Is it perfectly fine to leave a MacBook Air always on but in sleep mode?

Question

Instead of just turning it off, is shutting the lid (forcing it to sleep) safe? Does it go into a deep sleep where it doesn't process anything thus not over heat etc?

Answer 1

Yeah that's perfectly fine. I do it with all my computers all the time. In fact, I never shut off my desktop unless I have to or to dump the memory. My brother has a MacBook Pro and he only turns it off once every month or two... The rest of the time it's in sleep.



Edit: As a response to Jake, how is it bad? Servers are left on, not even in sleep, but just on 24/7. Sure they're made for it, but I have a non-specialized server at my office which I leave fully-on 24/7.

Answer 2

Actually, all Macs are designed to go extended periods when sleeping, because unlike PCs they shut down most processes and don't have cooling fans running non stop.



The MacBook Air is even better because it has Solid State Drives for a hard disk.



I believe Apple says 30 days, but I've never left a computer on that long without waking it.

Answer 3

All Macs are designed so you can leave them in sleep for extended periods of time. When in sleep, they literally only power the RAM - the computer will run cool as nothing is actually happening save one tiny 1.5 volt circuit.



If the battery level drops to below 5% the Mac automatically enters Hibernate, which saves the RAM contents to the hard drive in order to preserve them should the battery reach 0%. This means that the computer can be completely powered down, and yet when you plug it in, everything is right where you left it. You could even leave it for months and it'll still be okay.



What is NOT okay, is leaving the Mac asleep AND plugged in. This will completely ruin the battery after as little as three or four months, worst-case scenario. By all means leave it plugged in when you are using it, but never when it is asleep.

Answer 4

NEVER have I heard or seen someone with a Mac-book Air.

Anyway irrelevant to the question, to answer I say no it is not okay to leave your net-book on. The reason, your net-book can become slow, very warm, particularly burning hot and it simply just not a wise thing to do. There's a reason why it features a on/off button. But it CERTAINLY does far less damage compared to a WINDOWS PC (for any of you; a Mac is IN FACT a PC - or Personal Computer) That being said, it, in my opinion okay. Despite the factors.



However, leaving a desktop computer on is far worse since it draws power from the electrical outlet, costing a lot of money in particular to keep the thing powered. So I suggest you never leave any electronic on for long or plugged into a electrical outlet as even when it is off it will draw power from the outlet, which will, in turn, still cost money.

Answer 5

first of all macs are the same as pc, just slightly different software (those answers are just a byproduct of clever marketing) as for the question, if you use it on an on off cycle then it is better to leave it on as the regular heat cool cycle can damage the hardware and soldering, if you wont be using it much then its better to turn it off as you will obviously get wear as the components are ticking over, it should do no noticeable harm so no need to worry :D

Answer 6

It will run very cool in sleep mode. It uses just enough power to maintain what is loaded into its RAM so that it can quickly restart. There may be other reasons for not sleeping a computer but overheating is not one of them

Answer 7

No, it is very bad to constantly leave any laptop/computer on