Different battery status on coconutBattery app

Becouse I can't reply tu a old question, I make a new, that's the same.



The text was:


"""As shown in the picture, the battery percentage on the upper right shown that the battery is 100% (fully charged) but coconutBattery app shows that it's only 95.6% charged.


I've tried to 'recalibrate' the battery by depleting it completely and then fully charged it without use but it still shown different status. It's not something that has become an issue nor a big deal but I still want to know why they show different percentage status.


Thank you in advance."""



The reason of these is the battery health management of apple.

That differ from "optimized charging".

Its a much more complex feature.

These feature monitoring constantly the temperature and other parameters of every cycle

and if is necessary reduce the maximum charching. Es reduce the total capacity usable for that cycle.


Is possible 1%. 2% or also 5%.

MacBook Air, macOS 14.0

Posted on Nov 4, 2023 9:11 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 4, 2023 9:48 AM

I guess the best way to describe the difference you are seeing is that the battery percentage you see on the macOS menu bar represents the current charge level of the battery; whereas, what you are seeing in the coconutBattery app is the current actual battery charge capacity.


When new, a battery should in theory, have a 100% charge capacity. Over time, that capacity will diminish. Apple does not consider a battery requires replacement until it cannot maintain, at least, an 80% capacity. This is the more important value to keep track of.


coconutBattery defines "Design Capacity" as the capacity should have when it left the factory. In your case, by the time it got installed in your laptop, it was less than 100%. They also state that the "Full Charge Capacity" may be higher or lower than this value.


Since you are concerned about the battery percentage you see on the macOS menubar, coconutBattery provides this tidbit:


iOS uses a defensive calculated battery capacity value to define 100% (and the percentage calculation). coconutBattery reads out the raw battery data and can give you more precise information.

(for example you will see that the device actually is still charging when iOS tells you that it is fully charged).


Granted this was aimed at an iOS device, but it should hold equally true for Mac laptops.

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 4, 2023 9:48 AM in response to hunter85-mac

I guess the best way to describe the difference you are seeing is that the battery percentage you see on the macOS menu bar represents the current charge level of the battery; whereas, what you are seeing in the coconutBattery app is the current actual battery charge capacity.


When new, a battery should in theory, have a 100% charge capacity. Over time, that capacity will diminish. Apple does not consider a battery requires replacement until it cannot maintain, at least, an 80% capacity. This is the more important value to keep track of.


coconutBattery defines "Design Capacity" as the capacity should have when it left the factory. In your case, by the time it got installed in your laptop, it was less than 100%. They also state that the "Full Charge Capacity" may be higher or lower than this value.


Since you are concerned about the battery percentage you see on the macOS menubar, coconutBattery provides this tidbit:


iOS uses a defensive calculated battery capacity value to define 100% (and the percentage calculation). coconutBattery reads out the raw battery data and can give you more precise information.

(for example you will see that the device actually is still charging when iOS tells you that it is fully charged).


Granted this was aimed at an iOS device, but it should hold equally true for Mac laptops.

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Different battery status on coconutBattery app

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