How often to reboot a Mac?

Since getting a Mac 15 years ago it can be months between reboots.

The Mac mini 2012 i7 Quad core I run Indigo on, also Plex, DuckieTV (awesomeApp), Express VPN, Plex etc runs at about 15% CPU and would only get a reboot when an OS update demands it.

The reason I now ask is that I am running Sophos on the Mac now, never needed it before but go a deal on all my Macs so got it.

The Sophos went into alert - Device Now Vulnerable but everything was showing Green. So no idea what it wanted of me.

Anyway after a long chat with support it appears that Sophos likes to have the Mac reboot to feel 'safe'.

So I suggested could I schedule a reboot every 3 months - would that make it feel better.

Sophos support were aghast!!! Amazed I very rarely reboot it, they said for the continued good health of the machine it should be rebooted.

I suggested that may be the case with Windows but not so with Macs.

Am I correct?

I don't reboot my mac unless I have a very specific reason like OS update. Also, I would not soil my mac with Sophos. MY Mac mini only runs home automation and there is no reason to have any virus scanning software running on it. I would only consider virus scanning software on mac if i routinely exchange files with windows or download and run un-signed software. I don't even do that on my workstation. As to network access, I keep my HA in a separate subnet and only allow minimum access to and from it.

[jay (support)]

Am I correct?

Yes, you are correct. When there's an OS update (not a major OS release, just an update) you should do it. Otherwise, no need to reboot.

Thanks Jay,

It is what I thought.

I put Sophos on my Mac's because I am now doing a lot of work on my Macs and wanted to make sure that nothing from my companies' network gets onto mine and vice versa.

Like Sophos so far very low resource usage.