kay19mac

Q: Unusual battery drainage and warming up after macOS Sierra update

I updated to Sierra about 3 days ago I've started to notice my battery draining extremely fast and the fan turning on during times where it never has before. Even just sitting in class taking notes on my computer with nothing else running will now drain my battery and make my fan kick on extremely loudly. I had my battery up to 80% and this only lasted an hour for my class. I have checked to see if any apps are using significant energy and it says there aren't any. If anyone has suggestions i would appreciate it.

MacBook Air, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Sep 24, 2016 11:50 AM

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Q: Unusual battery drainage and warming up after macOS Sierra update

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  • by rvaro2,

    rvaro2 rvaro2 Sep 24, 2016 1:24 PM in response to kay19mac
    Level 2 (402 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2016 1:24 PM in response to kay19mac

    Is Siri running at all with the new update?

    i turn mine off when i'm not using it. Remember, Siri is always thinking and searching so when you put in a request you are not waiting a long time for search results.

    Since Siri is always working, your laptop is being used more, which will use more battery.

  • by kay19mac,

    kay19mac kay19mac Sep 24, 2016 1:53 PM in response to rvaro2
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 24, 2016 1:53 PM in response to rvaro2

    I have turned siri off and it is still doing the same thing. I have heard that spotlight indexing is a main drainer of battery in this situation with sierra especially, but i know nothing about that or how to turn it off.

  • by DrJus,

    DrJus DrJus Sep 27, 2016 9:30 AM in response to kay19mac
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Sep 27, 2016 9:30 AM in response to kay19mac

    I had this issue immediately after I installed Sierra on my MacBook Air.  First I tried resetting the SMC and the PRAM.  This did not stop battery drain and the fans from constantly running.  I then used Activity Monitor to see what was possibly overtaxing my system.  I saw that the 'secd' process was consistently sucking up over 90% of my CPU usage.  Others however said that this is normal after an OS upgrade and should drop back down after the computer finishes its initial photo and file scanning.  I therefore let my MBA run plugged in nonstop for 36 hours straight and the fans just kept running while the 'secd' process continued to drain at >90% CPU usage.  I also looked closer at the Activity Monitor and saw that tasks like photo analysis had their own processes separate from 'secd'.  So I digged more into what the heck 'secd' was really doing with so much of the CPU resources.  Long story short, I found that there is some glitch in Sierra that causes the macOS to get stuck on a process involving the Keychain and iCloud.

     

    This is what I did to address this Keychain/iCloud issue that was leading to 'secd' overtaxing the CPU and triggering the fans to always be on:

    -In Activity Monitor, I used Force Quit to kill the process that involved the Keychain

    -In Activity Monitor, I then Force Quit the process that involved iCloud

    -In Activity Monitor, I finally Force Quit the 'secd' process. (I found that I could not simply Force Quit 'secd' without first killing the Keychain & iCloud processes first)

    -After all that, I restarted the computer and the fans were finally off!  I opened up Activity Monitor and saw that 'secd' was no longer hogging up CPU usage.  Processes like photoanalysis were still running in the background at 40-50% CPU usage with no unwanted triggering of the system's fans.  Battery life went back to normal.  iCloud syncing and my Keychain were also functioning just fine.

     

    Took me awhile to get this sorted out.  Hope this helps save you some headaches and time until Apple is able to realize that there is this Sierra software glitch they need to address.

  • by ~Racquet~,

    ~Racquet~ ~Racquet~ Sep 29, 2016 11:43 PM in response to DrJus
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 29, 2016 11:43 PM in response to DrJus

    I checked my secd usage, its 0% CPU usage.

    Battery problem still persists.

  • by DrJus,

    DrJus DrJus Sep 30, 2016 6:35 AM in response to ~Racquet~
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Sep 30, 2016 6:35 AM in response to ~Racquet~

    If Activity Monitor shows no runaway process and the various spotlight indexing and iPhoto pic analysis has fully completed with the Sierra upgrade, your rapid battery drain may be hardware related.  Just prior to my Sierra upgrade, my Macbook Air suddenly went from lasting several hours to draining down to zero in about 40 min.  I took it into an Apple Store and they found that the battery needed to be replaced.  They did this for $129 and this solved my issue.

     

    So it may be coincidence that your battery is dying around the time of your Sierra upgrade.  I recommend making a Genius Bar appointment and having them run a check on your battery.  If the battery is fine, their diagnostic system may likely tell you what your actual issue is.