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 1, 2020 10:07 AM in response to Daavidd

Well today, 3rd day in row at same time, it seems to take battery to go down to about 88 per cent and then it decided to charge so maybe this is the norm but want to know for sure, thanks all for input as not changed any battery settings - has any one changed setting to see if it does the same ?

thanks for help everyone

Jul 1, 2020 1:28 PM in response to itsame_mario

so you think this is ok for a new Mac, nothing to worry about as Apple support have given no answers, does you start to charge when it gets down to 88-90 per cent again?

my Mac is 6 days old and want to make sure its ok?

thanks again

Jul 2, 2020 8:02 AM in response to Aphexking

Interesting, Apple Support I spoke to also didn't lead me to the BHM direction. They wanted to have my MacBook Pro checked by their service centre. Unfortunately, that only resulted in the service centre returning the laptop to me as is shortly after as they couldn't find any fault.

The encounter feels a bit random and they don't seem to have a confident handle on this battery charging/not charging/BHM situation to provide the clarity we are looking for...

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 2, 2020 9:02 AM in response to pmsardo

pmsardo wrote:

My experience is that this problem has nothing to do BHM. I have the problem with or without BHM being active.

Interestingly I hear this for the first time, that disabling the BHM did not help at all. We might need to get more people confirming your experience. Currently, I still see the correlation between the discharge and the BHM. Maybe Apple can clarify within this thread our experience.

We should still look at the exact environments this is occuring and when it stops/starts charging.

cpk2y

Level 1

9 points

Jul 2, 2020 10:50 AM in response to Daavidd

Having the exact same problem. It can't be due to BHM, as I'm still running Mojave (10.14.6), which doesn't have any of the BHM features in System Preferences. Unless there's an additional level of battery management that isn't published. SMC reset immediately starts it charging again, but it's back to discharging down to 90% within a day.

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 2, 2020 12:18 PM in response to cpk2y

It would be an interesting test if someone already has Big Sur access and could test if the issue still exists there. However, we can all agree probably that this issue started appearing 4-5 weeks ago? Or has anybody had that issue earlier or can link forum posts stating the identical behavior?

Maybe you could all confirm when it happend or you first saw this issue and new posts could include that in future replies - so we can dig in deeper in our analysis.

Jul 2, 2020 12:21 PM in response to Daavidd

I am sending back as other users I have asked on you tube and other message boards say their MacBook does not do with 2020 model and latest software so I give up after so many hours waster on phone, chat and trying everything with no joy

😢

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 2, 2020 12:28 PM in response to Aphexking

Aphexking wrote:

I am sending back as other users I have asked on you tube and other message boards say their MacBook does not do with 2020 model and latest software so I give up after so many hours waster on phone, chat and trying everything with no joy

😢

The thing is, to reproduce this issue, you have to have a certain charging pattern like "us". I used to always have my MBP plugged in and I actually didn't pay much attention to the battery bar (like most people wont). One time I did pay attention and since seeing the discharging issue, I was hooked and observed the battery charging bar like a maniac (thanks apple haha).

So to be honest, I think most people either just don't notice it or usually let their MBP discharge by itself (having it not plugged in). I can't send mine back, because I have it for more than 5 weeks now. I don't really see the urge to do so anyways, because it all points towards an intentional behavior (anything else, might be explainable through certain analysis, such as voltage difference and so on).

However, we should keep trying to solve this and maybe get feedback from Apple.

Jul 2, 2020 5:01 PM in response to Daavidd

It's weird, like I just started using my MBP 13" 2020 just a few days ago and I noticed around the same time (around 2am or 3am HST) it would deplete to about 90% and climb back up. I haven't really seen it drop to 90%, but I have seen it climbing back up and thought it was weird because the last I checked it was at 100%. I usually have my laptop just sitting on my desk most of the time around that time doing nothing because I'm doing something else on my ipad or phone. I did notice the BHM? thing everyones talking about. I'll try see if I can disable that feature and if that'll solve the issue on my end. Though from what I'm seeing, it's a hit or miss... Really do hope Apple would address this issue since it's clearly happening to several people. I personally don't want to send my laptop back as it took forever to come to me in the first place.

Jul 4, 2020 1:45 PM in response to Daavidd

Hi!

I have the same mac and same problem with you!

I just came back from Apple store Amsterdam today, they reinstalled Mac OS and gave me a new charger, but the problem appears right way when I got home…

they told me to bring in if the problem appears, I already booked earliest appointment I could.

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 4, 2020 1:52 PM in response to København

København wrote:

Hi!

I have the same mac and same problem with you!

I just came back from Apple store Amsterdam today, they reinstalled Mac OS and gave me a new charger, but the problem appears right way when I got home…

they told me to bring in if the problem appears, I already booked earliest appointment I could.

Hi, thanks for sharing! very interesting and finally some Apple Store feedback. Tbh, the charger might have been an "possible cause", but because it is happening in the certain pattern we all determined, it is rather unusual, I guess. If the charger is faulty, why should it have a "problem" charging between 90 % and 100 %. I see the issue rather with the battery or an intentional MacOS feature (BHM).

Can you please keep us posted? I might save me the trip to the Apple Store here in Germany. Many thanks!

Jul 4, 2020 1:54 PM in response to Daavidd

Yeah! I will keep update my story :)

oh actually, today at Apple store, they did hardware testing, battery was pretty fine, not a single hardware problem found in testing, they showed me the result.

the guy from store told me he has no idea, that’s why he ask me to contact ASAP if this happens again.

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 4, 2020 2:01 PM in response to København

Perfect! Many thanks for that!

Were you able to reproduce the behavior at the Apple Store or did you show pictures? Because it only appears in certain environments (at 100% for some time and plugged in, etc.). Did he talk about the BHM system?

But to be honest, I think most Apple Employees don't even know what the BHM exactly does.

Maybe next time you can even mention that many many people in the Apple forum have the same issue.

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 4, 2020 2:09 PM in response to København

Yes, well said! Obviously, the battery won't do it at the store, haha... I sincerely hope as well, that it is just either a feature or a MacOS bug. But to be sure, we just need, as you say, a solid response from Apple.

Maybe your Apple Store can clarify this for all of us. :)

Jul 26, 2020 2:18 PM in response to Daavidd

Similar thing happens to mine (2020, 13"). Mine is with me only 2 weeks. And that happened twice. Before I noticed, the battery was about 10% left, the icon showed charging, but it wasn't charging. I had to unplug and plug in again. Then it started charging.

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