Simple Shutdown 2 — User Guide

Render tonight, sleep well: Simple Shutdown saves your render and your .blend, then shuts thecomputer down, puts it to sleep or just closes Blender.

Requirements & compatibility

Install

1. Download simple_shutdown-2.0.1.zip. Don't unzip it.
2. In Blender open Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Get Extensions.
3. Click the ⌄ arrow in the top-right corner and choose Install from Disk…
4. Pick the zip. Simple Shutdown is installed and enabled at once.

Tip: you can also drag the zip from your file browser straight into the Blender window.

Updating from 1.x: in Preferences ▸ Add-ons, remove the old Simple Shutdown first, then install 2.0.Updating 2.x: install the new zip the same way; it replaces the old one.Uninstalling: Preferences ▸ Get Extensions, find Simple Shutdown, ⌄ ▸ Uninstall.

Where to find it

• Top bar, at its right end: the power button. It turns red and reads Shutdown ON when armed.
• Render menu (top of the window): Shut Down After Render.
• Properties ▸ Render tab: the switch at the very top, and a Simple Shutdown panel with all options.

Quick start

1. Set your Output path (Properties ▸ Output). For animations this is where the frames go.
2. Click Shut Down After Render in any of the places above. It turns red.
3. Render: F12 for a still, Ctrl+F12 for an animation.
4. Go to bed. When the last frame is done:
5. the still image is saved (animations already wrote their frames),
6. your .blend is saved,
7. a popup and a countdown in the status bar give you 60 seconds to cancel,
8. the computer shuts down.

What happens, step by step

1. Your render is saved

A still render (F12) lives only in memory, so it would be lost on shutdown. Simple Shutdown saves it to theOutput path in the file format set there. If the Output path is only a folder, the file gets the .blend's nameplus a timestamp, e.g. robot_20260930_231512.png. If no path is set, it goes next to the .blend.

2. Your .blend is saved

Only if the file was saved at least once (it has a name). This also prevents a "Save changes?" dialog fromblocking the shutdown.

3. The countdown

A popup says Render finished – Everything is saved. Shut Down in 60 s with a Cancel Shutdown button.The same countdown runs in the status bar, and the red button in the top bar and the Render tab turns intoCancel Shutdown.

4. The action

Settings

Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Add-ons ▸ Simple Shutdown (the main ones are also in the Render tab panel):

The switch itself is never stored in a .blend. It lives in the running Blender only, so opening an old filecan never turn your computer off by surprise.

Linux

Simple Shutdown uses the standard systemd commands, the same as the power menu of your desktop:

• Normal desktop login (GNOME, KDE, XFCE, Cinnamon on Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, Arch, openSUSE, Pop!_OS…): works out of the box, no password, no root.
• Blender from Flathub (Flatpak): detected automatically. The command is sent to your system through flatpak-spawn --host, so it works from inside the sandbox too.
• Blender from Snap, a tarball from blender.org, or your distribution's package: works as is.
• When the system refuses (a remote/SSH session, a server without a desktop, a locked-down company PC, a distribution without systemd): Blender stays open, nothing is lost, and the reason is shown in the status bar and the Render tab panel. To allow it for your user, ask your admin for the polkit rule org.freedesktop.login1.power-off, or use When Done ▸ Quit Blender.

Test it safely: set When Done ▸ Sleep and render the default cube. If the computer goes to sleep, shuttingdown will work too.

macOS

Shut Down asks macOS to shut down the same way the Apple menu does. The first time, macOS may ask"Blender wants to control System Events". Click OK. If you clicked Don't Allow, turn it on later inSystem Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Automation ▸ Blender ▸ System Events. Sleep uses pmset sleepnow andneeds no permission.

Windows

Shut Down uses Windows' own shutdown command, Sleep puts the PC to sleep. No administrator rights are needed.If Sleep hibernates instead, your PC has hibernation set as its sleep mode. This is a Windows setting.

Command-line and render-farm use

The switch isn't stored in files, so arm it on the command line:

blender -b scene.blend --python-expr "import bpy; bpy.context.window_manager.simple_shutdown_armed = True" -a

In background mode there is no countdown. It acts right after the render.

Troubleshooting

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Everything on Superhive and Gumroad.