The Raspberry Pi doesn’t have a power button that can be used to shut down the Raspberry Pi or restart it. To make changes, you will need to use either the Terminal or Desktop GUI. The best thing is that you can remotely access Raspberry Pi, and then SSH into the Terminal. You can then reboot or shut down the Raspberry Pi easily. These operations can be performed by using your Windows laptop as a monitor. Let’s now look at the tutorial to find out more about how to shut down Raspberry Pi.
Shut down Raspberry Pi (2021)
In this article, we have provided multiple methods to reboot or shut down a Raspberry Pi. There are three options: Terminal, Desktop GUI, and adding a physical power button. Let’s explore them further.
How to Shut Down Raspberry Pi
Method 1: Desktop GUI
It is easy to shut down Raspberry Pi if you use the Desktop GUI (e.g RaspbianOS).
- Click on the Raspberry menu in the upper-left corner, and then click on ” Logout“.
- Once this popup window appears, click ” Shutdown.”. That’s it. The Raspberry Pi will immediately shut down.
Method 2: Using Terminal Commands
There are several options to turn off the Raspberry Pi if you prefer to use the Terminal on Raspberry Pi via SSH or wired connection.
- Open the Terminal and type one of these commands. These commands will immediately shut down your RPi.
sudo poweroff
Or
sudo shutdown –h now
- If you need to turn off your Raspberry Pi for a specific time, this is how you define your argument. 30 will mean that your Raspberry Pi will turn off after 30 minutes. To cancel the scheduled shutdown, you can also use the shutdown -c command.
sudo shutdown –h 30
- You can use the following command to shut down Raspberry Pi at a specific time (e.g. at 9:00 PM): The 24-hour clock system is used by the Terminal.
sudo shutdown -h 21:00
Method 3: Add a power button to Raspberry Pi
Advanced users can add a power button to the Raspberry Pi board via the GPIO pins. The Terminal must also be used to configure the GPIO headers. This page has a detailed tutorial. To turn off/on your Raspberry Pi, you can also buy a USB Type C Power Switch cable at Amazon ( $7.99).
Method 4: Unplug the plug
If you’re too lazy to use the Terminal or the desktop GUI, you can unplug the power cable and turn off your Raspberry Pi. Although this will instantly turn off your Raspberry Pi, we recommend that you use one of the other methods. If you decide to turn off the Raspberry Pi, you should save your work.
How to Reboot Raspberry Pi
Method 1: Desktop GUI
You can also reboot your Raspberry Pi using the Desktop GUI environment, just like the shutdown process. These steps are the same.
- In the upper-left corner, click on the Raspberry menu.
- Click on the ” Boot” button in the popup window. The Raspberry Pi will immediately restart.
Method 2: Using Terminal Commands
- To instantly restart Raspberry Pi, open the Terminal. These commands can be used to reboot Raspberry Pi boards remotely via either a wired or SSH network connection.
sudo reboot
Or
sudo shutdown –r now
In just a few steps, power off or restart your Raspberry Pi!
This is how to shut down or restart your Raspberry Pi using the Desktop GUI and Terminal. If you’re good at hardware, you could add a power switch to the board’s GPIO header pins. That’s all we have to say. Follow this link to learn more about the best Raspberry pi commands. If you have any questions, please comment below.
