Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[F Ribeiro]

Is it possible to shutdown my Mac Mini (macOS Mojave) the way I use to do with my Windows 10 Dell, using JRemote Shutdown option?

It doesn’t work with my Mac Mini 2014.
It would be great because that way I could use it truly headless, without the need of a keyboard for shutdown.

[blgentry]

The Mac Mini consumes very little power.  Newer ones are under 10 Watts at idle.  Older ones are just a bit over 10 Watts.

I like keeping computers running.  Less trouble, longer life for the hardware, and less to mess with.

Brian.

[JimH]

I like keeping computers running.  Less trouble, longer life for the hardware, and less to mess with.

I don't think I've ever seen a study that said that power cycling hardware made any difference in lifetime.

[F Ribeiro]

I don't think I've ever seen a study that said that power cycling hardware made any difference in lifetime.

Power off equipment saves energy and increases lifetime.
Power supplys estimated lifetime are usually measured in hours and are more sensible to the stability of the energy (spikes, etc.) than to the number of power cyclings.
The same is valid for other electric and electronic parts.
Mechanical devices (or devices with mechanical parts, like HDDs) may suffer with constant cycling with constant temperature variations. Nevertheless, Synology, Qnap, Seagate, Western Digital (and a lot more), advise power off for increasingly lifespan.
Sub watt standby is now an increasing standard for green equipment.
So, I really would like to power off my Mac Mini when not in use, but I believe I Will need a keyboard for that because Apple do not allowed the use of the power button and JRiver (unlike in the Windows versions) can't turn Mac off using JRemote option.
Anyway, I'm a little tired of Macs and regret buying the Mac license.
I think I will stay by the Windows version.

Thanks

[RayG]

I use the Unified Remote Full app to power down my media server mac when I'm not using it.

[F Ribeiro]

I use the Unified Remote Full app to power down my media server mac when I'm not using it.

Thanks for the advice.

Nevertheless, if they can do it, why not JRiver? After all, there is already an option on JRemote.
I don’t want another app or service running on the Mac Mini. Unified Remote needs one to work.

[blgentry]

It's my opinion that leaving computers on is better in all ways.  I've been in IT for more than 20 years.  But let's just call it my opinion, as I can see that debating this probably won't help anyone, as minds already seem to be made up, no matter what I say.

Jim is a huge believer in shutting things down, so maybe he will actually get the MC team to put effort into making sleep and power down work in a friendly way with MC.  As it stands right now, sleep, shutdown, and wake are... let's call their behavior less than optimal.

On the other hand you are now saying you don't like the Mac platform.  Would MC and JRemote doing sleep/shutdown/wake change your opinion at all?  I always wonder why people say they don't like Mac... except when I find out they've used Windows for 20 years and want Mac to behave like Windows.  They behave differently on purpose.  In many cases, a simple change in approach will yield you excellent results with the Mac.  It's just a matter of thinking about it a little differently.

Brian.

[JimH]

Brian,
I'm not trying to debate it.  I'm just curious if you have data that confirms your belief. 

I don't actually shut machines down.  I use sleep all the time on most machines I use.  I have them set to sleep after x minutes of inactivity, so I don't have to remember to do it.  I don't think that's unusual now.

Jim

[blgentry]

I'm not trying to debate it.  I'm just curious if you have data that confirms your belief. 

It's all anecdotal.  Meaning my data is all from my own experience and the experience of my colleauges over the years.  The first time that you shut off a server, that's running just fine, and then turn it back on and it doesn't work, it makes you wonder what just happened.  You disturbed a system that was just fine and something in the shut down or power up process broke something.  That something is nearly always hardware.  So powering the system off killed it.  It shortened it's life.

Sleep does a similar operation, but not the same.  I don't have any kind of experience with sleep versus no sleep, but my gut feeling is that the powering down of hard drives is the worst part of this and is probably not good for their overall life.  Despite that, I have numerous external drive enclosures that automatically power down drives after a time out and I have not defeated this behavior:  I just let it happen.

Could I be just completely and totally wrong about this?  Sure.  Maybe my knowledge on this is old and/or compartmentalized.  I'll have to ask a few more colleagues what they think and consider their opinions also.

Brian.

[JimH]

By data, I meant this sort of study:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-stats-for-q1-2018/

I agree that power cycling long-running servers always makes me nervous.  We've had some similar experiences.

[F Ribeiro]

It's my opinion that leaving computers on is better in all ways.  I've been in IT for more than 20 years.  But let's just call it my opinion, as I can see that debating this probably won't help anyone, as minds already seem to be made up, no matter what I say.

Jim is a huge believer in shutting things down, so maybe he will actually get the MC team to put effort into making sleep and power down work in a friendly way with MC.  As it stands right now, sleep, shutdown, and wake are... let's call their behavior less than optimal.

On the other hand you are now saying you don't like the Mac platform.  Would MC and JRemote doing sleep/shutdown/wake change your opinion at all?  I always wonder why people say they don't like Mac... except when I find out they've used Windows for 20 years and want Mac to behave like Windows.  They behave differently on purpose.  In many cases, a simple change in approach will yield you excellent results with the Mac.  It's just a matter of thinking about it a little differently.

Brian.

Hi,

After reading blgentry opinion carefully and being a Windows user for over than 20 years, I have to admit that I will allways be conditioned by that.
I will try a more open minded approach to mac OS.

JimH approach (set mac to sleep after X minutes) seems to make sense after reading what was said in this topic.

The thing is, I don't know how.
In my 2014 Mac Mini running Mojave (the same for High Sierra), I can see an option to turn off the display after a period of time, and an option to prevent it to sleep.
But no option to sleep after a certain period of time.

I will let it to the OS.

Thanks all for the help.

[blgentry]

Could I be just completely and totally wrong about this?  Sure.  Maybe my knowledge on this is old and/or compartmentalized.  I'll have to ask a few more colleagues what they think and consider their opinions also.

I had a lunch conversation with a friend today who has been in IT for quite a long time and has taken care of a good number of Mac desktops, PC desktops, laptops, and servers. 

He seemed to think that power up, power down, and sleep made little if any difference in lifetime to modern computers.  Pretty much the exact opposite of my opinion.  This survey of exactly two people (me and my friend) is kinda worthless, but it at least demonstrates that some IT professionals disagree with my opinion and think that power down and/or sleep are just fine.

Brian.