macOS Big Sur battery drain issue

Hello guys! I have the same issue with 2019 Macbook air. For about 15 min the battery drains for 100% to 91%.

Did someone know how to revert and to go back to Catalina? I cant find it in the appStore

Hi

Same problem. This morning I had meeting and my battery was 96%, hour and half later it was 1% and my laptop was just still and did nothing whit that but it was still hot and battery life was dropping.

I have no battery issues with MBP 16 2019. Battery management seems better than Catalina. I installed BIG SUR in a new volume , then i can switch back to Catalina .I just have to move documents and install apps in BIG SUR and kill Catalina when it will be empty.

Same problem with 2014 MacBook Air. Now I am getting 3hrs usage instead of 6-8 hrs normal usage. Don’t bother watching Netflix with Big Sur I just manage a 1hr 40m film yesterday starting with 80% battery.

This is very helpful information as some of us no longer have access to the paid Apple Customer Care service. Thanks so much for sharing this. Hopefully after a few days this will resolve itself... hopefully 😓

Ditto. I went from being able to use my 2020 MacBook Pro periodically through most of a day, recharging only at night, to having to recharge the machine after less than two hours of unplugged use. I use Chrome for my browser, but I did that before upgrading also. I upgraded on day one, so any re-indexing should be complete by now.

I have reseted the SMC and NVRAM plus stopped the spot light search for some and it is working fine now just reached one hour working from 100% to 90% with around 70% brightness and only safari working with one youtube tab and bluetooth connected AirPods. I have MacBook Pro 13" 2016 non-touch with cycle count 22

I think this may be useful to fix this issue, Good luck

Same problem here BUT checking Activity Monitor I realised there's a process (EFI) which is the major responsible for my CPU draining, I guess. After a restart, there are like 4 EFI processes running which multiplicate over time. After 3 hrs the EFI process were like a dozen or so. Since I don't know what the EFI process is about I might be wrong, of course, but it's my main suspect here.

ANY CLUE?

Thanks in advance

Well, olmiolmi, it looks like you are looking at All processes within Activity Monitor, rather than only User processes (then assuming there is practically nothing running).

Are you looking at the CPU or Energy tab?

Both will give you information: CPU is more short timeframe, Energy can give you a longer timeframe view (though it seems to only show a subset of processes).

(I don’t see anything like the EFI processes, but my machine has been running about four days straight, after the upgrade, so my machine is nice and settled.)

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.

I have a pretty new MacBook Pro 2019 16 inch.

when I upgraded to Big Sur, my laptop started running hot for no reason, my fans are always on, and my battery drains incredibly quickly. in like an hour my battery drained from 90% to 40% percent. mind you I'm not doing heavy tasks. :/

don't know what to do.

Unfortunately, Stoyanski89, even if you choose All Processes, in View, the Energy tab, in Activity Monitor, only shows a subset of processes. (It’s probably a case of those processes that have been appropriately “instrumented”, in order to account for Energy use.)

So, you may want to also take a look at the CPU tab, with All Processes being viewed. (I usually run with All Processes, Hierarchically, so I can see what Apps are running what sub-processes.)

It should go without saying, but, unless you have a hardware issue (short-circuits, or such), high energy use comes from high hardware use!

See what’s really going on “under the hood”.

Thank you @Fabry69 !!

I had the same big problem yesterday after the upgrade (??) to Big Sur: battery lasted 3 h instead of 8-9 !

And this morning is from 100% to 80% in only 1 hour, so it's not resolved yet (usually after 1h I lost 10% max !).

I hope Apple solve this!!

This has been exactly my case: MBP, 16'', tremendous drain of battery even after two days and after spotlight has finished its duties. NVRAM and SMC reseted at no avail.

BUT, after noticing the Google Chrome Helper was still working even with Chrome closed, and AFTER KILLING Google Chrome Helper, everything has gone back to normal: battery drain as usual (nearly 7 hr), temperature normal (no super-hot as before), no fan...

Well, I know this is not the definitive solution, as Google Chrome Helper was working flawlessly with Catalina, and not with Big Sur, but at least I know what I must do now while Apple doesn't provide a solution.

Many thanks for that - I deleted the Google Chrome Helper from the Activity Monitor and it's certainly made some difference - battery is draining at half the speed now (twice as good as past days but half as good as Catalina days) as the fan is not whirring loudly non-stop, so it's much cooler than before too.

Getting there....