Why does my cycle count for 3 yrs old MacBook Air show 1027, shouldn't it be lower?
Disclaimers:
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.1
Heat is possible, mainly on iPhone, iPad if the device is in heavy use during charging, where the drainage is pretty much equal to the amount of charge the device is able to get through a given charger. Although generally, you shouldn't be concerned about that. If it gets really hot (too hot to handle) you should put it down and give it some rest, as a general piece of advise. Things like that can also be a bug in software. I've seen some people report such a thing.
If your phone doesn't drain significantly over night and you're still still getting through the day with, I don't know, 70% percent battery left in the evening, there is no need for charging. Although you could. It's up to you. Generally it is not advised to leave those type of batteries (Lithium-Ion) charging all the time, because it degrades the battery internals if it is kept on 100% all the time. Even worse is letting it drain down all the time. In case of a MacBook, it is programmed that if it is plugged in, the battery is being charged but the device is powered by the current coming from the power socket. When the battery is charged fully, charging is stopped and only tops off the battery every once in a while to stay full. But keeping it plugged in whenever you can while you are using it basically is the way to go.
These are mainly mobile devices so, they are designed to be used on battery power, especially iPhones and iPads. MacBooks are somewhere in between. You shouldn't let the charging thing be an inconvenience to you though.
Simple practice: If you are/going someplace, and you have your charger with you and you know you are going to be staying at that place for like at least an hour, and have an opportunity to plug it in, why not plug it on instead of draining the device!
My Macbook is sitting on my desk pretty much all day, and is plugged in. I unplug it at night when I shut the lid and go to bed.
Cycles counts essentially show you how often the battery has been drained and recharged fully. Ergo, the battery is cycled.
Being on 100% and draining it down below 20% or so and then charging back up is considered 1 cycle.
Being on 100% and draining it to 90% and plugging it back in is only a fraction of a cycle. You would have to do this exact thing 9 times to complete one charge cycle.
So in short and as an example: Leaving your Mac plugged in, unplugging at night, and plugging it back in when you are using it could give you one cycle every week or so. If one day, you take your Mac with you, and drain the battery, you will have put one cycle on the battery in just one day. If you did recharge in between, you could even put two cycles on it. And depending on the general health of it, even more because the worse the battery the more often you have to charge, resulting in ever worsening of the condition. That's why it is important to keep a battery healthy early on and for as long as possible. Putting cycles on a battery is inevitable since it is a mobile device, however the user can do their fair share of not putting more stress and usage on it than necessary.
Heat is possible, mainly on iPhone, iPad if the device is in heavy use during charging, where the drainage is pretty much equal to the amount of charge the device is able to get through a given charger. Although generally, you shouldn't be concerned about that. If it gets really hot (too hot to handle) you should put it down and give it some rest, as a general piece of advise. Things like that can also be a bug in software. I've seen some people report such a thing.
If your phone doesn't drain significantly over night and you're still still getting through the day with, I don't know, 70% percent battery left in the evening, there is no need for charging. Although you could. It's up to you. Generally it is not advised to leave those type of batteries (Lithium-Ion) charging all the time, because it degrades the battery internals if it is kept on 100% all the time. Even worse is letting it drain down all the time. In case of a MacBook, it is programmed that if it is plugged in, the battery is being charged but the device is powered by the current coming from the power socket. When the battery is charged fully, charging is stopped and only tops off the battery every once in a while to stay full. But keeping it plugged in whenever you can while you are using it basically is the way to go.
These are mainly mobile devices so, they are designed to be used on battery power, especially iPhones and iPads. MacBooks are somewhere in between. You shouldn't let the charging thing be an inconvenience to you though.
Simple practice: If you are/going someplace, and you have your charger with you and you know you are going to be staying at that place for like at least an hour, and have an opportunity to plug it in, why not plug it on instead of draining the device!
My Macbook is sitting on my desk pretty much all day, and is plugged in. I unplug it at night when I shut the lid and go to bed.
Cycles counts essentially show you how often the battery has been drained and recharged fully. Ergo, the battery is cycled.
Being on 100% and draining it down below 20% or so and then charging back up is considered 1 cycle.
Being on 100% and draining it to 90% and plugging it back in is only a fraction of a cycle. You would have to do this exact thing 9 times to complete one charge cycle.
