MacBook Battery Won't Charge...Get "Not Charging"

@JaneW: I also have left my relatively new MBA unused and unplugged for over a month, and now it will not charge and the battery icon indicates "Replace Now". Resetting the SMC and the other fixes in this thread have not worked. Did your appointment at the Genius Bar fix the problem, and if so what was the fix?

Following up to my previous post... 2 months ago my 2011 MacBook Air was working fine, and would last 2-3 hours on battery power. I let my MBA sit unused and unplugged for about 5 weeks, afterwards it would no longer charge or work on battery power. The light on the power cable was always green when plugged in, and the battery icon indicated "Replace Now".

A trip to the Genius Bar revealed that the battery was only at 30-something efficiency, and needed to be replaced. $129 +tax and 3-days later, later my MBA is now working on battery power again.

I wish I had known to keep the battery charged up periodicly - I didn't think that 5 weeks of non-use would kill the battery.

Ok guys, so I have read all these posts. Some info resembles mine, some is different. Here is the info:

Battery Information:

Model Information:

Serial Number: W0212P1MEBWZA

Manufacturer: SMP

Device Name: bq20z451

Pack Lot Code: 0

PCB Lot Code: 0

Firmware Version: 201

Hardware Revision: 000a

Cell Revision: 158

Charge Information:

Charge Remaining (mAh): 513

Fully Charged: No

Charging: No

Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 6632

Health Information:

Cycle Count: 337

Condition: Normal

Battery Installed: Yes

Amperage (mA): 153

Voltage (mV): 10904

I had the original battery replaced in 2011. My MBP is a 2009. It's been giving me a little trouble and not going to sleep when I close the lid. Just today it stopped charging, light on the mag connector isn't lit up at all. I have done a reset of the SMC twice, restarted, shut down and restarted and nothing. I have juice when it's plugged in but no battery. Weird thing is, its gone from 3% to 11% but says it isn't charging. It's a sealed unit so I can't just pull the battery out and do all that some are saying to do. Any help/input would be gratly appreciated.

I did all of these suggestions as well. I even replaced the battery with a fully functioning used one and still got the not charging message. Once I banged the charger against my countertop and cleaned out the connection it began working again.

Who knew? I wish I tried that before replacing the battery 🙂

And what helped the most? Banging the charger or cleaning it? 🙂 🙂

Add me to the list. I've replaced the battery, replaced the MagSafe adapter. I've reset the SMC, and the firmware is up to date. After I reset the SMC, it charges for perhaps a second or two, but then returns to "not charging" status. This is extremely aggravating considering all of the people complaining here (and add to these all of the folks with the same problem but either putting up with it or complaining in other forums). One would think Apple would have addressed this by now. 😠 .

After purchasing new battery and logic board, and still no luck, I tried one more thing. I have a MBP 13 inch mid 2009. I unplugged the battery meter board cable. This is right next to the larger block style battery plug. As soon as I disconnected, the black x disappeared and my battery started to charge. I have since replaced that cable with a new one, and everything is back working the way it should. If I went into settings, it wasn't even seeing a battery, never mind not charging it. I hope this works for you.

It worked!

I had the green magsafe light and "Calculating" battery error with instant power-off when i unplugged the magsafe after I inserted a new replacement battery.

I thought about sending the battery back for a refund or replacement but decided to check this forum first.

Lone and Behold by unplugging the magsafe and plugging back in and pressing the power button a few times the magsafe finally turned amber and the icon showed charging and the green battery lights showed they were charging too. I did fiddle with Energy Saver settings, changing the optimization from Better Performance to Normal and to Better Energy Savings and then back to Normal again before unplugging the magsafe, but I don't think that did anything. Kinda have to jump start these computers to get the battery working huh?

Thanks posters!

Macbook air mid 2011 charge issues

Battery replacement under warranty........(battery only still in warranty)

Macbook Air, is now out of warranty, i suspect of magsafe board issues because i tried dfferent macbook air chargers and they all behave the same, i need to force (up/down/left/right ) the L connector to get the air to charge....But its unreliable...

If i need to pay a magsafe board i will pursuit a lawsuit against apple....enough of this crap.

I had the same issue, the smc reset was not work so as a last resort before I took it to an apple store, did a PRAM reset. Worked great, super easy, and probably saved me some money at the apple store.

Old post, I know, but I had this issue after installing Yosemite. Adapter light was a soft green, but macbook was "not charging", and I received the message saying "Optimizing Your Mac: Performance and battery life may be impacted until completed.". Stuck at 11%. Calling Apple was no help. They tried to troubleshoot, then directed me to the Genius Bar. The guy couldn't even find out how to check the # of cycles. So, I then took the laptop and plugged it into another adaptor (a very old one, meant for a different computer), and it still said "not charging", but no light on the adapter. I plugged it back into the original one and BAM... It's charging, orange light on adapter. It's fine now. I don't know why, but I don't believe the update had completed, and it wasn't an issue of time (3-4 hours...). My window sizes went into default mode immediately after the laptop started charging. I'll wait and see if this occurs again before taking it to the store.

*** xD ... was the first thing I thought while reading your post. But after resetting SMC and some other cowboy-appraoches I felt I had nothing to loose by trying out your approach.

I have an Macbook Pro 15" Early 2011, and just bought a new battery(the exact same type as the old).

I removed the back completely. Tilted the laptop. Plugged in the charger(no light was showing from the charger). Turned on the laptop. Logged in. Unplugged the battery from the motherboard. The computer turned off right away. I got scared. The charger was showing the orange light. I plugged the battery to the motherboard. The battery began charging.

How did you come up with this approach!? xD

That was it!!

2009 Macbook Pro first reported no battery installed with an X in the battery icon. I could get it to change from that to NOT CHARGING by reseating the battery a couple of times but couldn't get passed that point. Bought a new battery installed it and had the same problem, not battery installed/not charging. Until I found your post.

The battery meter cable. I unplugged it and battery came online instantly and is now charging. Im not even going to bother changing it the meter cable.

You just saved us a trip to the genius bar! 😎