Hi everyone! After upgrading my MBP 16" 2019 to Big Sur, I am facing shorter battery life than on Catalina. It's worse about 30%. My battery is in a pretty good shape - 58 cycles. Any idea what to do? Will the next update fix the problem? Thanks!
PS: I saw people having same problem at reddit.
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.0
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”:
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.)
I don’t know why you have now asked about «re-start[ing] the “house keeping”» twice, now.
The «”house keeping”» only runs as needed, such as when you “dump” a bunch of files (or photos, or such) on your drive.
Are you saying that your MacBook was only powered on for two (2) minutes before you obtained that screenshot of Activity Monitor? If so, you missed the high CPU, and even high GPU usage, beforehand.
The question, then, would be how often this happens as you are running on Battery. And what else is going on, during that time.
(Note: it does seem to be somewhat normal to have a burst of high CPU usage right after boot-up—maybe even a bit of high GPU—but that is only for a matter of seconds.)
Other than your open webpage, there’s simply nothing there that is using a bunch of your computer’s resources, Stanley22.
WindowServer, obviously, had some time where its CPU usage was somewhat high, if your computer was actually booted only 20 minutes before this. (You only stated 20 minutes on battery. You didn’t say how long since boot-up.)
(Similarly for kernel_task.)
Depending upon what that webpage is doing, the 16.1% CPU currently being used by the WindowServer could be, mostly, to support that webpage. (Activity Monitor’s screen updates also go through the WindowServer.)
By the way, the percentage of CPU is not the percentage of total available CPU, but only the percentage of a single CPU core, on your machine.
Hence, the total available CPU is 100% times the number of CPU cores, on your machine.
So, 100% need not be all that high, depending upon how many CPU cores your system has.
Note that your entire system was 80.48% Idle, at the time of your screenshot.
(I have certain tasks that can use up to nearly 400% CPU, on my four core Intel based Mac mini, and as much as 750%, so far as I’ve seen, of my eight core M1 based Mac mini.)
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.
Glad to hear that your system is running better under Big Sur 11.2.1, oandor1.
Do you have {Automatic Updates” turned on for your software (especially your third-party software)?
That will help, over time, as your software is updated.
Welcome, Ashley McG, to Apple Support Communities!
What is that image supposed to be showing us?
Is your MacBook not charging (even though the Battery icon seems to be showing that it, supposedly, is)?
Or is it that you are experiencing such high energy use, that the charger cannot keep up, when your MacBook is in use?
Have you tried the recommendations in the comment marked “Solved”, here?
Other than the Charging issue, in only certain MacBook Pros, the latest Big Sur update (11.2.1) will do little, if anything—by itself—to solve the High Energy use issue.
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.
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.
Welcome, Alex-xs, to Apple Support Communities!
Have you read the comment marked “Solved”, in this Discussion?
That gives recommended methods for finding the software that is using too much of your computer’s resources (probably primarily in CPU use).
This is my battery drain when asleep since installing Big Sur, happens every night. No reported battery issues, or anything showing as high battery usage. Hope there is a patch soon.
Further testing proved that I'm back (more-less) to the original performance.
Got about 2.5h on 50% battery with about 30mins on the last 10%.
Also same won’t charge. Will Apple compensate us for this excessive wear and tear on our devices?
my macbook heated up like 2 mins after i turn it on and the fan went crazy.
Same here. My battery has been draining like crazy since updated to Big Sur. Wish I hadn't done that @.@
I've found some solutions online here, but I doubt they will fully solve the problem.
Exactly the same here with my MBP 13” 2016, everyday I’m having to recharge it, as overnight the battery has completely drained. Something is different with Big Sur for sure.
I’m not sure I have safari iCloud sync disabled and I’m still suffering. Nearly full battery last night and this morning my 2016 MBP 13” was showing just over 50%.......something is not right???
Big Sur battery drain
