reboot occasionally

[jchuzi]

Unless you reboot every once in a while, your Mac will get kicked offline every 49 days I shut down nightly so I haven't seen this. Still, many people never reboot so beware.

[Xairbusdriver]

Thanks, Jon! I've set my iMac to reboot every 48 days, 17 hours, two minutes and 46 seconds. I don't like odd numbers! U kant bee two safe! 🤯

[Sooz]

Oh goodness, I’m still stuck on those little openings on the back of my new computeer. How do I set up a reboot? and I have to relearn about getting the thingies so I can use my “hefty size” pin drive and put some artsy-fartsy stuff on my new iMac from my old iMac. My “excuse" is that I had to go to the ER again recently—gosh that takes a lot out of me … as always, prayers appreciated if you feel confortable doing that.
Smiles,
Sooz

[jchuzi]

To reboot, go to the Apple menu and click Restart. You can also opt to click Shut Down and then start up manually by pressing the Power button. In older systems, you could automatically schedule a shutdown via System Preferences (or Settings, depending on you system) via its Energy Saver option.

If you like keyboard shortcuts, holding Control and Command and then pressing Eject will restart the computer.

I wish you the best for your health! 

[Xairbusdriver]

1. What version of the Mac Operating System is on your laptop?
Click the 'Apple' menu on the far left-hand end of the top-most menu bar. The 'Apple" is normally black now instead of the multi-colored version of the past. (image one below) Here's what my wife's laptop shows (image two below). Please let us know what your About Dialog shows beside "macOS".

2. "How do I set up a reboot?" Apple went so far as disabling that capability for "normal" users.
   A. As long as you don't want to do that auto-magically, you must do that manually
        using the 'Apple' menu, again, as Jon described.
   B. There is a free app called Onyx that provides that removed capability very intuitively.
        I highly encourage you to download and install Onyx (for the appropriate OS).
   C. You can also do this the 'hard way' by typing in Terminal. You can get instructions
        on the interwebs for that.

[jchuzi]

The Tahoe version of OnyX has the ability to schedule a startup time or shutdown time but not a restart. The only previous version that I used was for Big Sur and I don't remember how that was different.

[Xairbusdriver]

Onyx 4.9.6 has both "Start up or wake" and "Shutdown" settings: Utilities / Scheduling (see image). I'm about to update, let me see if it loses those capabilities. I'll save a copy of the current version just in case!

My mistake, Jon is right, there is not a "Restart" option in Ontx, just Shutdown or Sleep.   Furst Missteak uv thee yeer!!! I'm not sure if Shutdown/Start up does more than just Restart. I think the general opinion is that there is little useful difference on a Mac. The Shut down method does save a bit of electricity? 

Looks like Onyx 4.9.9 still has the Scheduling capabilities with Tahoe macOS 26.4.1. BTW, it's OnyX not Onyx