Excessive battery drain

Hi, I'm currently having issues with my M1 Pro Macbook Pro 16".

Since 3/4 days my battery is lasting way less than a week ago, and there's no difference in my configuration.

I'm not currently using any external monitors, as I've seen they caused some issues with other Macbooks, but that's not my case.


As an example, at the time I'm writing this post my Macbook used like 15% of the battery charge in one hour, and I'm not doing anything heavy on the Macbook (I just have safari and whatsapp opened, as I'm trying to debug this issue).


My battery status is at 100%, and my Macbook is less than 2 months old.

Any ideas?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.3

Posted on May 4, 2022 2:09 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 5, 2022 11:42 AM

Welcome!


Use Activity Monitor


View information about Mac processes in Activity Monitor - Apple Support


to see if any web sites you have open are using a lot of processor cycles and energy. I once left the Amazon home page open in a background tab on my idling Macbook Pro and returned to find the battery runtime had plummeted to a third of what it should have been for the time period involved. Activity Monitor showed that the Amazon tab was using more resources and energy than the other 12 tabs combined. Closing Amazon when I was done fixed that. Other sites have done the same thing.


This is an example of how tabs in Safari use processor cycles, from a few minutes ago on my Macbook Pro 2012. Each represents an open Apple forum tab or Apple support pages. They use almost no percentage of cycles:



WhenI had the Amazon issue, its tab was using over 20% of cycles. No wonder my battery drained! When I closed the Amazon tab, the rate of battery drain returned to normal.


Are you running any anti-virus software or so-called "cleaning" apps? They will shorten runtime and cause a myriad of other issues. They are not needed. Let your Mac be a Mac.


Remember not to underestimate the demands of some apparently simple tasks. Streaming video, either within a browser, through an App, or through FaceTime will demand a huge a mount of your Mac's capacity. Videoconferencing likewise is high-demand.




Similar questions

7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 5, 2022 11:42 AM in response to damettoluca

Welcome!


Use Activity Monitor


View information about Mac processes in Activity Monitor - Apple Support


to see if any web sites you have open are using a lot of processor cycles and energy. I once left the Amazon home page open in a background tab on my idling Macbook Pro and returned to find the battery runtime had plummeted to a third of what it should have been for the time period involved. Activity Monitor showed that the Amazon tab was using more resources and energy than the other 12 tabs combined. Closing Amazon when I was done fixed that. Other sites have done the same thing.


This is an example of how tabs in Safari use processor cycles, from a few minutes ago on my Macbook Pro 2012. Each represents an open Apple forum tab or Apple support pages. They use almost no percentage of cycles:



WhenI had the Amazon issue, its tab was using over 20% of cycles. No wonder my battery drained! When I closed the Amazon tab, the rate of battery drain returned to normal.


Are you running any anti-virus software or so-called "cleaning" apps? They will shorten runtime and cause a myriad of other issues. They are not needed. Let your Mac be a Mac.


Remember not to underestimate the demands of some apparently simple tasks. Streaming video, either within a browser, through an App, or through FaceTime will demand a huge a mount of your Mac's capacity. Videoconferencing likewise is high-demand.




May 5, 2022 1:06 PM in response to damettoluca

Thank you for the reply damettoluca!


Does this issue occur if you do not use the third-party battery software? It is possible that there are processes running in the background (even when not in use) that are causing your battery issue. Check out this article:


View information about Mac processes in Activity Monitor - Apple Support


We also recommend testing to see if this occurs in safe mode. Safe mode can determine whether issues you’re experiencing are caused by software that loads as your Mac starts up:


Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support


If the issue also occurs in safe mode, please contact Apple directly to investigate:


Apple Support


Cheers!



May 5, 2022 10:59 AM in response to damettoluca

Hi damettoluca,


Thanks for contacting Apple Support Communities!


We understand that your MacBook battery doesn't last as long as you'd expect.


To help you isolate this behavior further, check out the steps outlined here: Get help with your Mac notebook battery - Apple Support


This is also a great resource which explains what you can expect from your MacBook battery: About battery health management in Mac notebooks - Apple Support


We hope this helps.


Cheers!

May 5, 2022 1:31 PM in response to Rob_H1

Does this issue occur if you do not use the third-party battery software? It is possible that there are processes running in the background (even when not in use) that are causing your battery issue.

I've used this software for like a month, with no issues at all prior to this one.

Anyway, the issue seem to be fixed since this morning, where with an heavier workload the battery used just 7% after like 2 hours and half.


I don't really understand what caused the issue, that's just weird, also because I have some friends with an M1 Macbook air that noticed the same exact thing in the past.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Excessive battery drain

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.