**What is the problem?**My Raspberry pi should I leave it on even when im not using it for a while? I get bumped offline and have to reboot it all the time, so I thought I should just disconnect it. I also wanted to know if it is bad to disconnect it all the time. Sorry im a noob...
Thanks Larry
What did you already try to solve it?
Additional information about your setup (OctoPrint version, OctoPi version, printer, firmware, octoprint.log, serial.log or output on terminal tab, ...)
I leave mine on almost all the time.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by:
My RPi is connected via WiFi and is solid as a rock.
If I'm printing a series of parts, I leave it on so that the print volume remains warmed up. It might go like that for five days straight.
Otherwise, I turn it off at the end of a day's session.
Maybe I should have elaborated more. I leave my Raspberry Pi on all the time. I turn the printer off if I'm not going to use it for a while (overnight or longer). I have done some 20+ hour prints so I turn myself off during those 
I heard it is not good to unplug the PI so I wanted to see what others were doing. I thought I would ask and see what everyone else recommends. Do you have any issues with your wifi connection dropping over a period of time??
Thanks, LTR
It's not good to unplug the Pi while it is still running. You should issue a shutdown command first, and wait for it to complete before powering down the Pi. Once the shutdown is complete, it's safe to unplug the Pi.
I use an Alexa skill to run OctoPrint's shutdown routine via its API. When the LCD screen goes white I then use a second Alexa skill to turn off the TP-Link Smart Plug which powers the printer (RAMPS board which itself powers the Pi). Using Alexa to toggle the TP-Link back on then makes it ready to go again.
You should nicely shutdown OctoPrint via its menu if you can. If that doesn't work for some reason you should ssh into it and run sudo poweroff or sudo shutdown now, wait for 30 seconds and then toggle the power switch or pull the plug.
Not nicely shutting down could cause corruption to your microSD (if this is a Raspberry Pi) and could prevent it from starting up without a keyboard/monitor to answer some prompts about fixing the corruption. Since most run theirs headless, they often just assume the worst and re-image if it won't boot.
My Pi is powered from the printer PSU.
I just turn them both off, without a shutdown.
I know this is potentially a bad thing, but it hasn't been a problem yet.
Thanks for all the information, I am very new to this so it all helps.
LTR
It will work fine... most of the time.
Until it doesn't...then it will corrupt the SD card and, from what I've heard, possibly brick the SD card (still not sure how that failure mode comes about). So yeah...# sync; sync; shutdown now
chances are remote of that happening, but why take the chance.
If you really want to increase the chances of ruining your SD card, pull it out of the Pi while the power is still on.
Laziness, and a hint of expermentation.
When the print has finished the Pi shouldn't be doing very much. I
believe that Raspbian uses (journalled) ext4 and that should help too (I
realise that there are no guarantees).
Worst-case I need to DD the Octopi image back to the SD card. I can live
with that.
(Though I probably should do a remote DD tonight so that I am copying back
a fully configured FS in that scenario)
I find it useful to be able to connect to the Raspberry Pi while the printer is off. I don't have any problems with the WiFi dropping. If the Raspberry Pi is up, so is the WiFi, for months at a time.
The power draw of the Raspberry Pi is negligible. I have two Raspberry Pi systems, one of which has been powered on for over a year. The one connected to my printer goes up and down only because I'm playing with it, i.e. a new case, a hat module, another new case with a fan, etc.
Hi Larry,
It can corrupt the pi's SD card if you don't shut it down before you pull power. In octoprint, at the top you click on the power dropdown and choose shutdown system. after about a minute, you can disconnect power.
One of the problems is that so many people under-power their Pi's (that little lightning bolt or similar symbol in the upper-right corner of the Desktop, assuming that it's not headless), so the supplied voltage occasionally may be dipping down to the point where things are iffy.
The manufacturer I worked for re-imaged about a hundred microSD cards out of a few thousand printers due to card corruption in the field. It's a real problem. I would know because I wrote the service to regenerate those images.
You guys are a huge help, so I am going to double up. When I power down from Octoprint I have to power off my Pi because unless I reboot it I cant get logged back in. I just want to know if that is a normal function??
Thanks again. LTR
Yes. You shutdown OctoPrint and then you remove the power from the Pi (or your RAMPS board if it's supplying power to the Pi).
When power goes back on the whole show is ready to go.
By power down from OctoPrint do you mean "Shutdown system" from the System icon? If so, then the behavior is normal, "Shutdown system" does exactly that, on most PCs, the last step is to turn themselves off. The Raspberry Pi can't do that by default.
THANK YOU ALL I was trying to fix something that was not broken.
Damn noob!! LTR