Big Sur battery drain

I previously said that I was experiencing the same issue. I went to Genius Bar and they told me to wait for future updates since my battery draining might be caused by some compatibility issues. Today, I accidentally noticed that a process from "Karabiner-Elements.app" is occupying a great amount of CPU usage (this is an app used to customize keyboard functions). So I tried to uninstall it and it worked. Now my Mac has returned to normal (see pic attached). It turned out that my "Karabiner-Elements.app" was not updated to the latest version to work seamlessly with macOS Big Sur.

So my suggestion here would be to:

First, check App Store for app updates;

Second, check the official website of third-party apps you downloaded from web to see whether they have updated their apps for macOS Big Sur. If not, you can try uninstall them to see whether it will help (if the app is not a must-have for you).

Lastly, if software side is okay, try running system's hardware check to see if there is something problematic.

Hope this can be of some help to you!!

Hi everyone. I'm having the same issue. My 2017 13" MBP went from 5h battery time down to less than 2h.

So today I started diagnosing my system to figure out what's wrong. I remember back with Catalina update there was a similar issue with Safari iCloud synchronising, draining batteries, so I turned it off. Then in Activity Monitor I noticed com.apple.Safary.History process had 9 days of CPU usage, which is exactly when I upgraded to Big Sur... So I killed the process.

After that, I charged MBP to 50% and left it playing Youtube video for about 90mins. In the screenshot below, you can see the results.

So it is 100% Safari issue. Maybe it has something to do with iCloud sync, but most likely it is a com.apple.Safari.History process.

Can somebody try to kill the process to confirm?

Edit: also noticed my CPU temperature went down from 60C to 39C.

Welcome, jonasboor and @All, to Apple Support Communities!

Many of us “old timers” have been trying to inform those that are “panicking” about this, but few are listening, and many simply seem to “listen” to each other “complain”, and “call” for Apple to “take action”.

This is what is well known, by those of us that are “old timers”:

• Unless a computer has a hardware fault (such as a short-circuit, including an internal short in a battery), there is no way for a computer to use a great deal of energy without running programs being the cause! (CPU or GPU intensive processes, usually.) Of course, we all hope your computer’s hardware is and keeps running well!
• Big Sur is a major Operating System (OS) upgrade. It is not a mere update! In fact, Apple considers it to be such a major upgrade that they actually increased the major version number, from 10 to 11, for the first time since 2001!
• With any major OS upgrade, there are a number of “housekeeping” processes that run in the background (you won’t see them in Activity Monitor unless you change the View from the default of “My Processes” to “All Processes”): these are indexing all the files on your Data drive, analyzing and indexing all your photos/videos/music/books/etc., and any number of other “housekeeping” tasks to get the system ready for your daily use and convenience. (The results help make your system more responsive to your needs.) These will “settle down” when they have completed their “housekeeping” to the point that they are “caught up” with your files and such. (After that, just as with the previous OSs, they simply work as needed to keep up with what you change and add.)
• There are third party programs, utilities, extensions, etc., that simply may not be ready for such a major OS upgrade: they can get “confused”, and can “run amuck”, on your system, until you upgrade these third party programs! Please be aware of this potential issue.

From Andrey Threat’s experience, it appears that there may be a possibility for issues in interactions, through iCloud, with other systems. However, this is still quite preliminary!

You can run Activity Monitor, with the View set to All Processes to see what is running on your system, and how much CPU or GPU or Energy they are using. (Note: it appears that not all background processes have been “instrumented” for Energy use. So, the listing of All Processes using significant Energy is likely incomplete. However, since the majority of Energy use is generally due to CPU and GPU use, these will show up under the CPU tab, in Activity Monitor. That being said, though, the total Energy Impact is not dependent upon having all programs “instrumented” for Energy use.)

The Activity Monitor is a good tool for seeing what is going on “under the hood” of your computer.

Any time you wonder what might be going on, on you computer, that might be affecting its responsiveness, Energy use, Heating, etc.; the Activity Monitor can, usually, help you get an idea of what is going on.

