How do I take care of my Mac battery?

Does keeping your Mac plugged in ruin the battery?

Fortunately, it's not possible to overcharge your MacBook battery by leaving it plugged in all the time, nor will it overheat or damage any other components. But it is possible that you might reduce the battery's maximum charging capacity by keeping it plugged in all the time.

Should I drain my MacBook battery before recharging?

Draining a battery completely is the best way to permanently kill your battery. A mac will shut down before it drains completely to prevent this from happening, but if you forget to charge it right away it will slowly drain to zero and kill the battery. I would never go much lower than 20%.

How do I keep my battery healthy?

What percentage should I charge my Mac?

According to Battery University, charging your battery to 85% to 90% can increase its discharge cycle limit an extra 1000 recharges. This means that charging your battery to 85% to 90% instead of to 100% can greatly improve your Mac's battery life.

ULTIMATE MacBook Battery Guide! (Should You Keep It Plugged In?)

Should you shut down your Mac every night?

A good rule of thumb is that if you're only going to be away from your Mac for an hour or two or even overnight, letting it sleep is probably the best method. Any longer than that and you'll want to power it down, for reasons outlined in the next section.

How often should you shut down your Mac?

It is advisable that you shut down your MacBook if you do not plan to use it within a 36 hours time period. Many Apple experts also advise that you shut your MacBook Pro or Air down every 2-3 days as shutting down the MacBook clears the operational memory of the computer, making it fast and responsive.

Is it better to sleep or shut down Mac?

Sleep Is a Better Option Than Shutting Down

This battery saving mode does more for your Mac than when you shut it down. It also saves you time, allowing you to use your Mac almost instantaneously, having saved the windows you were in so you can jump right back where you left off.

Is it better to shut down or sleep?

Power surges or power drops occurring when a machine is powered by its power adapter are more harmful to a sleeping computer than to one completely shut down. The heat produced by a sleeping machine exposes all components to higher heat more of the time. Computers left on all the time may have a shorter life.

Can I use MacBook while charging?

During both charge ups, you can use your MacBook as usual. It isn't bad, but Apple doesn't recommend it. If you do so, you'll most likely end up with paltry battery life. Apple says that in order to for the battery to work, electrons need to move around.

Is it bad to not turn off your Mac?

Apple recommends shutting the MacBook down and storing it with 50 percent of its battery charge to prevent capacity loss or the creation of a “deep discharge” state, which may prevent the battery from ever again holding a charge.

Does shutting down your Mac delete everything?

Shutting your MacBook down ends all the running programs and applications and completely powers your Mac off. This helps clear all the memory from your computer. It will take more time to start up the computer and you'll need to reopen all the apps you need.

Should you restart your computer every day?

If your computer is starting to get sluggish or have issues, then it's past time to do a reboot. According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reboot times can vary according to the operating system and how you use your computer. However, a general rule of thumb is to reboot at least once a week.

Should you shutdown your computer every night?

The short answer is no. The longer answer: It depends. Sleep mode overnight can be beneficial as it can allow it to perform any maintenance tasks scheduled — think full system virus scans, doing a full backup of the hard drive or checking for software updates, says Meister.

Is it good to shut down laptop every night?

Even if you do keep your laptop in sleep mode most nights, it's a good idea to fully shut down your computer at least once a week, agrees Nichols and Meister. The more you use your computer, the more applications will be running, from cached copies of attachments to ad blockers in the background.

Should you close MacBook lid?

You should be good either way. I'd recommend shutting it down at least once a month though just so that it can get through a healthy cycle of shutting down and restarting.

Is it better to shutdown computer or leave it on?

“It depends on how often you use it,” explains Geek Squad agent Steven Leslie. “If you use your computer multiple times per day, it's best to leave it on. If you use it for a short time — say an hour or two — just once a day, or even less, then turn it off.”

Can I leave my Mac on overnight?

The main reason for letting your Mac sleep instead of shutting it down is that your Mac can't perform maintenance tasks during the night if you shut it down. macOS does a lot every night while your Mac isn't being used and it is “sleeping”. Apple actually has a term for this sleep mode — “Power Nap”.

Can you leave MacBook charging overnight?

Leaving your MacBook Pro plugged in is fine in most circumstances. You can keep your MacBook Pro plugged in overnight as long as it is in good working condition. If your battery has any damage, indicated by extreme heat or swelling, then leaving the computer plugged in overnight is not a good idea.

Is it okay to overcharge MacBook Pro?

It's not possible to “overcharge” your MacBook battery by leaving it plugged in. If you leave it plugged in all of the time, the battery won't overheat or damage any other components.

Should I keep MacBook Air plugged in?

In short, yes. It's okay. However, you may notice a bit of performance lagginess creeping in over time. It's generally considered a good idea to restart your Mac every now and then.

Should I close my laptop lid?

A shut down and reboot almost always improves computer speed to some degree. That said, it's best to shut down your laptop every few days, or when you won't have power access for a while and have no critical work to resume immediately.

Should you unplug laptop when fully charged?

In order to squeeze as much life out of your lithium-polymer battery, once your laptop hits 100 percent, unplug it. In fact, you should unplug it before that. Cadex Electronics CEO Isidor Buchmann told WIRED that ideally everyone would charge their batteries to 80 percent then let them drain to about 40 percent.

Is it OK to leave your computer on 24 7?

Generally speaking, if you will be using it in a few hours, leave it on. If you're not planning on using it until the next day, you can put it in 'sleep' or 'hibernate' mode. Nowadays, all device manufacturers do stringent tests on the life cycle of computer components, putting them through more rigorous cycle testing.

What if I never shut down my laptop?

In a nutshell, a modern computer can run for multiple days without a complete shutdown. It goes without saying that you need to reboot it to complete some installation or update process. But, if your computer can't run smoothly without frequent reboots, it's because of outdated hardware or some other problem.