how to reset the SMC on the Mac

Have issues with your mac? Odd behaviour or poor battery life. It may be time to reset your System Management Controller (SMC).

We Show You When You Should And How To Reset Mac SMC

How to reset the SMC on the Mac

If you are experiencing issues with your Mac we show When You Should And How To Reset Mac SMC. If you are struggling with issues such as:

Battery & Power Management – Mac struggling to wake from sleep, poor battery life, random shutdowns or even battery refusing to charge.

Cooling & Fan Management – Fans running at constant high, poor cooling and strange behaviour.

Display and lighting issues – Keyboard backlight or display backlight failing or not working correctly.

Video & external display issues – Display brightness issues and difficulties working with external displays.

Other performance issues – Sluggish behaviour, devices not working correctly and issues with CPU or disk activity.

If you experience any of those issues then we do recommend that you reset your SMC recommended for any iMac, Macbook, Macbook Pro or Macbook Pro with Retina display.

To do so follow the instructions below:

Shutdown your MacBook Air / Macbook / MacBook Pro

Connect the power adapter to your Mac on the Mac keyboard, hold down the Shift+Control+Option keys and the Power button at the same time

Release all keys and the power button at the same time, the little light adapter may change colours briefly (if you have a light) to indicate the SMC has reset Boot your Mac as usual.

See screenshot below:

Reset SMC

Reset SMC of the iMac, Mac Pro or iMac Mini

Resetting SMC is different for non-portable Macs. On any desktop Mac, here is how you reset the System Management Controller:

Shut down your Mac, disconnect the power cord press and hold Mac’s power button for 5 seconds release the button.

Re-attach the power cables and boot the Mac as normal.

Proactive, Responsive, Hamilton Systems

Grab a drink and let’s have a quick chat about your business, and see how we can help you.

Book your 15 minute call below.

Harrogate IT Support

Carl Hamilton

Onboarding Specialist / Director
  • 30 Years IT Experience

  • Business Phone Systems (VOIP)

  • Cyber Security Consultancy

  • Experts in Outlook Support &  Migrations

  • IT Support Services

  • Outsourced IT Across The UK


Subscribe To Receive The Latest News

Subscribe to find out first about new content.

See our Privacy Policy.

Do you have questions or want to talk?

Move your business forward with HTS.

Same Day Callback Monday – Friday.

Our email wasn’t performing very well so we asked Hamilton Systems to take a look & Carl proposed to migrate us to MS Exchange.

Carl was very helpful throughout & the migration went very well.

He was on hand to sort out any teething issues, taking calls early morning & into the night, to ensure we were up & running smoothly.

Would recommend for knowledge, attention to detail & great customer service.”

Ian Porter

Fotofabric Limited

Find out how we can support your business