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

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jun 29, 2020 2:32 PM in response to Daavidd

Apparently a similiar problem is described here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251451418?page=1

Apple please investigate this topic and provide some clarification for us!

Daavidd Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 1, 2020 12:58 AM in response to Aphexking

That sounds good, I am waiting for your reply! If I find anything, I will post it in here.

Jul 1, 2020 1:56 PM in response to itsame_mario

I wish APPLE could come out and confirm as I can imagine lots like me worrying about their new Mac

pmsardo

Level 1

4 points

Jul 2, 2020 8:55 AM in response to itsame_mario

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

Jul 4, 2020 1:40 PM in response to Daavidd

Strange as I have been advised to send back on phone by Apple

Jul 4, 2020 3:20 PM in response to Daavidd

Surly if it was a os bug wouldn’t it do this on all new MacBook Pro models ?

I keep u posted as my model getting collected Monday and hopefully i have replacement asap

Jul 5, 2020 6:58 AM in response to Daavidd

Daavidd, your BHM experience is identical to my 2019 13” MacBook Pro

pmsardo

Level 1

4 points

Jul 15, 2020 12:06 PM in response to Daavidd

Would be interesting to see with 10.15.6 that was just released we still have this problem....

Jul 17, 2020 1:45 AM in response to Daavidd

just updated Mac OS 10.15.6, and the problem is still happening,

apple store in Amsterdam already had two tests on my Mac, this time they told me I need to left Mac with them for max 4 days

Jul 30, 2020 8:23 AM in response to Daavidd

Probably a silly question, but I am just wondering does this battery cycling (90-100%) behaviour happen on anyone's 15" MacBook Pro, or it's specific to 13" models?

Aug 2, 2020 2:27 AM in response to København

Thanks for sharing your experience. I was wondering if I need to book a genius appointment. Now I decide not to do anything with that, I don't want to waste my time.

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

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

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

pmsardo

Level 1

4 points

Jul 17, 2020 1:46 AM in response to København

Yes. I confirm... I still have the problem also. Aprox every 24h I get a discharge to 90% aprox and recharge.

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