(Unfortunately, if your computer has hardware faults, Activity Monitor is not the best tool for recognizing such issues.)

Ok I never do this but I was really stressed about the same battery issue after BigSur update. I finally called Apple Support and they were great...my battery and computer were fine. The best they could advice after I told them that on my activity monitor Google Chrome Helper was using tons of CPU, was to delete Google Chrome. I was very reluctant to try this but desperate, so I did. Low and behold the battery was fine and computer not heating up. So I went on Safari and downloaded Google Chrome a new and now it is Perfect!! No battery drain and computer not heating up....

Hope this works for you!

mmabood:

The very fact that Big Sur, installed upon a pristine computer—having no third-party software (including no third-party drivers for third-party add-on hardware)—have absolutely no problems, already proves that the problem is not Big Sur running on the Mac.

So. The only possible, remaining issue is third-party software that simply was not ready for this major Operating System (OS) upgrade—not a mere update.

Upgrade vs. update is an important distinction:

• Updates can only include compatible OS changes.
• Upgrades can, and usually do, include incompatible OS changes. In fact, this is the only place where such incompatible OS changes occur.

Hence, just because you have been using applications «in the past on [your] older Mac», is, absolutely, no guarantee of such working on a major OS upgrade.

In fact, it is far more likely that such software is the culprit!

No one should ever upgrade their OS without checking the compatibility of their software and add-on hardware for compatibility with the new OS, first.

Are you running the upgraded versions on MS Office and Opera?

I know for a fact that the earlier versions of MS Office are not ready for Big Sur. (I’m not certain about Opera.)

You should check for compatible versions of all your software, just as you should have done before upgrading.

Unfortunately, you are now in the unenviable position of needing to try to fix this, after the fact.

The worse thing is that you may, possibly, have old software that you may have even forgotten that you installed, who knows when, that may be causing you trouble, now.

We, your fellow users, will try to help your get your system back to the condition it should be running in.

Stanley22 wrote:

i had previous versions of OS, no problem at all. Upgrade vs update —> I simply downloaded new version and updated.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t answer much of the questions I asked of you.

Upgrade vs. update is an important distinction:

• Updates can only include compatible Operating System (OS) changes.
• Upgrades can, and usually do, include incompatible OS changes. In fact, this is the only place where such incompatible OS changes occur.

Hence, just because you have been using applications on «previous versions of OS, no problem at all», is, absolutely, no guarantee of such working on a major OS upgrade.

In fact, if the previously well running applications have not been upgraded/updated for the major new OS, then they are the most likely culprits for problems on the major new OS.

Even though Big Sur was provided via the Update Panel, it was still labeled as an upgrade, not an update.

(Unfortunately, this was, probably, a “tactical” error, on Apple’s part: in the past, they never provided upgrades through the Update Panel; instead, one had to find the upgrade within the Mac App Store, in order to upgrade. People don’t always pay attention to what the software is called—upgrade vs. update—in the Update Panel. After all, they have typically only seen updates in the Update Panel.)

So. Have you tried changing the View to “All Processes”, within the Activity Monitor?

Hmm. After more testing I am now positive it is safari iCloud sync. As soon as I turn it on, com.apple.Safari.History process %CPU goes 100% and stays at 100% until I kill it draining the battery.

There is a chance there is something in my history that system "doesn't like", but I'd prefer not to clear it, as I'm using it quite a lot in my daily workflow.

I'm not sure what exactly happened. I deleted Chrome, Updated all my third party software, setup iCloud (which I had not done since installing Big Sur), booted into Safe Mode twice. After doing all of that, and logging in normally, somehow my battery is no longer draining fast and instead of getting 2 hours of battery time, I'm back to getting the 4 to 5 hours I was getting when I was using Catalina. I upgraded to Big Sur on Nov 15th and have been running it ever since. Except for not doing a clean install, I basically followed Halliday's and others advice and experiences. The only thing I can think of is that Activity Monitor doesn't show you all of the energy sapping 3rd party software that may run invisibly in the background and Safe Mode must have some healing affects that Halliday alluded to.

Also, I've been on Big Sur continuously for 30 days now.

