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Daavidd Author

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

leroydouglas

Community+ 2024

Level 10

188,712 points

Posted on Jun 30, 2020 6:46 AM

Daavidd wrote:

• 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

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

View in context

Similar questions

59 replies

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 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

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 1:38 PM in response to armatta

I have disabled BHM and I continue to see the problem after disabling BHM. It seems that the problem is completely unrelated with BHM. I have a MBP2020 13 which now 1 month old.

When it starts discharging, the only way I found that to make sure it is recharging again is to put it in standby. After standby it typically (90% of the times) starts charging again. Otherwise the recharging is completely random

from another person

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.

Jul 4, 2020 2:04 PM in response to Daavidd

I showed them screenshots, many :)

but it was very silly that the battery behaves **** good at the store lol.

the guy who helped me didn’t mention anything about BHM, tbh I also didn’t think of that until I found this post.

I personally think/hope this is just some os10.15.5 bug… but I still like to have a solid response from Apple.

I remember once I had keyboard problem with 2014 MacBook, that good keyboard generation, we couldn’t find any problem back then, and the problem is gone after the system update, so I hope this silly battery issue is the same OS glitch

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. :)

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 4, 2020 3:26 PM in response to Daavidd

Daavidd wrote:

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.

Hi all, I made a very interesting experience. My MBP started discharging again at 12 AM with 100% (being plugged in for around 1,5 hours and all the time at 100%).

I saw the discharge, when it was at 98% (showing: Battery is charged). I went to settings and disabled the BHM, and the MBP actually started charging again as usual! This happened without unplugging, restarting or resetting anything - only disabling BHM.

I then activated it again and guess what... the battery switched from charging to "Battery is charged", so actually discharging again.

For me this strongly implies that it is only a BHM related topic and actually only happens intentionally and bc it keeps the battery healthy. What do you all think? Can you reproduce this?

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 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.

Jul 27, 2020 1:18 AM in response to JianliangGao

Guys I have some update from Apple store Amsterdam, I left MacBook to them for further testing, after two genius appointments, they called me at the end of next day, says: there is nothing wrong with hardware after several testing, they told me it is completely normal that battery percentage behaves this way, no matter battery health turned on or off. The person who called me is the same person who tested my laptop, he told me that nothing to be worried.

I will see if I get an official repair report or something from Apple after I pick up the machine, I will share with you guys

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