macOS Big Sur battery drain issue

My 2017 13" MBP started this exact same thing yesterday, only my battery won't charge at all.

Support says not related, escalated to a senior advisor who directed me to call support, give my case number and request an escalation to engineering.

My concern now is that, while I can have the battery replaced locally for ~$400, what happens if the OS takes it out again? This is the device that I earn my income on.

Thank you Halliday, I did see your same thoughts on another post and I honestly understand what you are saying about this big update requiring some "short-term" "growing pains", however my recent conversations with Apple Support have deepened my understanding that this update is not for "everyone".

This update is optimized for the M1 chip and nothing prior.

My resolution and only option is to replace my battery and while in for that service I will be having y machine reverted back to Catalina.

I am also running a test with my other machine, an older MBP which is still on Catalina and according to the Senior Advisor I spoke with, should require a battery replacement soon as well. I will, of course, not be updating this machine and if it continues to operate normally will point a finger directly at Big Sur as the cause for the issue in my machine.

I have a 2014 MacBook Air. The battery drain was bad but after just over a week it appears back to normal. Tonight spent 0.5 hr on spreadsheets then Just watched 1.5hr film and it dropped 5%.

However I still have the battery warning ⚠️

The message I get if I click on the 🔋icon is - Service recommended then a message to say the battery’s capacity is reduced.

Then I am taken to an Apple support page for a ☎️ Or Chat.

I have not taken it that far because I mainly use it plugged in and the battery lasts over 6 hrs depending on usage.

Well, dhsethsmith, service recommended is just that: recommended.

A reduced battery capacity is just what you seem to think it is: it will keep your MacBook running for less time than it otherwise would.

So long as your battery is not bloated or otherwise distorted, you’ll probably be fine, for a while.

Take care.

Same problem for me when i update Catlina to bigsur update . i am watch all youtube videos or some blog for drain issue of bigsur and i try all solution but these issue is not solve .

then i downgrade to Mojave .now it's working fine .

I am having the exact same issue. I have a 15-inche 2018 MacBook Pro. I upgraded to Big Sur 11.0.1 and Today in a meeting I was 100% charged. The meeting started at the top of the hour and after 42 min I was @ 6% battery. This has never happened before. I know people will say applications, well I was only running one at the time and that was safari. So What gives? There is something wrong Apple. And you Old timers, I don't want to hear from you saying that this "major release" cannot be an issue, It is.... Apple fix this.

Not helpful at all "old timer". Don't defend Apple. There is an issue. And since this happened to me only running Safari in my meeting 100% to 6% in less than 45 min this is an apple software issue and not a Third Party issue.

Yes, jbrashear72. There is an issue.

However, it’s not with the Operating System (OS) upgrade, nor the included Apps, such as Safari.

(I know you don’t want to hear that.)

Just because you, as the user, are running only a single App (like Safari), does not imply, in the slightest, that that software is the only software running on your computer.

If you have never run Activity Monitor, on your computer, with the View set to All Processes (I usually use “All Processes, Hierarchically”, so I can see what processes subprocesses are associated with), then you have no idea what is running on your computer, nor what could be causing your computer to be using so much Energy.

All I’m recommending is for you, and others, to try and see what’s really going on, on your own computers, rather than jumping to conclusions, blindly (because you haven’t looked) “pointing fingers”.

I had the same probleme with my macbook pro 2018, after bigsur clean install bad battery performance and mostly a battery drain when my mac sleep.

after 4-5 days my battery was really better but i always had battery drain (8-10% / 24h).

I tried reset smc pram ect... always battery drain.

i returned to catalina, good battery but sleep drain.

i returned to mojave, same issue

i think bigsur change "bios settings" or something because after my catalina clean install i always had boot sound "dong".

that's really strange.

Yesterday, i tried upgrade to "bigsur" with my mojave installation, i don't understand why but now, no battery drain when my mac sleeping (18h 0% loose) and good battery performance.

Maybe apple changed something in the installation file.

Did not read every reply, so sorry in advance if this is redundant. Had battery drain and overheating for two weeks after Big Sur install (2016 MBP). Tried all the "fixes" (NVRAM, SMC, spotlight indexing, uninstall/reinstall Chrome, calibrate battery, etc). All the while, activity monitor showed that a process called "kernelmanagerd" was running at 60-80 CPU% constantly. I researched and learned this task is an interface between 3rd party software and MacOS. Then I read that antiviral programs (specifically Malwarebytes) were causing same problems for others. 

I had actually downloaded this software long ago but had forgotten about it. So it was only when I saw it as a program that could be "uninstalled" in my CleanMyMac app that I realized the issue may have been lurking in the background. I removed Malwarebytes completely, rebooted my mac and things appear to have returned to back to baseline. The "kernelmanagerd" process is no longer using CPU. Fingers crossed.

Yes, zeusallmighty. An all too common problem with third-party software, that is, far too often, overlooked by those wishing to “point fingers”.

However, I will, also, warn you about «CleanMyMac».

Well before Big Sur, «CleanMyMac» has been implicated in many Mac issues.

Around these communities, it has earned considerable disdain.

Do with this warning what you think best.

Over 3 week now with BigSur and this I out of hands. I have been using Macbook for a 12 years and none of these major updates before hasn't drained battery like this :( Almost all apps are so slow and crashing aaaal the time.

My MBP went from 6h-1h and when I do my 3D then it's even less :(

Draining while plugged in? WHOA.

I'm Halliday is copying and pasting his response, but while we wait...

I also spent a lot of time on the phone with support, actually I started with chat where I escalated to a senior advisor and then requested to escalate again to engineering which is when I was asked to call in and had to escalate to another senior advisor lol

The second one was pretty helpful in that he at least tried to look into their resources to see what had previously been noted, but found nothing.

Through conversation, and not in so many words, we arrived at the conclusion that Big Sur is significant and most machines/apps are not ready. It's basically designed with their M1 chip in mind, so while their official position will never openly admit to pushing users in that direction, that's basically what's happening.

What was officially noted it that Big Sur has tighter power tolerances, and while my battery may have been fine a while longer on Catalina, it did not meet the standards of Big Sur and was therefore flagged as no longer being compatible.

I am testing this out with my wife's 2015 MBP which we have not upgraded and has a battery which, according to the Sr. Advisor's assessment, should require replacement soon as well. My guess is it will last a long time yet, which will prove, at least to me, that Big Sur just costed my $420 to replace my battery and revert back to Catalina.

I hope you get yours figured out as well!

Have you actually tried the recommendations, Christocce, to find the errant software?

If your MacBook doesn’t “settle down” within a few days of continuous use, then you likely have a case of third-party software that has gotten “confused” by the major upgrade (not an update).

If you have never run Activity Monitor, on your computer, with the View set to All Processes (I usually use “All Processes, Hierarchically”, so I can see what processes subprocesses are associated with), then you have no idea what is running on your computer, nor what could be causing your computer to be using so much Energy.

All I’m recommending is for you, and others, to try and see what’s really going on, on your own computers.