But somehow, my seemingly impossible battery drain issue is resolved without reverting to a clean install. Still Voice Control does drain the battery faster than any other app, which I think occurred in Catalina as well, but to a lesser extent. Lastly, AUDIO is somehow completely disabled in Safe Mode. I've reported that to Apple.

Hope this helps the users still having battery drain issues.

Stanley22 wrote:

So this is my activity monitor, one tab open in Safari. I reseted all SMC, P..., have the latest update. Having the computer in the power for 48 hours, cleaned Safari history, clean all via CC cleaner... but still not getting back Catalina battery. any suggestions? I did my update via Software update (About this Mac). Any suggestions?

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/09e083eb-f5fd-4fdd-beed-520fb573bf02

There is simply nothing there to explain any quick drain of your battery.

How long has your MacBook been on? If it has been on for only about 20–30 minutes, your screenshot may have missed the heavy use time period. (See WindowServer and kernel_task, [cumulative] CPU Time.)

What is the brightness level of your display? The MacBook backlight can be a major power drain, but most people make sure their On-Battery settings are set to decrease this drain (including a short display sleep delay).

Another possibility (though one that is usually minor, compared to CPU and GPU usage) can be wireless power usage: if using Wi-Fi, a lot of networking, and the base-station is rather far away; your power drain could be considerable.

Of course, such are simply speculations, since you seem to have no CPU or GPU usage to account for your power drain.

(Another possibility—though not one wished upon anyone—is a Hardware issue: a short-circuit, such as in the battery, will drain power while your computer is doing, essentially, nothing. We all hope that isn’t the case.)

Hello all,

After updating to macos Big Sur 11.0.1 my laptop was getting hot pretty fast (around the charing port, even if it wasn't plugged in for charging). The battery lasted between 5 - 8 hours, depending on usage.

I have now updated to Big Sur 11.2.1 and the system seems more stable. The heating problem is not there and the fan is not turing on as fast as in 11.0.1.

I feel this to be an improvement for me. Now my activity monitor shows 12h30 and I have been off charger since 30 mins. Depending on usage, it might decrease the on battery time remaining, but it is definitely an improvement over 11.0.1.

Did safe mode twice and battery is performing much better, not as good as with catalina but now, at least is not dramatic draining.

Still Big Sur is consuming too much power for a late 2019 with only 129 cycles.

It may not be a universal fix and looks like people are experiencing same issue left and right, but battery drain comes from different directions. However I have two more people confirming, my method fixed their battery drain as well.

When I said "it" I referred to turning on and off Safari iCloud sync.

Not sure if it's something on the other Safari, as the only other Safari I have, is on my iphone, and I recently wiped out it's history.

So, I came here to find a solution, meanwhile trying to pinpoint the issue.

Maybe somebody else will find my method helpful as it fixed the issue for me and a couple more friends.

What basis do you have for these suggestions? Not much code (apart from Intel ME stuff) should be running if you shutdown your computer.

After new OS installs Spotlight does some reindexing which can impact performance/battery life for a short time (it needs to be turned on to do it). But I don't believe the best option is to leave it turned off for a day!

Welcome, mmabood, to Apple Support Communities!

If you’ll more carefully read the comment labeled “Solved”, you’ll see that:

1. This behavior is not an intended behavior, but is due to errant background processes.
2. There’s recommendations on how to find those errant background processes.

If you have further questions, we, all as fellow users, are here to help you track down the errant background processes.

Welcome, Meragin, to Apple Support Communities!

Have you read the comment marked “Solved”, here?

That explains the issue and provides the tools for solving the issue.

Since this problem never occurs on Macs with a clean (some call it “virgin”) installation—with no add-on software or hardware (which download, install, and run third-party drivers)—of Big Sur (except for possible cases of hardware failures), it has been long proven that the problem is not between Big Sur and Macs.

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

Unfortunately, since the collection of third-pay software is (very nearly) unique to each system, there is no “one size fits all” solution. (Another reason there is little, if anything, Apple can do about it.)

However, we, your fellow users, can help you in solving this issue, if you are willing.