Battery not charging after macOS Catalina Update

I transferred a DMG profile to Apple Yesterday that logged these bugs thoroughly on my MacBook Pro 16" - Since it is brand new, replacing a logic board seems to be not the correct solution. And this problem consistently happens on my MacBook Pro 15" 2017, 13" 2018 and 16" 2019 ... and this is directly bound to the Catalina Update. So I found a solution as after the Update to 10.15.2 (19C57), the Laptop wouldn't charge et al anymore.

So this happens if you have external "Other" Energy intense devices connected. I have a large 4K External graphics monitor. If the Battery is under 100% and all is plugged, it will not charge. If only the power brick is plugged it will charge. If at 100% and everything is plugged, it will maintain the 100% charge.

FWIW: The recent macOS Catalina 10.15.4 Supplemental Update, released on 08 April 2020 resolved the issue for me. The release notes specifically mention, "Resolves an issue where a USB-C port in your Mac may become unresponsive".

It is definitely connected to Catalina upgrade.

Before I upgraded my D6000 worked fine.

After the upgrade to Catalina it stopped charging through the D6000.

I tried 3 other D6000, and the last one allowed my macbook to charge again. So that was 1 out of 4 D6000.

I then upgraded the firmware on my D6000 and I could charge again on it. Upgraded the last 2 D6000 and they started allowing charge.

I believe it something with the handshake (between Catalina and charger) that has broken in Catalina.

After seven lengthy calls with Apple support where we did the same things over and over, I finally took my computer in to the Genius Bar. In the store, they quickly said this is a software issue that they've been seeing with Catalina. They asked to keep the computer to wipe and do a fresh install. (If that didn't fix it, they would replace the logic board.) I had already reinstalled iOS once, so I was skeptical, but I was so exhausted by the ordeal that I figured I might as well comply.

The computer was ready when the store opened the next morning, and has been working beautifully in the nearly six days since.

*** I HAVE A SOLUTION *** Re-calibrate your battery.

That's the answer for me.

As you will see from my earlier postings, I had the battery problem on two old-ish MacBooks , in each case directly after I installed Catalina. I tried various ideas, but nothing worked until I re-calibrated the battery.

MacBook Air 11" 6/2013

MacBook Air 13" Early 2015

I've been using my MacBook Air 13" for 4 days now with zero problems, and the older reserve MacBook 11" seems OK too (haven't used it much, but zero battery problems so far; whereas, before re-calibration, the battery problem was severe).

Read how to re-calibrate the battery here (there are tens of other sites with much the same info). It takes quite a few hours... be patient.

During the procedure, you will need to drain the battery on the MacBook. You might optionally wish to use an app to stop your Mac from sleeping. I used Amphetamine, which worked fine (free, on the Mac App Store, where there are several other apps, mostly free).

Hope this helps fix the Catalina battery problem for everyone else :)

Final comment: Catalina broke my MacBooks. IMHO, the Apple Support team should be telling you how to fix the problem, not me.

This is a known, recurrent problem that Apple refuses to recognize.

Try opening and closing the lid while pressing the ctrl-option-shift-power keys for 7 seconds. You may have to disconnect/reconnect the power plug (thunderbolt port) as well.

It appears the updates (happened to me twice now) scramble the power discovery feature on the ports so your Mac doesn't think there is a power source connected.

I see a lot of people posting that they think this has to do with whether or not the charger is plugged directly into the Macbook, or perhaps its their docking station, etc. It is none of these things - it is ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY related to the Catalina update, period, and Apple needs to step up and fix this. There is nothing anyone can do to fix this except Apple.

Here is what I tested:

1. Connected the power cable (USB-C) directly to the Macbook by itself (with NOTHING else hard wired to the Macbook). Macbook charges fine.
2. Connected the power cable (USB-C) directly to a basic single cable USB-C hub (aka "docking station"), then connected the hub to the Macbook by itself (with NOTHING else hard wired to the Macbook). Macbook charges fine.
3. Added to the #2 scenario noted above my USB Wacom pen tablet (with NOTHING else hard wired to the Macbook). Macbook charges fine.
4. In addition to scenario #3 above I added to one of the Macbook's other USB-C ports on the opposite side of the Macbook another small hub, with nothing connected to the second hub. Macbook charges fine.
5. In addition to the second hub (scenario #4 above) I added an external USB hard drive that requires power from the USB port to run. Macbook charges fine.

