My Macbook M1 battery only lasts 4.5 hours?

Question

Level 1

4 points

My Macbook M1 battery only lasts 4.5 hours?

I purchased a new Macbook in May 2021 of this year with the 16GB RAM, and it's already slowing down significantly when I have lots of Chrome windows open and Zoom - I'm not using it for much beyond typical schoolwork activities. Most importantly, I've noticed in the last few weeks that my battery does not last long at all. For example I am not playing any videos or music but have multiple windows open to write a paper, my battery went from 100% charged (and it takes 3-4 hours to fully charge) to 9% in exactly 4h2mins. That's nowhere near the battery life I was expecting.

I want to take it into an apple store, but can't afford to have my laptop away from me for a few days until end of term. Any sugggestions?

Posted on Oct 23, 2021 5:37 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 23, 2021 5:48 PM in response to zewg

Yea I would recommend making sure all applications and MacOS is updated along with maybe checking your energy settings.

About battery health management in Mac notebooks - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211832

Get help with your Mac notebook battery

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202663

Manage your Mac notebook computer’s battery

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/manage-your-mac-notebooks-battery-mh21207/mac

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Answer 2

Oct 24, 2021 5:26 AM in response to zewg

How bright is the display set? Turning it down to 70% or even 50% will save lots of power. Note that Zoom is is very power hungry app and Chrome is known to be a memory hog. I lots of Chrome windows are open, a lot of memory swapping could be going on when you switch back and forth between windows which will also consume much power.

There is also the possibility that you have bad batteries, in which case there are three options:

get the batteries repaired, If the Apple Store or Authorized Apple Service Provider has a heads up, they could order the batteries and could likely replace them while you wait or possibly take only a day.
Curtail heavy use by keeping only one app open at a time and using Safari instead of Chrome to extend your runtime until such time you can get it repaired or looked at
Just live with it.

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Answer 3

ku4hx

Level 7

23,694 points

Oct 24, 2021 1:58 PM in response to zewg

For comparison, how long does it last idling? No apps open at all. You need to establish a baseline no-load runtime. If that's also short you indeed may have a problem. If it's longer say double (just a guess there) then you know with a degree of certainly the problem is the load your daily routine puts on the battery.

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Answer 4

zewg Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 24, 2021 8:17 AM in response to woodmeister50

Thanks. Yes I think I'll try to do some of these interim measures until I can get it checked out. I think I was mostly shocked that only a combination of having many Chrome windows open (no video) and working on assignments for a few hours would be enough to totally drain my new laptop's battery way faster than the reported 'heavy use' amounts. It already works slower than my 2015 Macbook Air did at two years at this level of use.

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My Macbook M1 battery only lasts 4.5 hours?

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