Level 1

27 points

Battery discharges while being plugged in at 100% / Battery draining while plugged in

Hi Apple Forum,

I have a "problem" with my battery, or maybe a bad user experience. I have the new MacBook Pro 2020 13 inch with 2 Thunderbolt ports.

This is the following environment where the issue appears:

MacBook is charged to 100%
MacBook is plugged in and fully charged (original Apple Charging Cable)
normal usage / just web browsing or watching youtube videos

Now, I open the MacBook Pro, battery is fully charged and plugged in. I start using the laptop and after some time, the battery charge starts to continously decrease. Obviously first 99%... 98%... 97%.... 96%... and so on until approximately 90%. While this is happening, it shows me in the top bar that the battery icon is still fully charged. I then click on it and it shows "Battery is not charging" and power supply through charging cable.

At 90% it randomly starts to reload the MacBook again up to 100%. While the battery is losing charge, I tried to unplug and replug for it to start charging again, but it didnt help. I switched the sockets and that didn't help either. I restarted the laptop and resetted the SMC. Nothing helped. I always wondered if this is something apple intentionally implemented to "keep the battery healthy". While this is making sense, it looks very confusing to me as a user.

They published an article stating that the battery may stop charging at 93% or more. But with my case, the battery is actually discharging from 100% to 90%. Which is kind of confusing to me, since I am not doing any heavy tasks or so on.

With my MacBook Pro from 2010 I had the experience that when my laptop is plugged in at 100% and I am using it, it stays at 100% and thats what I like to see actually. I attached one photo (in German) showing the "issue".

I have heard something about the newly implemented battery health system but I just want to be sure why this is happening.

Maybe any MacBook Pro 2010 user have experienced the same or wondered about it too. I haven't found any specific topics about this.

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Jun 29, 2020 12:55 AM

Top-ranking reply

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Posted on Jun 30, 2020 8:00 AM

leroydouglas wrote:

This is the new normal—

macOS Catalina 10.15.5 introduces battery health management, a feature designed to improve the lifespan of your Mac notebook's battery.

The Battery Health button appears in >SystemPreferences>Energy Saver —this feature is limited to Mac laptops with Thunderbolt 3 ports. That equates to all MacBook Pro models released since late 2016 and the Retina-capable MacBook Air models released since 2018.

About battery health management in Mac notebooks https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211094

you can read more:

https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/#macbooktips

Thanks for the reply. Is this exact behavior described somewhere in detail? I have only read very general things about the new battery health management. What may be describing our experience is this: "Based on the measurements that it collects, battery health management may reduce your battery's maximum charge when in this mode."

This could mean, that if at 100%, the Battery Health Management (BHM) intentionally decreases the maximum charge from 100% to 90%. But if this was written somewhere, stating this behavior, it would clarify a lot for us.

In the other post I linked, the author said the issue didn't occur again after disabling the BHM feature. Can someone approve this? This would then also add to the assumption that this comes from the BHM.

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59 replies

Jul 2, 2020 8:57 AM in response to Daavidd

Let me add— even pre Catalina macOS

Additionally you can read:

My battery won't charge to 100%

Occasionally, the battery might not show a full charge (100%) in macOS, even after the power adapter has been connected for an extended period of time. The battery might appear to stop charging between 93 percent and 99 percent. This behavior is normal and will help to prolong the overall life of the battery.

About Mac notebook batteries

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204054

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 2, 2020 9:13 AM in response to Aphexking

Aphexking wrote:

I have been told as in still occurred in safe mode,

Reinstall as new system, if this does not work to return as only 7 days old,

Has any one tried this wiping and starting again to see if it still occurs?

thank you

An interesting approach, though since currently most evidence points in the BHM direction, I don't think it will help. But if you want to try and let us know, I think everyone having that issue would be very thankful.

I see many people reporting about our exact issue in new posts. This will stay like this, if we don't get a feedback from Apple.

Jul 2, 2020 9:16 AM in response to Daavidd

SAFE MODE DID NOT WORK

I have been told to do a system reset, set up as opening for the first time, if it still occurs, been told hardware issue?

as I have been told today it should not be doing it when plugged in, I spoke to Apple on the phone on 2 occasions today.

Jul 2, 2020 2:09 PM in response to Daavidd

I am taking advice from 2 people I spoke from Apple, you would hope they have correct information they said it shouldn’t be doing this, my worry is that it gets worse.

have you take to Apple as the guarantee

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 4, 2020 1:46 PM in response to armatta

Hi, yes we had people experiencing "normal" battery behavior with BHM disabled and some reported they still had the same experience with the discharging.

