Since I've updated to Sonoma I've been having issues with battery management on my M1 MacBook Air. The system says the battery isn't charging because it is rarely used on battery (which is true) but it actually keeps charging the battery anyway. This kinda defeats the point of optimized charging. Is anyone else experiencing the same issue?
MacBook Air (M1, 2020)
You are over-worrying this. As others have pointed out, even in desktop mode or after being at 80% for some time, it will once in a while charge up to 100% and be there for a while then go back to 80%. Also, sometimes it stops at a different level than 80%. Like 76%. Or something else. Staying all the time at 100%, or 80%, or some other value is not ideal for this type of battery. So the OS tries to vary things some and periodically it "exercises" the battery, research has shown this can extend the life of the battery. Since we don't have access to the "algorithm," we can't tell why it is doing what it is doing and when it might change things. Also, Sonoma MIGHT have updated the algorithm (versus other OS versions), so just because something changed does not mean there is a problem with Sonoma.
What you are doing is like obsessively measuring tread wear every day or every week on automobile tires. Laptop batteries, like automobile tires, wear out over time and have to be replaced. The Mac OS is just trying to "drive the car" in a way that maximizes the life time.
DooshPastesh wrote:
What is happening with my battery is out of my mind right now. It was already good after fresh OS install, for some time. Now it is so weird that I can't even correctly name what my battery is doing.
Don't worry so much about this. On optimised charging mode, it sometimes goes up to 100%, then goes down (and again goes up sometimes) but will go down to 80% again and stay there. You see, even while staying at 80%, the battery will slowly go down, so to keep that 80%, it gets charged a bit. Actually, the battery level rarely goes up to 80%, even though it is shown that way, but really it will be ~75-76%.
On the 14th December,
On the 22nd,
In that time there were updates 14.2, and 14.2.1, that is with few reboots.
Just now,
As you see, there was a little up and down, but slowly going back to the old 80% level. And, it is on "Charging on Hold: Desktop Mode". Everything is normal. Mind you, my MBP's battery is 1769 days old (or young) and just turned 218 cycles.👌
I think I didn't make my point clear... Mine does know it should hold on charging, it shows the icon that it is holding on charging (just like on your screenshot), but the battery level keeps going up anyway.
It went from 80% to 100% and then after sometime, back to 80%, and again, at least in my MBP. Then, later it went to 80% and now it stays there. The System Settings say that it is in the Desktop Mode, electrical power most probably bypassing the battery. What does your System Settings > Battery say?
If your M1 MBA stays always connected to power adapter, then it'll go back to 80% and stay there, that is, if you don't use it on battery in the meantime, or shut off at times. Then the "always connected to power adapter" cycle is broken. Once, I restarted the MBP, while still connected to the adapter, and it charged to 100% and took nearly 36 hours for it go back to 80%.
If your battery's current charge is 94%, your MBA is not (yet) working in the Desktop Mode. So, it has not yet learned the way you are using your MBA power usage.
By the way, your MBA's battery has only 6 cycles, but the battery level is 94.5% from the design capacity, then the battery is going to deplete quite fast. Just 6 cycles, and 5.5% of the battery is gone!
Mine has 207 cycles, and the battery is still 90.5%...
P. Phillips wrote:
Those numbers fluctuate up and down all the time.
As mentioned, I will not micro manage the battery
I don't either. The MacOS does it. It is bypassing the battery in its optimised charging system. The battery level is at 80% and not being used, the charging is on hold, the MBP is in the desktop mode. :)
ku4hx wrote:
Then you have nothing to worry about
It is not about my worrying. If you can, help the OP.
My MBP is still working in the Desktop Mode, battery level doesn't change at 80%, and the MacOS is bypassing the battery. How's yours?
My MacBook Air M1 does the same. I found this topic while looking for answers.
My laptop is always connected to power source. On Ventura everything worked like a charm, even when I disconnected Mac for a while, after a day it got back to optimized charging and stayed at 80% charge.
I have Sonoma from day one, and from that day my Mac is connected to power source constantly, but optimized charging has never kicked in. I've tried rebooting, discharging, changing some battery settings, all with no results. It always charge to 100%. It used to drop to 80% after max 3 days, now it stays fully charged all the time.
Im concerned about my battery, because it is not a brand new device, it already has 84% battery condition.
I usually avoid additional software messing with system settings but now I’m considering alDente for time to Apple fix this. Unfortunately, there are only two of us who suffer from this and I guess that there might be no fix at all…
In a way, I am glad I didn't buy a M1 chip notebook, even though there were good proposals from companies that wanted to get rid of them. Opted for an Intel chip MBP. Upgraded to the 1st Sonoma beta release, and gave them feedback on anything I felt could be a problem, and some suggestions. Apple developers do read the feedback, I'm sure.
Well, never buy the 1st release processor computers ever. If we do, we are the experiment. :)
Could be, but Apple makes the chip, the notebook and the software, and they should match. Intel was known, tried and tested by the users (Macs, Windows, Linux), M1 was not. With M2, Apple might be polishing the problems. Maybe with M3, we might get a tested product, if at all ARM chips would be good for notebooks/desktops. Watching this forum and other places to find out.
Did you wiped trough settings or formatted in recovery mode?
How do you deliver power to your Mac? My Air is always connected with Power Delivery to external monitor. Maybe this is the culprit? I'm bling guessing now, but it seems that you've fixed your problem, so it is not a persistent bug... You gave me hope!
Hi! Yes m, wiped through settings and then left the MacBook Air on for 3 days while connected to the usb-c charger. No suspending, no turning off no leaving it on login screen after boot. It need to be on or in lock screen.
You can also not turn it off, suspend it or completely log out, otherwise it will start charging and will not enter desktop mode. Just leave it on a few days, if you go away from the computer just use cmd + ctrl + q.
Im not sure it is related to capacity. As I remember, lowest value before battery service is 80%. Mine is still 84%. And I don't know how it is related to an update after which optimized charging has stopped.
I'm not sure either. But, it is always better ask the technical service if the power management is not working well. It could be either the power management or the battery. My MBP is at least 1 1/2 years older than yours, but still has 91% max charge. I can only suggest that you show it to the technical service, but the decision is yours.
Optimized charging not working in Sonoma?
