How do I turn off my Playdate?

Playdate is designed to be on all the time, and under normal usage there should be no need to turn it off. But if you know you won’t be using it for a while and want to preserve the battery charge, it is possible to turn Playdate OFF.

NOTE: if your Playdate is locked and showing the clock onscreen, you’re already saving power. When displaying the clock, Playdate is in a low power state, only updating the screen once a second, and a few times a day checking with the Playdate server to see if any new games or OS updates are available. Turning your Playdate OFF entirely will save more power, but you won’t receive any game updates or OS notifications.

How to turn off your Playdate

1. Start with your Playdate unlocked.
2. Hold the LOCK button for 7 seconds (The screen will freeze during this time.)
3. After 7 seconds, the screen will go blank. (Your Playdate is OFF now. Press LOCK to turn it back on.)

Caveats

When OFF, your Playdate will not:

1. download any games or game updates.
2. inform you of any Playdate OS updates.