What I experienced of the BHM as well, is the behavior that is described in the Apple post. I started charging my 2020 MBP at 96/95% and it actually showed me: "Battery is charged". This is clearly described by Apple in their post, so this doesn't scare me or concerns me at all (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204054). But they do not specifically talk about the discharging behavior. Which is concerting many people, as everyone can see in the forums and in this thread.

I will try this now: (and maybe you guys want to try it too) next time I see the discharging happening again, I will turn off the BHM while it is doing it. Unplugging and plugging back in did not trigger the MBP to charge again, maybe turning off the BHM will. This would strongly suggest that it is a BHM thing. I will keep you all posted.

armatta

Level 1

21 points

Jul 4, 2020 4:59 PM in response to Daavidd

Yes, I unplugged and plugged it back to no effect then noticed it would discharge to 90% and start charging again. I think what eased my concerns were that it seemed to occur only once a day around the same time which would suggest some sort of management going on behind the scene.

Can we find out if anyone’s MacBook is exhibiting this behaviour in 10.15.4? That would be the clearest indicator it’s not a battery fault, perhaps a macOS bug...

cpk2y

Level 1

9 points

Jul 6, 2020 9:03 AM in response to itsame_mario

I'm still on 10.14.6 AKA Mojave, which supposedly does not have any of the Catalina BHM, and my battery does what everyone is describing. Obviously with this many people having the same issue it's an OS feature, but they definitely need to officially publish that it will do that...

Jul 30, 2020 7:07 AM in response to Daavidd

I find this battery health management behaviour quite random. In the past, it normally does the 100%-90% recharging cycle at most once a day while AC is always plugged in.

For some reason battery health management decides to constantly cycle through (90-100%) today, and I am on the 3rd such cycle for the day already...

I am still using the MacBook Pro normally, I don't think I am doing anything different... Odd.

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jun 29, 2020 3:04 PM in response to itsame_mario

Hi itsame_mario,

for real I am relieved to read this. You exactly describe my issue. I simply don't understand why there is no clarification. If this is meant to be, Apple should know that this battery behavior will worry the user!!

The fact that a lot of people have this issue, make me believe that this might be intentional. Btw, my MBP is in Germany / German version. So it's an intercontinental "issue".

Currently the issue appears as of my research on the following MBPs, all running with the current Battery Health Managment:

15” MBP 2019
13" MacBook Pro 2019
MBP Late 2018
13" MBP 2020

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 4, 2020 1:47 PM in response to Aphexking

With the argumentation that your MBP is faulty and you should buy another one? Why don't they take it in for repair?

Jun 29, 2020 2:51 PM in response to Daavidd

I'm seeing the same thing on my MacBook Pro 13" 2020.

I charged it to 100% overnight and left it plugged in while using it. Battery charge slowly ticks down to about 90%, then charges again.

While I'm (somewhat) relieved I'm not the only one experiencing this issue, it is still worrying to see :(

Jun 30, 2020 6:46 AM in response to Daavidd

Not commenting on whether this behaviour is correct or not, but the description of your experience is IDENTICAL to my 2019 13" MacBook Pro.

My old 2014 15" MacBook Pro would stay at 100% all the time if I left it plugged in. Not sure why the current generation would lose charge even when it's plugged in all the time...

Jun 30, 2020 2:21 PM in response to Daavidd

I have the same issue, 2 days in a row on new mbp 2020 13 inch, while being

plugged in battery starts to go down, (has happened every day at about 24 hours

since the last time)

if you do a smc reset, this then puts the laptop back onto mains power.

(should not have to do this all time)?

I have not let it go down to 90% to see if then it starts to charge the

battery again as its on mains, spoke to apple and they HAVE NOT MADE ME AWARE

THAT IT SHOULD BE DOING THIS?

so i am not sure what’s going on, spending lots of ££

have you spoke to Apple?

thank you

ANY ONE have any advice or should this be the correct behaviour of the mbp

2020??

Jul 1, 2020 12:47 AM in response to Daavidd

I AGREE with you, a lot of money I have spent as well on my first MacBook, I will keep you posted, I will leave current settings as they are and see if this happens for 3rd day in a row, I will not reset it, I will see if it start charging when it gets to 90 per cent like your findings, I will keep you posted, if you hear anything then please let me know, many thanks

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 1, 2020 2:11 AM in response to Rusty5390

Thats the exact problem, Rusty. I think the internal communication within Apple doesn't work either, so the Apple Support doesn't even know which effects the BHM has on the charging behavior.

They will recognize the urgency, after sending many laptops back without having any problems or all the people calling/chatting the support. These expenses will show them, they need to clarify it in more detail.

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Battery discharges while being plugged in at 100% / Battery draining while plugged in