There are many processes on a Mac computer that do not require our attention to be carried out. A clear example of this are downloads and uploads of files to the internet. Surely you have often had to carry out a process of these characteristics and it has taken you some time, sometimes even hours, but there is a way to completely worry about having to turn off the computer afterwards: schedule Mac shutdown. There is also the possibility of programming the power on time if you usually use the Mac after a certain time and you want that when you sit in front of the screen it is already on. We tell you how you can do it.
Program power off, sleep, restart and power on a Mac
As we indicated earlier, there are many reasons why we can require an automation in the startup or shutdown of the Mac. In macOS there are multiple programming possibilities, being able to turn off the computer at a certain time, make it remain at rest or restart even make it turn on automatically at a certain time without having to do it manually.
All this is the same on all Macs , regardless of whether they are desktop or a portable MacBook model. To do this, the following steps must be followed:
- Go to System Preferences. You can access from the Apple logo on the top bar, looking for it in the Spotlight with cmd + space or by clicking on the dock if you have the icon there.
- Press now on Economizer , which has a lit bulb icon.
- Click on Program in the lower right part of the window.
- Set the time you want your device to shut down, turn on, suspend or restart. It is possible to combine the option of automatic ignition and those of rest, restart or shutdown.
It is usually recommended to activate these options in specific cases to prevent it from turning off without realizing it, although a minute before the scheduled time will be informed through a pop-up window. We recommend the same for automatic power-up, since you may not always want to use the Mac at a certain time and it could be a problem that it always turns on at the time you have programmed. However you can choose specific days of the week in the programming.
More macOS Economizer options
Surely you have observed that within Economizer there are other options beyond those explained for the Mac on and off programming. These include other features such as automatic shutdown when the computer is idle and others directly related to battery saving on a MacBook .
If you enter the battery tab you will find the following options, which will work when the MacBook is not connected to the power:
- Turn off the screen after X minutes of inactivity , which will allow you to select a period of time between 1 minute and 3 hours for the screen to turn off if you are not using the equipment. Also here you will have the possibility to prevent it from turning off even if a lot of downtime has passed.
- Put the hard drives at rest when possible , that is, if you have mechanical hard drives, they will no longer be at full capacity when they are not recording or reading data from them.
- Activate Power Nap with battery power so that even when the Mac is at rest, it can continue to perform background processes such as checking new email or updates such as iCloud.
In the power adapter tab we find the same options, but in this case for when the MacBook is connected to the power. We only find a new option not available when the device is not charging:
- Prevent the computer from resting automatically when the screen is turned off , which is useful if you only want the screen to turn off while all processes continue.
In short, these options of the Economizer of the Mac can be very useful in the day to day to not be aware of the computer when certain processes are performed, which can also lead to savings and battery wear when you have a MacBook.