So in short and as an example: Leaving your Mac plugged in, unplugging at night, and plugging it back in when you are using it could give you one cycle every week or so. If one day, you take your Mac with you, and drain the battery, you will have put one cycle on the battery in just one day. If you did recharge in between, you could even put two cycles on it. And depending on the general health of it, even more because the worse the battery the more often you have to charge, resulting in ever worsening of the condition. That's why it is important to keep a battery healthy early on and for as long as possible. Putting cycles on a battery is inevitable since it is a mobile device, however the user can do their fair share of not putting more stress and usage on it than necessary.
Why would you think it would be lower?
Battery cycle count is totally dependent on how you use it. If your usage pattern causes you to charge it, then use it on battery power repeatedly, this will indeed increase the cycle count. For best battery usage: if near an AC outlet, leave it connected to the charge circuit. If you need portability, use it on battery power.
My god, and no offense, but that is literally the worst habit of charging your MacBook (or any battery powered device). Why are you doing it that way? Where does that habit come from? You are basically charging and discharging (putting cycles on it) for nothing.
If you are plugged in and charging and you are not leaving the house with it, think of your Mac as a desktop computer. If you're not moving it from where it is sitting, don't unplug it. Unplug when you go to bed and plug it back in when you start using it again.
If you have to move it, either take the charger with you and plug it in where you continue to use it or if you can't do that, at least don't drain the battery all the day down until you get the warning message. There is absolutely no need to unplug your computer every time it is fully charged and then draining it down all the way. It having 1000+ cycles already I assume your battery life is pretty much toast now anyways and you have to plug it in all the time regardless.
I am afraid you will have to replace the battery in the very near future if you want your Mac to be some sort of a mobile device. And if you do get a new one installed, please, try to change your habit and charging pattern so it will last longer. If you have it plugged in while the computer is stationary and do not completely discharge it all the time, you can get away with way under 100 cycles in a year easily. A 2011 MacBook Pro I had (replaced the battery on it prior to selling it recently) had 900 cycles after 9 years of use, and that's even though I had no idea about the relation of cycles counts etc back then.
Your usage pattern makes it clear how you put >1000 cycles on the battery in 3 years. Not sure why you’re doing that, but it’s both unnecessary and unwise. You should run on battery only when you aren’t near AC power. If you can conveniently leave your Mac plugged in and use it do so, and leave it plugged in when not in use, too. You cannot ‘overcharge’ the battery. Leaving it on AC won’t harm your battery, but rather extend its lifespan.
As for a threshold, Apple considers having a capacity of <80% of the original/design capacity as the threshold for replacement. A utility like iStat Menus or CoconutBattery will report the health, or if you simply option-click on the battery icon in the menu bar it will report condition, and if that’s ‘normal’ it’s >80%.
Apple indicates that the expected lifespan of a battery is ~1000 cycles. That's not a hard number, some batteries last less, some more. Regardless, as cycle count goes up the maximum charge capacity decreases (in a non-linear way), meaning less run time on a full charge as a battery gets older. Time is also a factor in longevity – a 10 year old battery is on its way out, whether it has 1000 cycles or 100 cycles.
Stops charging yes, but still occasionally sends a little current through to maintain the 100%, as mentioned the trickle charge.
Can't say wether that's bad or not, but since its bad for batteries to constantly be charging or basically full, I assumed unplugging it wouldn't be too bad a thing. Especially since it is plugged in all day long as well. Also, the green charge light is a little too bright for me at night ;D (desk is in my bedroom)
On a different matter, I think the Mac does a different standby while it is plugged in. I noticed the fans sometimes come on while it is closed and on power (that might be Power Nap right?). Also for example, if you have a monitor connected, the Mac closed and plugged in, it goes into clamshell mode and still is able to run normally even the closed.
Anyhow, I am unplugging mine, mainly because of the green light hahaha.
Your cats obviously know your laptop doesn't have to be plugged in over night lol. Mag-safe Macs are cat-friendly, and they have a harder time unplugging USB-C.
