MacBook Air 13 M2 discharges the battery to 80% and charges again to 100% every few hours while constantly connected to the charger

Use AlDente and problem is solved.

I use AlDente app to get better control. This Battery Optimize feature seems ineffecitvely random at best and not good for the battery. The support team doesn't understand how it's supposed to work either.

The iPhone 15 Pro has a feature to stop charging at 80% which makes sense. I put in a request for this to be rolled out all macbooks etc.

As already mentioned, try discharging your computer to about 40% and then recharging it but if this doesn't work I would turning off the battery optimisation feature for a few days and restarting your Mac. This can be found in System Settings/Battery/Battery-Health and is called 'Optimised battery charging'.

This may fix the issue.

Eugene_1 wrote:

MacBook Air 13 M2 has been constantly connected to the charger for more than a month. The original charger is used. There were no power outages.

On macOS Ventura the charge always remained at 80%, which was great. After the update, every few hours the charge drops to 80%, I see the message Charging On Hold (Rarely Used On Battery), as it was on macOS Ventura. But then, instead of keeping it at 80%, macOS Sonoma (14.0) charges it again to 100%.

If anyone has a better solution, I'd be glad to hear it. Also please comment if anyone else is watching this on their laptop. It would be great to make some noise so that Apple notices and fixes it in future updates.

if you think you have an issue—

SafeBoot Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

You do not have to micro-manage the battery, let the software work for you.

I would simply wait another month compare your observations...

The rule of thumb—if you are near the mains leave it plugged in, if you need the portability then run on the battery only—this is how you optimize your battery charging and extend the working life of your battery by reducing the cycle count.

Determine battery cycle count for Mac notebooks

Determine battery cycle count for Mac laptops - Apple Support

About BHM battery health management:

M1/M2 SoC

About battery health management in Mac notebooks - Apple Support

The last screenshot says that your MBA is continuously depleting the battery and charging again, which is not at all good for the battery. Maybe, try disconnecting the MBA from power and using it on battery, say from 100% to about 40%, a few times, and then reconnect the power adapter and try to restart a new cycle for optimised battery charging. Maybe, even shut down the MBA before using it only on battery for few days.

It might also because of a bad power cable, which might get loosened in some way. Sometimes better power cables are made by others than Apple.

since I installed Sonoma 14.1.1 (after one month losing 4 battery cycles with computer plugged) the battery was charged in 100% and it stayed that way for almost one week (Fig 1). And now, up and down sequentially again between 80% and 100% (Fig.2). Remembering: Macbook Air (M1, 2020) ALL THE TIME PLUGGLED into the power socket and with no energy variations or interruptions.

Given the evident ongoing hardware wear and tear, we need to know what to do now: Apple must urgently take a stance on this for a quick resolution.

There are other internet discussion forums (i.e. reddit) reporting the same issue, with many people affected. It's already been two months!

This screenshot shows that the power cable gets loosened. It looks like the power gets cut off and then in again. I had such a cable. Changed that to a new one. No problems since then.

Glad, I could be of help. I am new to the Apple hardware world, but not to the UNIX world, as I've been using Linux for more than a decade. With Apple products, the software must play with the hardware for all to work well. In your situation, it appears that they don't play well that much. But, still it could be the power cable or its magnetic connection. It might be loose some way. You can try one of the USB-C ports and a USB-C power cable. You'd lose a port, but you can be sure that way. Or, it could be the adapter being faulty. You might try with some scotch tape to hold the magnetic power cable connection in place, just to check.

Even though MacOS is UNIX, the base of it is not available for anyone/everyone, or even the majority of the internals of the Macbook, so programs like AlDente will not be helpful. Such programs might even harm your notebook. Better not install any 3rd party modifiers, anti-virus etc software in your expensive computer. They don't have any access to the base of the MacOS and the internals of the Macbook's hardware.

Your MacBook is learning, how you use the Mac after the reboot, that is, if you have optimised charging mode on. It'll take time and go back to the normal way.

Don't use 3rd party apps like AlDente, CleanMyMac etc.

Today is exactly one month since I upgraded to macOS 14 Sonoma. So far, nothing has changed. I take screenshots several times a day to give them to support, but unfortunately there is no support in my country.

On the previous version of macOS 13 Ventura, this feature worked perfectly.

For example, the following screenshot taken on October 20 at 8:37pm shows "Fully charged on October 11 at 7:19pm". But it doesn't. It has gone through several cycles of discharging to 80% and charging to 100% in that time. The screenshot also shows that it charged to 100% at 10pm last night. There were no power interruptions of any kind. It is always plugged in.

Information like the following screenshot can be seen frequently. It says "Scheduled to end charging at 7:30 PM". And every time it is fully charged to 100% by that time, and in the morning it is discharged again.

And it's been going on for a month now with these constant charge-discharge charge cycles between 80 and 100%.

This is a clear Sonoma problem that has been killing my MacBook battery for a month now.

That's normal. The MacBook/MacOS is learning. I once did an experiment and reported it in the MacBook Pro section. I'm not at all worried about all those battery % fluctuations. MacOS/MacBook will take care of that in time, and safeguard your battery, as far as Optimised Charging Mode is enabled.

Now, that Sonoma 14.1 is out, upgrade to that. Once it is installed, and the MacBook is rebooted, the learning circle will begin again. It'd take time and settle.

Disclaimer: Mine is an Intel MacBook, so has macOS Sonoma for Intel, but a M chip MacBook has a Sonoma for ARM. MacOS for Intel has a long history and experience from ~2006 to 2023, 17 years.

Yesterday, I got tired of all these little dips to 90% and back to 100% once a day, and decided to shut the MBP for the night, as I was doing ~2 months ago. When I plugged in the MBP in the morning, back comes the "Charging on Hold: Desktop Mode", but the battery at 100%.

Well, let's see how its goes during the day, whether it'd go back to 80% and stay there, or whether it'd go back to those little dips again. At the moment, I find the optimised charging mode algorithm had gone somewhat haywire. Computer programs have that with them, they sometimes go haywire. 😏

Started happening to me as well after the Sonoma update. I have absolutely no change in usage patterns. On Ventura it worked like a charm, it would be days the battery remaining at 80%. After the update to this new piece of sh*t of an OS, the battery charges and discharges for several times per day.