When your Mac runs increasingly slow, you may want to reset your Mac to give it a fresh restart but keep the files on it. To factory reset your MacBook or iMac without losing data, you can first back up your Mac, then reset your Mac, and last recover your files from the backup.
It doesn't wipe anything, but it empties the active memory (RAM) , which is a first step in trying to clear faults. Quite often a program will get itself confused and a restart will in effect start everything from scratch and clear the problem.
There is no much need to shut down Macs every night anymore. It does not save a significant amount of electricity and by shutting down the computer you will prevent it from doing important tasks.
“You don't necessarily have to restart every time your Mac suggests it, but you should if you can,” says Steingart. An advantage to restarting, aside from installing any needed updates, is fixing a sluggish Mac by clearing the memory and starting fresh, adds Steingart.
Use Apple Diagnostics
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > Restart, then press and hold the D key while your Mac restarts. Keep holding the D key until the screen listing different languages appears. Select a language. Apple Diagnostics starts automatically.The Benefits of Restarting your Computer
Flushes RAM – RAM stands for Random Access Memory and is your computer's main type of memory. Therefore, when you restart your computer, you flush out all the random, unimportant, and temporary data bogging down your device.When you reset the PRAM or NVRAM, your computer restores the default settings for your hardware and sets the internal hard drive as the startup disk. Performing a reset requires you to shut down your computer. While booting, hold down the "Command-Option-P-R" keys immediately after you turn on your computer.
- Select "System Preferences" from the Apple drop-down menu at the top left corner of the desktop.
- Click the "Energy Saver" icon in the Hardware section.
- Click the "Settings For" drop-down box and select "Power Adapter" from the drop-down list.
- Click the "Computer Sleep" slider and drag it all the way to the right.
The first way to stop your Mac from going to sleep by itself is obviously to turn off auto display-sleep in the system preferences. To do this open the system preferences, click on the “energy saver” panel and drag the “Display sleep” slider all the way across to “never” (on the right-hand side).
Battery. If your MacBook suddenly shuts off, the reason is usually that the battery has run low. Make sure the power adapter is firmly connected to the MacBook -- sometimes the magnet sticks to the power slot but isn't completely inside it. A light on the magnetic adapter shines when it is powering the computer.
Rebooting due to Hardware failure
Hardware failure or system instability can cause the computer to reboot automatically. The problem could be the RAM, Hard Drive, Power Supply, Graphic Card or External devices: – or it could be an overheating or BIOS issue.How to Fix “Your computer restarted because of a problem” Issue
- Disconnect peripheral devices.
- Troubleshoot software issues.
- Repair corrupted files.
- Erase the internal drive and install OS X.
- Contact Apple technical support.
If by factory reset you mean wiping the drive and re-instaling the OS that it came installed with, no that should not harm your computer. IT departments, even in small organizations, constantly recycle equipment and re-image systems as employees cycle through their workforce.
During both charge ups, you can use your MacBook as usual. It isn't bad, but Apple doesn't recommend it. Apple says that in order to for the battery to work, electrons need to move around. This means that the battery should be used, at least once a month when you calibrate the battery.
Apple does not recommend leaving your MacBook plugged in all the time. Furthermore, Apple even recommends charging and discharging your MacBook's battery at least once per month — it even has a calendar event to remind you. Restore Energy Saver defaults.
It doesn't make any significant difference either way. The battery will run down very slightly faster in sleep than when it's off altogether, but that's the only difference. Sleeping it certainly won't harm the electronics. As long as it's plugged into power, it doesn't matter.
Answer: A: Answer: A: Just leaving your Mac notebook running on battery overnight or any time will not "damage" the battery. It shouldn't damage the battery even if you are charging the notebook with the supplied power brick.
How to Force Restart Your Mac. Press and hold down the Command (?) and Control (Ctrl) keys along with the power button (or the Touch ID / Eject button, depending on the Mac model) until the screen goes blank and the machine restarts.
The most often used way to enter Recovery Mode is this:
- Click on Apple logo at the top left of the screen.
- Select Restart.
- Immediately hold down the Command and R keys until you see an Apple logo or spinning globe.
- Eventually your Mac will show the Recovery Mode Utilities window with the following options:
Shut down or Restart with keyboard shortcut
- Power button:
- Command + Control + Power Button: Press this keyboard shortcut to force restart your Mac.
- Command Control + Media Eject button: Press this combination to quit all apps and restart the Mac.
How to Force Restart a MacBook Air (2018/2019)
- Press and hold down the Touch ID button / power button until the MacBook Air screen turns black.
- Wait a few seconds, then press and hold down the Touch ID / power button on the MacBook Air again until you see the ? Apple logo on screen.
Select your startup drive on the left (typically Macintosh HD), switch to the Erase tab and choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the Format drop-down menu. Select Erase and then confirm your choice. Quit out of the Disk Utility app, and this time choose Reinstall OS X and Continue.
Restart. If Force Quit doesn't bail you out, try rebooting the computer. If a frozen Mac prevents you from clicking the Restart command on the Apple menu, hold down the power button for several seconds or press the Control+Command keys and then press the power button.
