10 Good Reasons To Restart Your Mac

We get asked a lot how often a Mac should be restarted. Our guidance is to restart once or twice a week. Here’s a list of 10 reasons why:

1. It clears memory leaks and frees up system resources that have been tied up by programs that are no longer running.
2. It completes the installation of important updates that require a restart to take effect.
3. It improves system performance and stability by closing out background processes and services that hog system resources.
4. It helps ensure changes made to system settings and configurations are applied and take effect.
5. It reduces the risk of system crashes, freezes and errors that can occur when the system has been running for a long time without rebooting.
6. It helps prevent data loss and corruption by ensuring all open files and apps are properly saved and closed before shutting down the Mac.
7. Because IT told me it was a good idea.
8. It actually does fix a number of glitches, often involving printing and connecting to servers or the internet.
9. It clears out temporary files, caches, and other junk data that can build over time and slow performance.
10. It improves your overall experience by refreshing the system and making it feel more responsive.

If you run into a niggling Mac issue, a simple reboot is almost always a good first step in troubleshooting. I know it sounds cliche, but it really does fix stuff.