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MBP M1 Pro battery draining really quickly

My new Macbook Pro M1 Pro 14' drains really quickly on battery - more than 20% an hour - doing just reading PDFs using adobe. I know this isn't an adobe problem because using other programs in isolation (Word, safari, etc) makes it drain even faster. I've closed all unnecessary background programs, switched off bluetooth, location, siri and pro-motion, turned low battery use mode on when on battery and checked that the OS is up to date. The battery drain is really terrible despite all this.. Any ideas what might be wrong?

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Jan 2, 2022 5:43 AM

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Posted on May 6, 2022 8:05 PM

I'm having the same issue. I bought the m1 pro 14 just a month ago, and if I get about 5 hours with light usage. I do not have Chrome installed. Just doing some YouTube, Word and 2 zoom calls. I lost 40% in under 2 hours. Any ideas? I'm in the latest OS 12.3.1. Any ideas? or should I take it to a genius bar? Thanks

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31 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 6, 2022 8:05 PM in response to bailier

I'm having the same issue. I bought the m1 pro 14 just a month ago, and if I get about 5 hours with light usage. I do not have Chrome installed. Just doing some YouTube, Word and 2 zoom calls. I lost 40% in under 2 hours. Any ideas? I'm in the latest OS 12.3.1. Any ideas? or should I take it to a genius bar? Thanks

Feb 1, 2022 5:37 PM in response to Estelm4

I have a brand-new 2022 16 inch MacBook Pro M1 Max and my battery life is terrible. I have every settings set correctly. I am monitoring everything through the activity monitor. I have not even installed my tools of work like Protools, Premiere, etc...mostly just doing basic maintenance work, emails and watching a few movies. I have barely migrated any data from my old computer. I have not transferred my iTunes library. I have not transferred any of my assets or tools. I am barely using 75 gig out of a 2 TB SSD drive. I have my monitor dimmed to 50% and I am monitoring activity and it says that Google Chrome is using a lot of electricity but that makes no sense that it would drain the battery this quickly because when I move to Adobe Premier or Protools those are way more intensive then chrome? Any suggestions would be really appreciated because I don't want to have to return this thing because I really like the computer.

Apr 24, 2022 5:03 PM in response to Estelm4

I'm on 12.3.1and still having the same problem,

I lost 20% of my battery in 12h while the MacBook was sleeping

And now with barely an hour of writing emails battery lost another 50%

Also, the MacBook is very warm


I previously had the basic M1 MacBook Pro, and never was warm even using pro video apps like Wirecast or FCP and the battery could last 6/10h of continued work,


Note on the side. How I miss the TouchBar!!!!



Jan 3, 2022 7:17 AM in response to Estelm4

Hi prateekagarwal319, 


It sounds like your battery life on your MacBook Pro M1 isn't performing as expected. We're glad you've joined us in Apple Support Communities. Let's see if this helps.


Follow the steps in the sections "Check battery health" and "Diagnose battery issues" in Get help with your Mac notebook battery. This link will guide you through looking at possible battery issues that could be causing this. 


When you're tracking your battery consumption are you using Activity Monitor and are you on the Energy Tab or another tab? This tab will tell you the energy impact. Check out View energy consumption in Activity Monitor on Mac for information on how to use this app to give you more specific information about energy impact. 


If the issue remains after following those steps, let us know what you found and how many hours or minutes your battery is lasting with a full charge. Also, be sure to let us know if Adjusting the display brightness helps extend battery life.


We hope that helps with your question and take care!

Feb 4, 2022 12:48 PM in response to zenguitardude

Just installed Chrome to see how bad it was- I played a YouTube video in Safari and Chrome to compare, and Chrome's "Energy Impact" is more than twice what Safari's impact is.


I bought this laptop for After Effects and Xcode and never had a problem. Although, I have heard that macOS 12.2 has some weird issue with the display sleep causing insane amounts of battery drain. I'm on macOS 12.1, so I can't personally verify that.

May 6, 2022 7:31 AM in response to Swapnil_17

Swapnil_17 wrote:

Blaming Chrome and Teams is not what anyone would expect.


Of course you would not expect that!

if you thought that was the problem, you would not be complaining, you would have just stopped using those resource hogs!


You can use Activity Monitor (all processes) to show you in detail about CPU usage, memory usage, and energy usage.


View energy consumption in Activity Monitor on Mac - Apple Support


Mar 7, 2022 4:59 PM in response to happygilmore123

so far the software update for the operating system seems to have rectified it. I do not have the Bluetooth battery draining problem that many people have been having. I've been testing and under normal operations I am getting between 10 and 11 hours, if I use any kind of applications that chew up the processor or generate any kind of heat that drops down to about seven or eight.

Mar 25, 2022 9:39 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

When I heard about issues with Monterey, I decided not to upgrade my MBP 2015 from Big Sur. But, last week when I upgraded my SSD, I installed 12.2.1. The difference in battery drain was massive. My battery is a year old and Monterey was draining like ****. I had to re install Big sur and now my battery drain is normal. So, 12.2.1 isn't a fix for my MBP.

Apr 26, 2022 6:25 AM in response to Estelm4

The drive in this computer is more than 100 times the typical speed of computers a decade older. It is the "Muscle Car" of notebook computers.


If you have installed software that wastes computer resources on a regular basis, such as speeder-uppers, Cleaner-uppers/Removers, Optimizers, Virus Scanners, third-party file Sync-ers such as DropBox, OneDrive, or GoogleDrive, or a VPN that you installed yourself, it will do busywork at previously-impossible speeds — heating up at a ferocious rate.

May 6, 2022 6:50 AM in response to Swapnil_17

Google Chrome is the worst resource-hog that runs on a Mac, and if you are visiting sites that have moving pictures or movie Ads, that makes it worse. Microsoft teams was not optimized for use on a Mac, so I would not expect it to do much better.


In my opinion (No one here is authorized to speak for Apple, Inc) your Mac is working as designed -- you are asking too much of it, and downplaying how hard the work is.



May 6, 2022 6:50 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

That computer is a battery-CAPABLE device. It is not optimized as a battery-operated device. (It is NOT an iPhone.)


Your computer performs best when connected to AC power. It can use the full output of the Power Adapter AND when doing especially challenging work will also freely "borrow" power from the battery. In some cases, even with the power adapter connected, the charged state may even decline during stressful work.


When used only on battery, your computer has no extra cushion of power, and will perform more slowly. However, for ordinary non-stressful tasks this may not be objectionable (possibly not even noticeable.)


In general, you should ALWAYS connect AC power when it is possible to do so, and only run on batteries (which will be somewhat slower) when no AC sources are at hand. Your Mac will NEVER over-charge.



MBP M1 Pro battery draining really quickly

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