macOS Big Sur battery drain issue

Welcome, trevorblowy, to Apple Support Communities!

Please read the comment marked “Solved” at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252045241?answerId=254006415022#254006415022. (That’s on another Discussion of this same issue.)

Furthermore, since clean (“virgin”) installs of Big Sur—before installing or restoring third-party software (Apps, system or kernel extensions, boot-scripts, user extensions, etc.)—have never exhibited this issue (except, perhaps, in rare cases of hardware failures); it is already proven that Big Sur, itself, is not the cause.

(This is actually the most tested configuration of Big Sur [like all macOS’ before].)

Hence, there is little, if anything, Apple can do about this issue.

Note: The distinction between upgrades vs. updates is important:

• Updates cannot introduce incompatible Operating System (OS) changes.
• Upgrades can, and usually do, introduce incompatible OS changes. In fact, this is the principle reason for creating upgrades!

Big Sur is a major OS upgrade.

As such, it is to be expected that, at least some, old software will not be compatible, and may “act up”.

We, your fellow users, can help you track down the errant, old software, if you desire.

I managed to fix the problem last night by updating all my apps in the App Store and with Adobe Creative Suite. For some reason the desktop version of Whatsapp wouldn't update, so I deleted it in applications and did a fresh install of just that app. My computer is back to normal. If I'm understanding correctly, this is a problem with the apps we are running on our machines that may not have taken very well to the new operating system. Following three lengthy sessions with apple support, I don't understand why they could not have told me this.

My advice would be, update all your apps. Delete the apps that won't update and do a reinstall. Good luck!

NJJackinVA wrote:

<sarcasm>

So the solution is just run your Mac with nothing installed, it works just fine.... AKA a very expensive Chromebook.....

</sarcasm>

Fortunately, you know that that is far from the truth.

The point of a truly clean install of Big Sur is not a directive to always run that way, but as a proof that the issues people are running into are the result of incompatible third-party software.

Upgrade the third-party software, and eliminate any that are not upgraded to compatible versions, and your troubles disappear.

If you have third-party software that you depend upon that hasn’t, yet, been upgraded to a compatible version, then you may not wish to continue running this major Operating System (OS) upgrade.

The reality is this battery drain issue was very pronounced when Big Sur came out, and has gotten incrementally better with each dot release. …

Or simply over time, due, for instance, to Automatic third-party software upgrades.

Your argument relies upon purely circumstantial evidence.

There is a good reason why circumstantial evidence is inadmissible in courts of Law: such is usually misleading.

… To say the OS is perfectly fine and it is the fault of 3rd party software developers is disingenuous. …

Such is not at all «disingenuous». In fact, such is demonstrably true, by simply running without the «3rd party software» that is not specifically upgraded for compatibility with this major Operating System (OS) upgrade.

It is only after adding in such not-fully-compatible third-party software, that the issues begin.

Due to the fundamental difference between an OS upgrade, vs. a mere update, it is fundamentally foolhardy to expect old software to be compatible, without specifically checking such compatibility.

… While there may be changes that developers will need to make to their code base, it is a result of changes made to the OS that precipitated this issue.

Of course there were «changes made to the OS»!

That’s the very point of an OS upgrade!

Furthermore, all the «developers» were alerted to that fact, well in advance.

Most of your third-party software is probably already upgraded/updated, if you simply go and check. (Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee they won’t want you to pay for the new versions.)

The Macbook and macOS is an end user product that is marketed to and purchased by consumers of all technical levels. It is reasonable to expect, especially how Apple deploys updates/upgrades, most users will simply upgrade their system, and by extension that Apple should also expect the same. …

This is why I consider the way Apple deviated from their prior practice, and actually provided the major Big Sur upgrade through the Update Panel, to be a “tactical” error.

… IMO because of that Apple has an obligation to fully vet their software to not do harm, and from that point of view they failed with this release. …

I’m not going to touch that, since it is not properly applicable to an OS upgrade, vs. a mere update.

While such is arguably true of updates, such is not so applicable to upgrades.

That’s why I keep stressing the distinction. (I’m not a lawyer, but the distinction would seem to hold legal weight, as well as technical.)

… Furthermore one of the key selling points of products from Apple and why we are willing to pay more for them is their high level of technical abstraction, they deliver products that just work and are easy to use …

Yes.

…, with that comes a responsibility to make sure things like this don't happen.

Such does not absolve users of their need to exercise due diligence. (There are even Latin terms that lawyers tend to use for such consumer responsibilities.)

If you created a copy of your system, then using the Time Machine is the easiest option to revert it to the snapshot from before the upgrade. But I assume you did not create it if you ask this question.

I tried to do factory reset and test the new system (Big Sur) without any 3rd party software. Unfortunately what some people here claim (that the problem is only result of incompatible 3rd arty software) is not true and the problem with fast battery drain persisted on completely "clean" instance of the OS.

Therefore I did another factory reset and this time I manually downloaded Catalina.

To do a factory reset you need to start your machine in recovery mode (Comman + R when the system starts). Then format your HD partition. Do not upgrade the system when asked for.

When you manage to start your laptop with the "original" OS, goole for Catalina download (you'll not find it in the App Store).

Hi Pierfconsa, If you have malware protection software that's probably the culprit--third-party software. If not check your extensions, there's one or more that probably shouldn't be there. As I pointed out earlier, the culprit for me was Malawarebytes. As soon as I got rid of it my battery life returned. I would definitely start with all third-party packages.

