It Is Now Safe To Turn Off Your Computer
No one likes being asked to reboot their computer. When I’m working with someone over the phone to figure out why their computer or mobile device isn’t working, more often than not I hear a groan when I ask them to close their open applications, power the device off completely, and then turn it on again. Yes, this will cause all of the open applications and files to quit. However, this is a crucial step in the troubleshooting process and can completely solve a huge number of software-related issues.
I can’t count the number of times someone has brought me a computer that had slowed to a crawl, and upon opening it up there are dozens of different applications and files open at once. When I ask about the last time the computer was turned off, often the user can’t remember.
More often than not, turning the computer off and on again without the “Reopen windows when logging back in” option selected will solve issues like this, along with many odd software glitches. I like to illustrate this by using an analogy: Your computer is like an orchestra, with millions of different instruments playing together at once. As time goes on, the likelihood of any one musician making a mistake increases, and as soon as one musician is playing out of time the rest are soon to follow. When several musicians are out of time with the rest of the orchestra, it will be much easier for the entire orchestra to stop and start again together than for the few musicians to individually struggle to get back in time.
I would highly recommend rebooting periodically even if your computer is not acting up, to prevent issues from occurring in the future. I typically turn my personal computer off every night. Be aware, closing the lid of your laptop simply puts it to sleep (assuming you haven’t configured your settings otherwise). To fully turn your Mac off, click the Apple logo in the top left corner of the screen, then “Shut Down”. If that fails, or your computer is non-responsive, you can force a shutdown by holding the power button down until the machine powers off.