How bad is to keep my MacBook plugged in all the time?

There's a lot of answer out there, but I'd like to have an Apple official one.


My wife has a 2020 Macbook Air connected to a docking station that allows her to use an external display, keyboard, and mouse, which also keeps charging the battery all the time and I was wondering how bad this is.


What about my MacBook Pro from early 2015? The same answer for my oldie?


Thanks!!

Posted on Aug 12, 2021 9:13 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 12, 2021 2:05 PM

Because the portable Mac battery will not be allowed to over-charge

there is no need when near the grid, to un-plug the power adapter.


Save the battery life, by letting the automatic power regulation of

Apple charger work naturally with the MacBook; with fewer cycles.


• Get help with your Mac notebook battery - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204054


Since the portable Macs are considered battery-assisted, not battery powered;

safe to say if you prefer to not wear out the battery prematurely, plug into AC.

Charge-cycles would not be accumulating unnecessarily when left plugged in.


6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 12, 2021 2:05 PM in response to matiasheluani

Because the portable Mac battery will not be allowed to over-charge

there is no need when near the grid, to un-plug the power adapter.


Save the battery life, by letting the automatic power regulation of

Apple charger work naturally with the MacBook; with fewer cycles.


• Get help with your Mac notebook battery - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204054


Since the portable Macs are considered battery-assisted, not battery powered;

safe to say if you prefer to not wear out the battery prematurely, plug into AC.

Charge-cycles would not be accumulating unnecessarily when left plugged in.


Aug 12, 2021 1:10 PM in response to matiasheluani

Generally newer batteries like those in MacBooks the lifetime works on cycles. so full to empty and back to full charge is 1 cycle.


https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mh20865/mac here is a good article how to check battery health but best practice is to keep it between 20 and 85 % charge for long term health. but really as long as you're not draining it to 0 and charging it back to 100 everyday it should last you a long while.


As for you 2015 MacBook, Its likely seen a lot of use so its health won't be 100% as they degrade over time. I'd say to follow guide in the second link to get a bit more life out of it yet :)


here is another useful article about the battery technology: https://www.apple.com/uk/batteries/why-lithium-ion/

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How bad is to keep my MacBook plugged in all the time?

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