Best,

The Bobes

Hi everyone, I am using MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017). After @Halliday suggestion, I checked Activity Monitor. I see that Google Chrome Helper was using CPU with %96 percentage. Then I removed Google Chrome from my Mac, but I still see that 'helper' on activity monitor. After that, I removed all Google maps (Chrome, Drive, Gsheet, GDocs) from my Mac and I see that Google Chrome Helper is not on activity monitor anymore. I am now using Safari since I removed Chrome.

Above trials seem solved my issue, but I will check the activity for a while and share my experience here.

I hope all you can solve this Big Sur drain battery issue soon.

Remark: As I red some blogs, this issue is related to Google apps and not Apple. We will see who will solve the issue...

I've noticed the Google Chrome Helper is constantly using 100% of CPU. I've also noticed that even though Chrome is closed the Google Chrome Helper still runs and use 100% of CPU.

I've compared this behaviour in another Mac that I have with Catalina and the Google Chrome Helper process does not take constantly 100% of CPU.

So, I'm testing on the Mac with Big Sur using only Safari browser and running the following command periodically every 5 seconds to ensure the "Google Chrome Helper" does not run.

killall "Google Chrome Helper"

I hope this was draining my battery but I need one or two days to confirm.

After a week of frustration with this, and deleting the Google Chrome Helper on the Activity Monitor twice this morning I uninstalled then reinstalled Chrome and it appears to have worked - battery went down 5% in past 30 minutes.

As I noted in my previous posts, I tried clean install, formatted my SSD entirely and installed Big Sur from USB. It helped a bit, but still much bigger battery drain than Catalina.

There is no fix whatsoever, unless downgrade to Catalina which I highly recommend.

With Catalina my MBA 13" lasts again 5h:29m compare to cleanest possible installation of Big Sur with battery lasting 2h:20m.

THERE NO FIX EXISTS SO FAR, ONLY APPLE CAN DEBUG THE PROBLEM AND FIX IT !!!

I had this issue too but it has resolved itself, as I'm sure it will with you. It's a normal part of a major OS change or upgrade. The Spotlight.app needs to make a new indexing of the system (disk) and depending on how much data you already have on your machine, this could take one or two days or it could take a week. It took about 5 days for me - I did start to panic on day 4 that it was a genuine bug but it did sort itself out. After that the battery use should return to normal.

This is the only reason the suggested 'clean install' works instantly - you no longer have have any additional data to index.

Welcome, moreaboutbatteries, to Apple Support Communities!

«same problem», same solution.

Unfortunately, the fixes are dependent upon the errant third-party software.

Follow the recommendations on using Activity Monitor (including changes to View All Processes, rather than the default of “My Processes”), to search out the errant software, so you can make corrections.

A simple first step is to make sure all your software is up-to-date!

(Really, no one should ever perform a major Operating System [OS] upgrade, without checking software compatibility, first!)

After running 11.0.1 for 30 days, updating all my 3rd party apps, uninstalling Chrome, setting up iCloud, disabling Voice Control and booting into Safe Mode, my battery finally stopped the excessive draining and returned to the 4.5 to 5 hours I was getting under Catalina.

I have a Mid 2015 15" Retina MacBook Pro with a battery at 78% of capacity.

I just installed 11.1. It took about an hour with no hiccups. It turns out there was a new major update of Microsoft Office which I installed after installing 11.1. After disconnecting my power cable, there was no noticeable decrease in battery life. I am

still getting the 4.5 to 5 hours on the battery on 11.1 as I had on Catalina.

So it looks like 11.1 does not affect battery life if you've done the things like I described above. If you've been on Big Sur less than 3 weeks and haven't updated 3rd party apps, then you should expect to see the excessive battery drain continue under 11.1.

However, during the first 3 weeks after first installing 11.0.1 and before I did all the things I described above, my battery life had dropped to less than 2 hours and I was in the same boat with a host of other users reporting excessive battery drain after installing Big Sur 11.0.1.

I believe, Stoyanski89, that you’ll find some comments, earlier in this Discussion, that testify they have seen little if any change with the 11.1 update to Bg Sur.

In that same vicinity, you’ll find that I expected that there would be no change in this issue associated with that update.

The reason that update has little, if any, affect on this issue is that there is nothing for Apple to “fix”, for this issue: this issue seems to be an interaction with third-party software. Fix the third-party software, and you fix the issue.

The simplest proof of this is that clean installs never have this issue.

Unfortunately, but understandably, many, even with the most difficult to solve versions of this issue, are not willing to go through a clean install, let alone the steps, thereafter, to better narrow down the errant interactions.

However, the simplest first steps in alleviating this issue is to make sure all your software is up-to-date. The hardest part is that you may well have old utilities, kernel and system extensions, and such, that you may well have even forgotten you have.

Hi ByronBorja,

Logging out and then logging in AppleID/iCloud fixed my battery drain problem as well. I described the steps in my earlier post (on the 5th of December), see

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252033589?answerId=254055323022#254055323022

The battery problem has not reoccurred on my MacBook Pro since. I also think vladislav127 suggested this fix around the same time, but this does not appear to be a universal solution for everyone given the variety of software people run on their computers.

I found a solution which has worked for me over the last 3 days. (So far, so good). I did a NVRAM and PRAM reset but not a SMC reset. This after doing a full reinstall of Big Sur followed by a TimeMachine restore. I'm now getting about 10% per hour normal use, which is what I was getting with Catalina previously.