So far so good. With all of the above connected the Macbook charges fine.

However...

In addition to all of the above, I then added my HDMI external monitor to the first hub (#2 above) and BOOM, the Macbook no longer charges. I then stripped ALL of the devices noted in the steps above from the Macbook, and ONLY added back Steps #2 - #3 above, confirmed the Macbook was indeed charging, and then re-introduced my external monitor via HDMI and again the Macbook stopped charging.

Here's the interesting part... I then disconnected the HDMI monitor (charging resumed again) and instead connected my iPad Pro as a second monitor using Sidecar and AGAIN the Macbook stopped charging (regardless of how I connected it - whether via Bluetooth or via USB-C). Even though the iPad was not pulling power directly from the Macbook (i.e. it was connected via Bluetooth so it wasn't sharing power in order to charge it) the Macbook still stopped charging.

My conclusion... This may be a bug with the new Sidecar feature of Mac OS Catalina.

My Macbook specs are:

• MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017)
• 3.1 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
• 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3
• Intel HD Graphics 630 1536 MB

External Display: Dell UltraSharp U3415W 34-Inch Curved LED

I was cleaning my macbook pro hdd before update and battery was fine. After catalina update I was wondering why magsafe cable light was orange. I found out that battery was not charging and battery level was 0%. It seemed that my macbook had no battery at all.

I tried every means I could find from internet to fix this and nothing worked. This thing was driving me nuts. I almost gave up, because people got recommendations from Apple to fix the problem with several hundred dollars. I was almost ready to ditch all of my apple gadgets.

Today I desided to do a crazy thing. I took my screwdriver and opened my macbook and disconnected the battery and connected it back.

When I turned mackbook on without magsafe cable, believe or not, It started and when it was up, showed up 100% charge and it is working now just fine.

It’s a wonderful, wonderful mac world. I hope this will be permanent solution for me and maybe help for someone else. Time will show. I was lucky and I wish the best of luck for everyone with this one.

Update my problem was the 10.13.5 to 10.15.3 upgrade process on MBP 2017 with Touchbar

Resulting in No Battery detected, FAN on high permanently, and NO TOUCHBAR, and several other S/W features not working, eg. iCloud authentication not working, AppStore app hanging, etc

PROBLEM SOLVED : I performed the upgrade (Not a fresh install) from 10.15.3 to 10.15.5 - which solved ALL the above issues. What a relief.

This was after Apple Support told me the diags looked like a H/W issue, which required in-store support.

Conclusion

10.15.3 has serious issues, with H/W detection, and management. So far so good with 10.15.5.

Just tried the same thing and it worked:

• Closed the screen and re-opened.
• Battery now shows as "charging".
• Verified I can pull the charger out and it doesn't brick: in other words, suddenly it recognizes the battery again.

Thank you SO MUCH stevegogo! Hoping that gets me through until Apple fixes this bug.

Possible workaround: disconnect charging cable, shutdown the computer, wait a minute or two, connect the charging cable and luckily get amber light (sometimes i have to plug and unplug several times), wait until it´s green (it will take an hour or more). Then turn on the computer and from there it will keep working and charging, it you need to unplug it try not to let it go down less than 50%. I know it´s crazy but it works for me, hopefully until a Catalina update corrects it.

The problem for me was fixed with the 10.15.4 Supplemental Update, released on 08 April 2020, but returned with the 10.15.5 update released on 01 April 2020. The update included changes to the Energy Saver preferences and Battery Health Management options, which seems to be doing something wonky with the charging. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211094?cid=mc-ols-energy_saver-article_ht211094-macos_ui-04022020

Same here on MBP late 2013.

Since I have 2 charges - it seems that it stoped charging from a non-original one - but charge just fine from the original charger.

Have you tried _reversing_ the usb-c power cable? Sounds improbable but it's worked for me many times over for several months now.