The bottom line is that there's no need to unplug your Mac overnight. Just leave it plugged in. You can do that 24/7 if it's convenient, assuming you're running macOS version 10.15.5 or later and a Mac with a USB-C charger. Older Macs should be run on battery for a while every couple of weeks. Newer ones will use the battery even while the AC power is connected to maintain health, below you can see the dip in the charge level where one of my Macs ran the battery down to ~92% before charging it back up to full.
That’s about 1 cycle per day. Might be normal usage for you.
Thanks Neuroanatomist for the clarity-laden feedback.
One last question, considering the non-linear way, how would I know, if my battery needs replacement or not at 1027 cycle count? What would be the threshold for the below usage pattern?
A clearer picture to my usage pattern is, as soon as the notification pops about less charge (5%), I switch on the AC outlet to charge my MacBook Air. After the battery shows 98% to 100% charge, I switch off the AC outlet. This cycle continues. Off late, I have noticed that this battery charging cycle have increased on a daily basis i.e. Cycle = 5% and bring it to 100% and then back to 5% and again bringing it back to 100%. I would say, happens thrice a day, when I use my MacBook Air for only browsing and video viewing for like 5 to 6 hrs.
Wow! neuroanatomist and user0197,
I seem to be residing in some obscure dimension. I thought all this while, and for all my battery-powered devices that over-charging via AC outlet will,
a) cause intense heating to the device
&
b) toast or blow up my battery/device
To avoid these untoward incidents, I practiced the aforementioned usage pattern. But what you both mentioned, is the complete opposite. Thus, I don't charge my phone overnight for the same fears as listed in a) & b). I now know that I have been living under a rock for quite sometime, where battery tech is concerned.
To sum up, per your advice, if I am near an AC outlet, I should keep my device(s) - iPhone, iPad & Macbook plugged in and charging. Only when I am not near one, I should use the battery.
And finally, the cycle count basically shows the rigorous nature of my battery usage, which is a LOT, as I understand now.
Many thanks for the clarification and the prompt feedback. Much appreciated.
Because why should it need to be charged over night? Sometimes I shut down the Computer entirely to give it some rest. It maintains the full charge in standby, so no need to leave it plugged in and force it to trickle charge when I might as well just let it sit like that.
Why do you ask? Do you leave yours plugged in all the time or?
user0197 wrote:
Because why should it need to be charged over night? Sometimes I shut down the Computer entirely to give it some rest. It maintains the full charge in standby, so no need to leave it plugged in and force it to trickle charge when I might as well just let it sit like that.
As we've established, it stops charging when it gets to 100% so I wondered why you bothered.
Why do you ask? Do you leave yours plugged in all the time or?
Unless I'm running it on battery, generally. The cats have been known to cause things to become unplugged, though.
user0197 wrote:
Can't say wether that's bad or not, but since its bad for batteries to constantly be charging or basically full, I assumed unplugging it wouldn't be too bad a thing.
No, neither of those things is, in themselves, bad.
I'm not judging, just curious.
user0197 wrote:
I didn't assume you were. Wonder where you would get the idea.
I hope I didn't make the expression of being judgmental either, cause I am not.
Now I am curious what makes you curious ;)
Very often on these forums, people, especially newer folks, assume that when someone asks them why they do something, it's a criticism. Just trying to make sure I wasn't misinterpreted. ;-)
But at the same time, there is no need to leave it plugged in either right? Unless, it has been low before, you are going to bed and need a full charge the next morning, then I would keep it plugged in too of course. Or if the battery is so bad already, it drains half way in standby.
I do make sure to do a full charge/discharge cycle once or at least every other month. Still on a 2013 Retina Pro and don't have any battery health features in settings.
Dodged a bullet recently too. Original battery (had 'only' around 500 cycles on it) had swollen and I didn't notice it for a long time and when I unscrewed the bottom case (replaced the thermal paste and generally wanted to do some dust removal), the battery literally pushed the case away from the chassis as soon as the screws were loosened. Maybe it wouldn't have been long until the expanding battery cracked the trackpad, or the battery even blew.
So, boys and girls, if your Mac doesn't wanna sit on a table quite right and wobbles a little, don't wonder any further, you should inspect or get it inspected right away. Did it myself and installed an aftermarket one. It's an old device and I wasn't going to go out and pay 3x the price Apple charges for it. Don't judge me :)
Battery Cycle Count
