MacOS shutdown is frustratingly slow. Is this the norm?

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
When I first gave up Windows in favor of a MBP, I was delighted with the manner in which a shutdown led to an almost instant black screen. As each new version of MacOS came about, shutdown became a little slower. Now, even if I quit all apps (or think I have) ahead of time, I still get the spinning progress ball on a white screen before the full shutdown comes about. Inasmuch as we shutdown every night, this is rather annoying (though not, of course, earth-shattering). Is this just "the way of the world" or can someone point me to a tutorial for tuning our two MBPs toward faster shutdown?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    omegaomega Posts: 427member


    Why do you shut down?  Unless something has dramatically changed with the later OS' (I have an old skool TiBook) why don't you just close the lid and let it sleep?

  • Reply 2 of 10
    omega wrote: »
    Why do you shut down?  Unless something has dramatically changed with the later OS' (I have an old skool TiBook) why don't you just close the lid and let it sleep?

    We shut down because, (1) AFAIK, the MBP will continue will continue to draw some little battery, however small, and (2) I would think it a security risk to have the MBP open up from sleep without requiring logon. As for (2), the tradeoff for setting up *required* signon after sleep would be that anytime the screen went to sleep due to inactivity, we'd have to go through the hassle of logon, no? We often shut the lid midday during brief periods of inactivity, but, overnight or on weekends or during periods when we foresee switching off to the iPad for awhile, we do full shutdown. So there's why.
  • Reply 3 of 10


    Originally Posted by fjpoblam View Post

    We shut down because, (1) AFAIK, the MBP will continue will continue to draw some little battery, however small


     


    So what? You're supposed to be charging it regularly, anyway. You have a month of standby time. A MONTH.


     



    (2) I would think it a security risk to have the MBP open up from sleep without requiring logon.


     


    So don't do that. Require a password on wake.


     



     As for (2), the tradeoff for setting up *required* signon after sleep would be that anytime the screen went to sleep due to inactivity, we'd have to go through the hassle of logon, no?


     


    No! Enjoy:


     


    image

  • Reply 4 of 10


    All your suggestions *still* do not address the question I originally raised. They suggest *alternatives*! I was asking about the speed of shutdown, not requesting alternatives to shutdown. Okay?

  • Reply 5 of 10
    muppetrymuppetry Posts: 3,331member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by fjpoblam View Post


    All your suggestions *still* do not address the question I originally raised. They suggest *alternatives*! I was asking about the speed of shutdown, not requesting alternatives to shutdown. Okay?



     


    Check the console logs to see what it is doing during the shutdown process or put it into verbose mode to watch in real time. That may shed some light on the issue. 

  • Reply 6 of 10


    Originally Posted by fjpoblam View Post

    All your suggestions *still* do not address the question I originally raised. They suggest *alternatives*! I was asking about the speed of shutdown, not requesting alternatives to shutdown. Okay?


     


    What's your point?




    You're doing it wrong. We're telling you this and showing you how to do it much, MUCH better. It's your choice to completely ignore that. 




    Stop shutting down. It's not 1995 anymore. In the past ten years, I have shut my computer down for the sole purpose of moving it from one location to another (it's a desktop). 


     


    Your problem isn't SOP; it's probably related to whatever you have open that you're quitting every time.

  • Reply 7 of 10
    omegaomega Posts: 427member


    If he doesn't want to listen then that his choice.  


     


    As for the "problem" I would guess an application or process is hanging that is slowing down the shutdown process.  As suggested above the console logs and verbose shutdown should be investigated.  I can remember once I had issues where I had a lagging shutdown.  To find the issue I went through a sudo kill phase in the terminal to find the process that was responsible.  Not pretty, and luckily the OS is pretty robust that you can do this.


     


     


     


    Quad:~ omega$ uptime


    21:31  up 50 days, 23:52, 2 users, load averages: 0.41 0.47 0.66


     



    ?:~ omega$ uptime


    21:31  up 28 days, 23:52, 2 users, load averages: 0.06 0.03 0.00


     


     

  • Reply 8 of 10
    As for whatever I "have running", it occurs even when Finder is the only app active (confirmed AFAIK by ONYX insofar as what's started at logon). Insofar as "why shutdown" I know that power drain occurs even with a short time away. However, I'll try verbose shutdown as you suggest, to see what's going on. Thanks for all your help, in spite of your other remarks. I'll leave it at that.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    omegaomega Posts: 427member
    Just because you only have Finder running does not mean that other processes are not running, for example you could have Spotlight indexing.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    I've noticed shutdown getting slower over the years and it seems to cancel more often because apps (mainly Adobe's) don't quit fast enough. You can try an immediate shutdown command:

    http://lifehacker.com/5831557/shut-down-or-reboot-your-mac-immediately-with-a-keyboard-command

    Ctrl+Opt+Cmd+Eject

    It shouldn't wait for apps to confirm shutdown. You can also just force logout though using cmd-shift-opt-q and then tap the power button to sleep - this quits all apps but saves going through a bootup.
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