Is there a way to manually stop MacBook charging at 80%?

phil2mac wrote:

Dude, unplugging really is the worst thing you possibly could do in this context. Please believe me! ;-)

Unplugging the phone will do no harm at all. And why do you assume I'm male?

Agree. Same for my usage (no pattern).

If you never let it drop below 80%, how is it going to stop charging at 80%?

True

Lawrence Finch

Your point may be a bit too subtle. I think you need to re-iterate the "punchline" for full effect of what you intended to say.

Could be. So the punchline is “did you buy a computer, or a battery charger?"

My MacBook Pro with m3 has been plugged into my docking station for 2 months and the charge never settles at 80%. It has never dropped below 100%

Usually, it would automatically start consuming battery power instead of power from your charging plug until the battery drains to 80%.

YanH wrote:

Thank you. My usage has no constant pattern but never below 60%. It is about a month now but still keep changing to 100%. I will keep plugging in for another month to see what will happen.

Batteries of the type used in these laptops can last longer if "exercised" from time to time. That means the charge decreases from 100%, say from using it on the battery, or if it remains at some medium charge (could be between 40% and 80%) for some period of time, and then periodically charges up to 100%. For laptops always attached to chargers, instead of allowing them to stay at 100% all the time, the Apple battery management allows that charge to reduce to 80% and it may stay there for some time. This is done if the battery is never "exercised."

It sounds like you are actually "exercising" your battery where it goes down to 60% and is used between 60% and 100% and then charges up to 100% at times. Apple's proprietary software (meaning we don't get to see the exact algorithms) seems to force the laptop to stay at about 80% if the battery is never exercised, but the algorithm might sense your pattern is better for the battery than keeping it at 80%. So I would let the battery management decide. Forcing your laptop to stay at 80% manually probably won't hurt it but it might not be as good adjust using it as you normally do.

By the way, that algorithm doesn't just keep it at 80%. I have several MacBook Pros, both Intel and M3 models, and sometimes they stay at 70% or 76% or some other value, sometimes 80%.

I would not worry about this. The differences between Apple's algorithm for battery management and what you are trying to do might make a difference of a few percent in the lifetime of the battery, maybe one way it lasts for 10 years and the other way it lasts for 10 years and 1 month ... but it is unclear which one is actually best. I would simply let the health management software decide.

I have the exact same request. And: A general concern about Apple's roadmap planning. I know it's not easy to support MacOS, iOS and iPadOs all together. But why is Apple's product management adding useless complexity?

Lithium Batteries ALL need charging. TRUE for iPhones, iPads or MacBooks.

But here is what Apple Product Management tells us:

1. IF you have an iPhone (iOS), I give you charging optimization. You can choose "optimized charging" based on Apple's artificial intelligence OR use your own intelligence and choose "80 % Limit". Cool - thank you, Apple!
2. IF you have an iPad (iPadOS), I DO NOT give you charging optimization. Strange - but thanks, Apple!
3. IF you have a MacBook (MacOS), I DO NOT give you charging optimization. Even stranger - why this Apple?

This is incoherent and adding useless complexity!

Artificial intelligence and machine learning is nice to have, dear Product Management. But some of your users are experts with batteries - and Yes, they have their own intelligence.

Please, let us use it!

phil2mac wrote:

Fully agree! And talking feature request:

Ideally, macOS would allow you to put a hard stop at 60 % rather than 80 % on iOS.

Why?

Because this is the load stage in which you typically process (long term) storage of batteries. Then you could work with your plugged PowerBook without having to think about health issues.

You might want to rethink that.

"A laptop battery could be prolonged by lowering the charge voltage when connected to the AC grid. To make this feature user-friendly, a device should feature a “Long Life” mode that keeps the battery at 4.05V/cell and offers a SoC of about 80 percent. One hour before traveling, the user requests the “Full Capacity” mode to bring the charge to 4.20V/cell."

https://batteryuniversity.com/article/**-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries

Apple's health battery management does exactly that. People often post here who are impatient but if you always have the power supply connected, eventually that battery health management will settle on about 80%. I see it on scores of Mac laptops at work, on laptops in people's offices always connected to power..

People will post here and impatiently ask why theirs haven't settled yet on 80%. It will, they are just impatient. The 80% always guideline is for laptops that are always connected to a charger. It doesn't have to be exactly 80%. If the laptop is used even a little off the charger, that will change things. As for 60% being better than 80%, show me peer reviewed publications documenting that and I might be convinced.

The beauty of Apple's algorithm is that it settles on industry best practices, but the user doesn't need to "do something." Others will post here wanting to actually "manage" a battery themselves. They may buy utilities, software, etc., some of which fail to work after a future MacOS update ... but they are doing something that I call "churn." This is just a BATTERY. They ALL wear out, and Apple's algorithm appears to be close to optimal. There may be better things to channel one's energies on. But to each his/her own ...

Dude, unplugging really is the worst thing you possibly could do in this context. Please believe me! ;-)