption increases within a few minutes.
 
The OP said that he wanted to leave his computer on overnight in order to download a large file, which should not demand much energy use. My suggestion was to allay fears that leaving the computer on overnight would use a lot of energy simply by being on. My old Windows PC obviously used power when idle - it was always warm, and fans and hard drive were obviously running. My iMac is inaudible and is stone cold when idle.
 
11:38 up 77 days, 17:04, 3 users, load averages: 7.81 4.10 2.67
 
joelk2 said:
11:38 up 77 days, 17:04, 3 users, load averages: 7.81 4.10 2.67

For a load average that is quite consistent, do you mind me asking what it does for you?
 
At that point I was using iflicks to transcode some films and I'm uploading to crash plan at the same time so loads was high.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom