Macbook pro battery charging matter

The MBP (15", 2018, Sonoma 14)) never leaves the desk, so is always connected to the electricity power. The battery level stayed at 100% all the time. Lately, I started shutting off the MBP every night, and it stays unplugged for ~10 hours. This had been going on for ~ 2 weeks. Lately, the MBP started decreasing the battery power to 80% and leave it like that the whole day. I go out, just close the lid, come back and it is still at 80% - charging on hold. Now, if I shut down the MBP at night, and the next day, the battery level is still at 80%, but but itwould say that it will be charged to full by 10:30, and that happens. But, after a while, a few hours later, it goes slowly back to 80% and stays that way.


By the way, this MBP never gets heated up, I never hear the fans, except when an update is going on. There are few apps working, quite a lot of tabs open etc. Cool at touch and so on. battery cycle is at 207. It was bought in mid 2019.


Yesterday, I left it on all night, that is the lid closed, the MBP sleeping for ~10 hours. The battery level is still at 80%, charging on hold. I think, I'm going to keep it this way (always plugged in, but not shutting off, sleeping at night) till next Sunday, and then use it on battery the whole day on the Monday after, to give the battery some work experience, and then continue to use it for the next month always on power without shutting it off. And, give another full day's work on battery after that month.

Any thoughts? Thank you!

MacBook Pro 15″

Posted on Oct 1, 2023 1:00 AM

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Question marked as Apple recommended

Is optimized battery charging on? This can explain this behavior. Go to settings>battery to check that. You can turn the function off to see if the battery issues persist, but after checking, I reccommend that you turn the setting back on again, as it is an important feature that helps keep your battery safe.

Posted on Oct 1, 2023 2:31 AM

22 replies
Question marked as Apple recommended

Oct 1, 2023 2:31 AM in response to chdsl

Is optimized battery charging on? This can explain this behavior. Go to settings>battery to check that. You can turn the function off to see if the battery issues persist, but after checking, I reccommend that you turn the setting back on again, as it is an important feature that helps keep your battery safe.

Oct 1, 2023 3:52 AM in response to WheelieNick

WheelieNick wrote:

Is optimized battery charging on? This can explain this behavior. Go to settings>battery to check that. You can turn the function off to see if the battery issues persist, but after checking, I reccommend that you turn the setting back on again, as it is an important feature that helps keep your battery safe.

Of course, it is on.

What the MBP had done, that is, what the MacOS had done was to safeguard the battery. I am glad about that option. I need the battery to live as long as possible, for the MBP might not boot, if the battery would die. It mighyt be a good idea to run the MBP on battery at least once a month, at least for one whole day, or until it drops to 20%.


Any ideas on that?

Oct 2, 2023 9:22 AM in response to chdsl

Yesterday, by some chance/mistake, I restarted the MBP while still connected to power. After the restart, the battery went up to 100% within 1 and 1/2 hours and stayed like that while sleeping at night, and somewhere around the day today, the battery charging went back on hold and to 80%. Most probably, it'd stay like that, if I don't put the power off or restart. The battery settings state,


Charging on hold: Desktop mode. Rarely used on battery.


So, it looks like the MBP/MacOS is bypassing the battery for the MBP to be used as a desktop. This is something I really like, as it simply means that as far as the MBP is allowed to sleep, MacOS would bypass the battery.

Oct 2, 2023 7:55 PM in response to chdsl

If you want to be certain the battery is at 100% when you take it off the charger, then turn off Optimized Charging option. If you do this, then you should exercise the battery once in a while (either once a week, or once a month is best because it is easiest to remember --- particular day of the week, or first/last day of month).


If you keep Optimized Charging enabled, then you will need to deal with the battery not being at 100% when you might need it, but you won't have manually exercise the battery.


Choice is yours.


I finally disabled Optimized charging on my devices because most times when I connect the charger I want it to charge to 100%, but that is my own personal choice. Too many times I went to grab my device from the charger only to discover it wasn't fully charged.

Oct 3, 2023 12:44 AM in response to HWTech

HWTech wrote:

If you want to be certain the battery is at 100% when you take it off the charger, then turn off Optimized Charging option.

----------------------------------------------------------


You don't really have to do that. All you have to do is to click "Charge to full now."


The MBP is too heavy to carry around. All my laptops, Windows, Linux ones too, never left the desk. Even, if they were taken somewhere on holiday or for some other reason, the power adapter also went with it. The windows laptops always charged to 100% and used the battery a few % and charged again to the top. It was same with Linux. So, I like the way the MBP/MacOS bypassing the battery, keeping the charging on hold and letting us use the MBP as a desktop (as shown in an earlier post). And, the MBP is cool to touch.



Oct 3, 2023 7:11 AM in response to chdsl

I am just checking this situation. Today around 14:30, MBP/MacOS started charging the battery again, slowly up to 100%. It'd be interesting when it'd go back to 80%. It'd be nice to have a complete bypass for a long time, for the MBP to work as a desktop. The handrests became slightly warm for a while, and becoming cooler again. I hoped to have the desktop mode much longer, but it doesn't seem to happen. Going to watch this the whole week.

Oct 4, 2023 8:21 AM in response to chdsl

Finally, the battery level is going down, started ~4 o'clock in the evening (I didn't catch the exact moment), after more than 24 hours in 100%. Interesting matter is, when the battery level is going down, the MBP is actually using the battery, even though it says "Power source: Power adapter," for the battery to go down from 100% to 80%, it had to be used. I can feel the slight warmth on the palm rests, but there's no fans working (Vivaldi with few tabs, Gimp, Skype, Finder, Books, System Settings). Now it is 86%. Let's see how long it'd stay at 80% in the "Desktop mode." I want to find out whether it is a gimmick or a real deal. :)

Oct 5, 2023 12:48 AM in response to chdsl

The system settings say that the MBP is on Desktop Mode. I put it to sleep at 23:30 yesterday. Opened the lid at 9:10 today. The MBP was absolutely cold to touch. I covered the palm tops with a cloth. The battery level is at 80% and the MBP is in the Desktop Mode. Most cursor movements, page movements are done with a magic mouse, a very useful gadget. :)


It'd be interesting to check if the Desktop Mode hold on till the end of the day, and maybe extend to the next day after a sleep.


Interesting to know, if anyone else is using the Macbook in the Desktop Mode.

Oct 10, 2023 12:20 AM in response to chdsl

Well, I thought I'd see the MBP on battery yesterday, but on Sunday, the battery level showed as 79%, so I decided to keep the MBP on electrical power to see what happens. Today, Tuesday, at ~ 9:15 it went down to 78%.

It is still "Charging on hold: Desktop Mode." It'd be interesting what the MBP/MacOS would do tomorrow and the day after. :)

Oct 10, 2023 8:39 AM in response to chdsl

Now it is past 17:30 here, the battery level is still at 78%, and the MBP is in "Charging on hold: Desktop Mode." Checked with Apple Support site,


and, nothing much other than that. Good that Apple states that the Mac will delay charging past 80%, but doesn't say that it might be, say, 60%, as though they themselves are not that sure.


This MBP will go to sleep ~23:00, what if tomorrow it will drop to 77%? Had anyone had a situation, where the battery level dropped to 60-70% while in the Desktop Mode?


Maybe Sonoma has a better attitude for optimised charging? At the end of the week, I'll send a feedback to Apple.

Oct 18, 2023 1:12 AM in response to chdsl

Now it is a bit funny (strange?), one day it is 80% and in Desktop mode and the next day, it goes to 100% after an hour or so after getting up from sleep, always connected to the power adapter. The Coconutbattery app says that it is never at 100%, even though System Settings state so, but somewhere between 88%-98%, depending on the time. All this time, only 1 cycle was gone in the battery, for more than 2 weeks. The battery state is given as good.

Oct 18, 2023 6:25 AM in response to chdsl

chdsl wrote:

The Coconutbattery app says that it is never at 100%, even though System Settings state so, but somewhere between 88%-98%, depending on the time.

Yeah, macOS doesn't report the charge level properly to the user. It is usually off by about 3% compared to the raw data the battery actually reports.


Also, disregard the battery information on the login screen since it is not always accurately updated.

Macbook pro battery charging matter

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