MacBook Activity During Sleep - Killing the Battery!

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MacBook Activity During Sleep - Killing the Battery!

Trying to see if anyone has found a resolution to this issue...

I have a 2019 MBP that I updated to Sonoma a month and a half ago or so. Shortly after, I started experiencing random battery drain during the night. I have left this laptop in my backpack overnight since I bought it, and never had an issue. But now it seems like it intermittently runs intensive activity while the lid is closed. Occasionally, I'll go to take it out of the backpack and it is HOT.

So far, I have...

Run Apple Care diagnostics: All checked out.
Re-installed Sonoma from the web, only bringing over necessary stuff from TM using migration: No change.
Checked, checked and rechecked for Malware: No issues.
Deleted all sorts of old program/app support files, reduced "startup" and "Background items" to only what I actually use and need: No change.
Checked in for 48 hr overnight diagnostics with the Genius Bar: Everything checked out just fine. No change.

I try to leave Activity Monitor running now to see if I can spy something. See the picture below for what I saw this morning after the laptop was lid-closed for more than 12 hours. As soon as I opened and began using the computer, it settled right down—per the usual.

Anyone have any ideas? Searching for anything to try next.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.2

Posted on Jan 1, 2024 11:16 AM

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Answer 1

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HWTech

Community+ 2026

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71,606 points

Jan 1, 2024 6:39 PM in response to bryanalderman

From other posts on this forum, I would suggest looking at your cloud based services especially AppleID & iCloud, but if you are using any other cloud services, then you may want to turn them off temporarily. Two easy ways to do so.....disconnect the laptop from the network by turning off WiFi, or by creating a new macOS user account. Log out of the main user account, then log into the new one and test. However:

Do NOT sign into AppleID or iCloud
Do NOT configure any third party cloud services
Do NOT migrate or restore from backup

Both of these two options can reveal different things. The first reveals it is an app doing something over the network, usually a cloud based app or service, while the second confirms it has something to do with your main user account and not macOS in general.

I had a co-worker who had a similar problem a year ago with an older version of macOS (probably 13.x). I was able to determine that iCloud appeared to be responsible, but I left it to the co-worker to confirm & figure it out (he was a tech support specialist).

FYI, macOS is never completely asleep all night long. For many years now, macOS will wake up regularly through out the night to perform various maintenance tasks and checking for software updates (Chrome is notorious for it). Usually these are just short durations, but on some of my organization's Mac I have seen log entries for the whole night when the laptop was expected to be sleeping.

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Answer 2

Jan 2, 2024 2:36 PM in response to HWTech

Yeah, this makes sense. Very helpful reply—thanks for sharing it and so quickly. I'm gonna attempt the Wifi cutoff first, then I'll try the other user with cloud services disabled.

I knew that it awoke to do basic operations... I just don't know what would be intensive enough to generate extreme processing loads, battery drain, and temperature increase (I do realize those last two are probably cyclical effects of one another... computer heats, tries to cool itself, battery drains).

This isn't a weenie machine though, so whatever it's trying to accomplish must be significant! Some of the CPU Load spikes on the Activity Monitor are pretty steep.

I'll report back what I find out.

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MacBook Activity During Sleep - Killing the Battery!

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