Ever since my Macbook Pro (2018 model) has updated to Big Sur I have problems with its charging, specifically when I am rendering from Maya (3D modeling software). It will charge just fine beforehand, but as soon as I start rendering it says "Battery is not charging" and the percentage drops, even though I have it plugged in to the power source!
Does anyone know the solution to this problem?
Thank you in advance!
MacBook Pro
Is the charger connected directly to the laptop or is the charger connected to a multi-port adapter or dock? Adapters don't allow the charger to deliver all its power to the laptop.
If you have four ports have you tried using the charger on the other side of the laptop?
Have you tried an SMC Reset?
Is the charger connected directly to the laptop or is the charger connected to a multi-port adapter or dock? Adapters don't allow the charger to deliver all its power to the laptop.
If you have four ports have you tried using the charger on the other side of the laptop?
Have you tried an SMC Reset?
I have seen some of our organization's Apple laptops (various versions of macOS) not increase its battery charge when running all the CPUs at maximum during an extreme system stress test. I have even seen a few laptops (several years old) that have very slowly had the battery drain during these extreme stress tests. Apple recently changed battery behavior beginning with Catalina which now exercises the battery allowing the battery to drain while the power adapter is connected. The reason for this is so that people who keep their laptops connected to the charger 100% of the time don't damage their batteries. Batteries do need to be exercised once in a while to keep them healthy.
You can try unchecking "Battery Health Management" to see if it helps.
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/16/macos-catalina-battery-health-management/
You can always run the Apple Diagnostics to check the battery and charging system with your laptop. Also it is perfectly fine to have Apple or an AASP examine the laptop to run their service diagnostics to make sure the laptop is charging properly. Sometimes their service diagnostics may detect something when the consumer level diagnostic does not.
Sorry I responded with the 'solved' button too soon before I noticed it's got the same problem again!
It's directly connected to the laptop and I have tried both sides, but, I reset the SMC last night and it worked.
Now it is losing power again..
I think I should take it to the store and see if they can help me with it, I don't want to break it or delete everything! 😅
Thank you!
Thank you so very much for your reply!
I have always removed the plug as soon as the battery percentage reached 100% so thankfully the condition of the battery is still 'normal', though I'm quite worried of leaving the "Battery Health Management" unchecked. However, I have unchecked the "optimized battery charging" and was still faced with some odd problems.
Even when I quit the program and had nothing else running it still did not charge. I even tried different cables and adapters and still had this issue. So I had to switch it on and off a few times and reset the NVRAM, SMC and PRAM (with the help of this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7lgWACOcFs&ab_channel=LoFiAlpaca) and left the computer switched off whilst plugged in for a while and thankfully it charged!
Hopefully this could have at least temporarily fixed this issue, I hope there's more solutions instead of replacing the entire laptop. I will try to run diagnostics and hopefully it works!
There are a lot things in a 2018 MBPro that could contribute to charging issues. The battery of a two year old laptop could possibly be starting to wear or beginning to have a battery issue. Maybe the USB-C port connectors are a bit dirty and not providing as good a connection as when the laptop was new. The I/O Boards themselves or even the charging circuitry on the Logic Board could be worn and not as efficient as it was originally. I've watched a respected YouTube repair specialist troubleshoot issues with the USB-C Apple laptops and he has found that an issue with one of the charging ports can affect all the charging ports even though they have their own independent protective circuitry.
It is really hard to say what is normal behavior with the USB-C Apple laptops as no two laptops I work on are ever quite the same. Plus it seems every OS update brings other unexpected changes or behaviors.
Please let us know how you make out if you have Apple or an AASP examine the laptop.
Good luck.
I see, it's quite a lot of issues..
As soon as I can get it checked I will hopefully have some good news to share here!
Thank you again!
Charging stops when rendering
