Battery indicator stuck on 83% for two hours.

Hello all!


I have a new Macbook Pro M2 Pro 16 inch and today I noticed that the battery indicator in MacOS kept showing 83% for approximately two hours while I was working in Microsoft Excel. I have never experienced this before. I know my MBP can run for hours or even days on battery but generally it does drop somewhat around 5-10% in two-three hours of use. So, I wonder if the battery is OK or maybe the indicator is glitchy. I already tried to reset and shut down my Mac but it only dropped to 82% after a bit more time. I also have Low Power mode enabled.


Please note that prior to this, I charged it limiting the max. charge to 80% using AlDente app and it actually charged to 83%, which was kinda odd.


Did someone experienced something like this?


Thank you very much!

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 13.2

Posted on Mar 14, 2023 7:14 PM

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Posted on Mar 14, 2023 7:45 PM

I'm pretty sure your battery charge limiting is kicking it and that just ends up being 83% for your battery. AlDente or macOS native battery health feature, sets the special BCLM flag on your Mac to "80". This instructs your Mac to only charge to 80% of what the original full health battery would be. As your use your Mac the maximum amount of energy (charge) your battery can hold goes down a small amount. This is normal. So while your battery charge is limited to 80% of what the battery could hold at full health, that amount is now 83% of what your battery can currently hold. That's not that bad. When my charge is limited to 80 it ends up charging to what on my battery is now 86% percent. Also if you click the battery indicator in your menu bar it should say "not charging".


You can check battery health using these instructions: Check the condition of your Mac laptop’s battery - Apple Support but sadly this only will tell you if it's Normal or Bad and won't give you the exact health. I suspect your health is 96% of the original. (80/83 = 96.3%). You can find 3rd party apps that'll tell your exact battery health or look at the Power section in System Information. (Hold Option while clicking the Apple logo in the top left to open System Information).


Is your goal to charge to 100%? If so, just make sure AlDente hasn't done anything (note: turn it off from startup and restart macOS to be sure), and then also turn off "Optimized Battery Charging" in your Battery settings.


If you're just curious as to why it's showing you 83% instead of 80%, than just know it's due the battery health. What is 83% for you now is an equivalent amount of energy (and equivalent amount of runtime) to what your Mac's battery held when it was brand new and charged to 80%.


1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 14, 2023 7:45 PM in response to aMacNoob

I'm pretty sure your battery charge limiting is kicking it and that just ends up being 83% for your battery. AlDente or macOS native battery health feature, sets the special BCLM flag on your Mac to "80". This instructs your Mac to only charge to 80% of what the original full health battery would be. As your use your Mac the maximum amount of energy (charge) your battery can hold goes down a small amount. This is normal. So while your battery charge is limited to 80% of what the battery could hold at full health, that amount is now 83% of what your battery can currently hold. That's not that bad. When my charge is limited to 80 it ends up charging to what on my battery is now 86% percent. Also if you click the battery indicator in your menu bar it should say "not charging".


You can check battery health using these instructions: Check the condition of your Mac laptop’s battery - Apple Support but sadly this only will tell you if it's Normal or Bad and won't give you the exact health. I suspect your health is 96% of the original. (80/83 = 96.3%). You can find 3rd party apps that'll tell your exact battery health or look at the Power section in System Information. (Hold Option while clicking the Apple logo in the top left to open System Information).


Is your goal to charge to 100%? If so, just make sure AlDente hasn't done anything (note: turn it off from startup and restart macOS to be sure), and then also turn off "Optimized Battery Charging" in your Battery settings.


If you're just curious as to why it's showing you 83% instead of 80%, than just know it's due the battery health. What is 83% for you now is an equivalent amount of energy (and equivalent amount of runtime) to what your Mac's battery held when it was brand new and charged to 80%.


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Battery indicator stuck on 83% for two hours.

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