ctrlhq

Restart reminder

Closing the lid isn't a restart.

ctrlhq notices when your Mac has been up for days and nudges you, with a joke, to restart.

Buy ctrlhq · Launch price, regularly $29: $24.99Launch price, regularly ₹1,999: ₹1,499

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Most of us never shut down a MacBook. We close the lid, open it again tomorrow, and a week later wonder why switching apps feels sticky and the fans won't settle.

Sleep keeps everything exactly where it was, including the memory build-up. Only a restart clears it.

So ctrlhq keeps count. Once your Mac has been up for 2 days, a short card drops under the notch at a quiet moment, with a line like "Closing the lid isn't a restart. It's a nap.", how long it's been up, and how much is sitting in swap.

Try it

3 days of naps. Your Mac wants a proper night's sleep.

Up 3 days · 2.1 GB in swap

Sleep doesn't count. ctrlhq counts days since your Mac last booted.

What you get

  • Counts real uptime

    Sleep doesn't reset the clock. ctrlhq reads when your Mac actually booted, so a week of lid-closes counts as a week.

  • A joke, not a nag

    28 lines that rotate, each shown once before any repeats. Leave it a week and they get more pointed.

  • Shows you why

    The card says how long your Mac has been up and how much memory is paged out to disk.

  • Picks a quiet moment

    Never while you record, take meeting notes, are on a call, in a focus session or watching something fullscreen. Once a day at most.

  • macOS's own Restart

    One click brings up the standard Restart dialog, with its 60-second countdown and Reopen windows option. Nothing restarts without your OK.

  • On your schedule

    After 1, 2, 3, 5 or 7 days up. Push it to tonight or next week, or turn it off in Settings › General.

How it works

  1. 1Your Mac passes 2 days since its last restart. Time asleep with the lid shut counts.
  2. 2At the next quiet moment, a card drops under the notch with a joke, the uptime and your swap.
  3. 3Click Restart for the usual macOS dialog, or push it to tonight or next week.

Why restarting your Mac helps

  1. 1

    It empties swap

    When apps want more memory than your Mac has, macOS compresses what's idle and writes the rest to your SSD as swap. Over days of uptime that pile only grows. Your SSD is far slower than RAM, which is the stutter you feel switching back to an app. A restart starts from zero.

  2. 2

    It ends memory leaks

    Browsers, Electron apps like Slack and Discord, and background helpers tend to grow the longer they run, and many never hand memory back until they quit. A restart quits all of them at once, including the ones you forgot were running.

  3. 3

    It unsticks system services

    Spotlight indexing, Bluetooth, audio and the window server occasionally get into a bad state. AirPods that won't connect, a fan that won't calm down or a frozen menu bar is often one of these, and a restart is the quickest fix.

  4. 4

    It finishes updates

    Many macOS and app updates download in the background but only finish installing on a restart, security fixes included.

  5. 5

    It clears temporary files

    macOS empties its temporary folders and rebuilds some caches when it boots, which can hand back disk space too.

An honest note: macOS manages memory well, and a Mac using most of its RAM is normal. You don't need a "RAM cleaner" app. A restart every few days simply clears the build-up that sleep carries over.

Questions

Does putting my Mac to sleep count as restarting?

No. Sleep pauses your Mac with everything still in memory, so swap, leaky apps and stuck services carry straight over. Only a restart or a shut down clears them, and ctrlhq counts uptime from the last boot for that reason.

How often should I restart my Mac?

Every few days is plenty for most people, or straight away if things feel sluggish. ctrlhq nudges after 2 days by default, and you can change it to 1, 3, 5 or 7 days.

Will I lose my open windows?

No. Restart shows the standard macOS dialog, where Reopen windows when logging back in is on by default. Apps ask you to save anything unsaved before they quit.

Does restarting really make a Mac faster?

If it has been up for days, usually yes. A restart empties swap, ends apps that have grown over time and resets stuck system services. On a Mac you restarted yesterday, it won't make much difference.

How do I check how long my Mac has been up?

Type uptime in Terminal, or open System Information › Software and look at Time since boot. With ctrlhq, the restart card shows it for you.

Can I turn the reminder off?

Yes. Settings › General › Restart Reminder has an on/off switch and the number of days. Not this week on the card quiets it for 7 days.

Also in the notch

All features

Restart reminder, and everything else.

Every feature is in one app, for one price: $24.99₹1,499 once, no subscription.

Buy ctrlhq · Launch price, regularly $29: $24.99Launch price, regularly ₹1,999: ₹1,499

One-time purchase, lifetime updates

Already bought? Download

macOS 26 Tahoe or later · Apple silicon & Intel