MacBook battery charging past 80%

bartosztomasz wrote:

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For how long should I wait? I am asking because I've seen a different thread in which on person complained that he left his MacBook in the charger for a year and it totally killed his battery. Of course one year is an extreme case but I do hope that there is some more tangible timeframe within which my laptop will learn.

Well I have an M1 MacBook Air that I bought in the end of November 2020 and has pretty much spent all its time connected to power (charger initially and then a Thunderbolt dock). Current battery life is at 90.4% and most of that was in the first year and has been at that point for over a year now (battery life can be extremely variable). Battery is currently on hold and as it drops from self discharge (rechargeable suffer this to a greater extent than non-recharcables)it may reach about 75-76% before it bumps it back up to 80%.

Also, even if your charge level is 100%, the battery is not being continuously charged. When 100% is reached, the powering logic will switch to the external power, whatever that may be.

One other note, any reboots for things like system updates can temporarily cause things to charge to 100% but after a few days will return back to normal.

Big Sur was a bit problematic in maintaining the lower 80% level but since macOS Monterey, the optimized charging has been well behaved.

As to how long to wait, there are just way too many variables to give any definitive answer. One thing I will say, if you are using external devices or a power passthrough dock and depending on how demanding your use is, you may end up in a situation where the 30 watt charger may not supply enough power and you may use some battery under heavy use conditions. This will tend to cause the power logic to maintain a higher charge. I found the out when I first got my M1 MBA and was using a power passthrough USB-C dock. It stole 15 watts for its own purpose leaving only 15 watts for the M1 MBA and found sometimes I would see battery level drop while using. I remedied that situation by simple getting the 67 was charger and eventually a Thunderbolt 4 dock which had 85 watts of power delivery.

It takes time for the MacBook Air to learn your use habits. If you are generally disconnecting from the adapter to use it "on the road" daily or perhaps several times a week, it may decide that you need it charged to 100% so it is ready to go. Also, even if you rarely use it without the power adapter, any time you do, it may charge back up to 100% but in a few days will let the battery slowly drain down to 80%.

Give it time to determine your use habits.

bartosztomasz wrote:

That's the most in-depth explanation I could possibly ask for. BTW, I run a HUB too, so I can plug my keyboard, mouse, monitor and charger however I disconnected the power charger from the HUB and plugged it directly into the Macbook's socket. I wonder if it will help since you mentioned passthroughs hampering the charging performance. I've just gotten rid of this passthrough, let's see if my Mac will learn something from it.

You may still want to track battery level since the hub will still use the same power, it will just draw it directly from the Mac instead of tapping from the supply. If you see battery dips and charge during a days use, you may still want to get the beefier charger for home use. It will still eventually get to the 80% level when it has determined that battery is getting little use.

As a side note, just because an app comes from the MacApp Store does not mean it is any good and there are many poorly designed apps.

Apple only checks app submissions to insure that they will not be malicious in nature, i.e. comprise data, spyware, access personal data, etc. They do not test the apps for their quality as that is left up to the developers plus it would simply be to massive a job for Apple to thoroughly test all the app submissions for quality.

You’re not doing anything wrong. Your mac is taking care of itself.

Batteries - Apple