macOS Big Sur battery drain issue

I've been experiencing the same thing... I can't leave my home without my charger and it's becoming frustrating. I can't use my MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2019 for more than 2 hours. I've never had a problem with my battery before as I've bought this laptop just this March. I'm a student and it's ridiculous when I have to plug my laptop in after only 2 hours of using it on writing my thesis. I hope Apple will fix this soon with an upgrade because I honestly don't know what to do right now. I guess all we can do is wait - since I've literally tried anything but downgrading to Catalina, however I don't think that's a good solution. I'm glad I'm not the only one and hope that Apple sees this if enough people are reporting problems.

I've been noticing that my MacBook gets really hot too, and not after rendering 4K footage...It's literally word that I'm using or doing some research on Safari - so things that should run smoothly and that are lightweight on the computer's performance. I also hear the fans, something which I've never really heard under Catalina...

I had similar issue after the upgrade, run the top command in terminal and see what app is consuming more CPU. For me it was google chrome consuming almost 80-90% of the CPU. I uninstalled and reinstalled Chrome with the most recent version the issue was resolved for me.

I have the same issue. The Apple support says there is nothing wrong on their end but clearly something is wrong with this new upgrade. If people call apple support (1-800-275-2273) and tell the representative that you would like to make a case to be sent to the software engineers and they will look further into the issue. Please for anyone who are experiencing this issue, please make a case, so that I'm not alone and it will get solved once there are enough people complaining about this too. Thank you! :)

I have been in touch with Apple technicians.They have told me it is a thing that is part of big sur.. check your battery heath in about this mac than look at system report than once in that tab go to power . Than check out the battery cycle and condition. if it says normal you are ok and it is a bug in big sur. hope that apple fixes this. I have a second macbook pro that is still running mac os mojave. it is still draining not like when it was new. Both my macs are 3 yrs old.

What do you mean when you say that we're "OK" if the battery condition shows as normal, and it's a bug in Big Sur? Is this something that Apple is actively looking to resolve? Mine is normal yet I'm getting 2 hours of battery life since this Big Drain upgrade.

I'm in the same situation. Your computer is fine, but I believe that it is a bug in the software. If you make a complaint, then apple will look into it. currently, they are saying that there is nothing wrong with the software. obviously there is an issue.

1 hr battery life on Big Sur. 2019 Intel 2.8GHz 13" MacPro.

Long time apple customer but this is one of the blatantly worst testing fails of any computing product ever...not just Mac or Apple. Completely unacceptable.

yes, I backup everything on my I cloud such as messages, photos, files

and the battery since 3 days great great great it gave me 9 hours on safari and YouTube and Microsoft Office. no heat and everything perfect

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.

I installed the new updated version of Chrome. This did not immediately solve the problem. However I restarted my MBP a couple hours ago and am noticing perhaps better drain rates. Will update when I know more. Curious if this helps resolve others situation?

After a new install, I suggest first going to Battery/Power Settings and while on mains power, preventing the hard disk from sleeping when the display is off.

Then leaving the computer on mains power, with its lid open, overnight, to let Spotlight indexing and other maintenance of photos etc to complete. The former can be seen in Activity Monitor CPU tab, as mdworker, mds, mdstore processes and the graphics will show the activity eventually subside. It may take ten minutes or considerably longer depending on the disk content.

I do not use Google Chrome, but seem to remember it has caused similar problems of taking 100% CPU in the past. Perhaps the developer has fixed this now.

I have the same issue. I have a MacBook Pro 13" 2015, 3.1GHz Duel-Core i7, which still had - after all these years, a superb battery life. Until I updated top Big Sur. Now I can't use it for more than a few hours without a mains supply and If I leave it off, but unplugged overnight the battery is down to about 5% by the morning.

This is a shocking oversight by Apple - surely this needs to be fixed immediately.

So far, I've done everything I can think of (including what Apple suggested) short of reinstalling the OS, which, frankly, I really don't think anyone should have to do. I'm getting 2 hours of battery life (still) and this has been going on for a week. I do have a case open but.... Apple is being awfully silent about this. Everyone here has the same issue - but I wonder how many others there are who aren't on this thread...Hopefully everyone is opening a case to complain.

Thank god!!! I've solved the problem for me. I used to only get 2 hours on my MacBook Pro 16" (2019) Model and it'd overheat (I could hear the fans like crazy) and I've thought about wiping my entire laptop clean. I was thinking about just surviving on those 2 hours (unplugged battery use) for another week - just desperately waiting for an update. I did a backup and was mentally ready for my restart to factory settings when I read about Google Chrome (as an app) having caused some issues in the past. So I thought I'd give it a shot by deleting (deinstalling) Google Chrome from my laptop. And it stopped all the issues I've had!!! I'm no longer reliant on my charging cable :) I have absolutely no idea what Google Chrome has to do with Big Sur but it's solved the problem for me and I'm no longer complaining. I hope I could help someone else with this!

However, I still think Apple should address this ASAP.