MacBook Battery drains quickly post Sonoma update

I'm pretty sure this isn't related to hardware at all. I have an Intel-based model that's exhibiting this behavior. It's almost certainly some behavior that was introduced in Sonoma.

I'm trying to work around this misbehavior by adding a keyboard shortcut to toggle the WiFi off, so I can quickly hit that and then put the MBP to sleep. It seems to have worked for me overnight (battery still at 100% in the morning, without AC power).

Just for info, mine has been fine as long as I have not installed any other browser, just using Safari and all still seems fine after a couple of weeks, it does seem that you have to not have another browser installed though, if it is installed but not running I still seemed to get the battery issue.

I have had the same problem but removing every other browser has sorted it for me, NB, it is not good enough just to make sure they aren't running, they have to be totally removed from the computer, I have tried since putting different browsers back on once all is running ok but pretty much as soon as I do that the problem reappears.

Good luck!

I _might_ have a theory about this (although I've thought that before). If you're having the problem then maybe you can help me validate the idea

• Open a Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)
• Type systemextensionsctl list

This will list any system extensions installed on your machine. It will either show "0 extension(s)" if you have none, or a list of extensions. For each extension it will show you the bundle ID of the extension - which should give you a pretty clear indication as to which app installed it. Can you let me know what you see? If you're concerned about privacy then feel free to omit the bundle ID of the extension and just tell me if you have any extensions at all.

What I'm hoping to see is that everyone with the problem has a system extension installed. If not, then my theory is debunked.

Assuming this is correct, then I would suggest the following steps to try to remedy the situation:

• Identify which apps installed the extensions
• Uninstall the apps (which "should" uninstall the extension)
• Run systemextensionsctl list again to confirm that the extensions have been uninstalled. Note that it might say something about needing a reboot to fully remove the extension - this is fine.
• Reboot
• Run systemextensionsctl list again to confirm that the extensions have really been fully uninstalled
• If you can live without those apps for a while then test your machine without them
• If you really can't live without those apps then reinstall them. If my theory is right then I'd guess that simply uninstalling and reinstalling "might" fix the issue.

If for some reason you can't uninstall the extension then I can help more with that. Also, if the theory is correct I can give more information on sys extensions, but for now I'll just shut up.

One stretch idea... What do you see if you run kextstat | grep -v com.apple? If you see anything other than the following, let me know:

Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil showloaded
No variant specified, falling back to release
Index Refs Address      Size    Wired   Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>

Had the same problem. I went into Settings>Performance>Power and switched to"Turn on when my computer is unplugged". I then noticed that the Chrome update was not installing properly. I then rebooted the computer with Chrome shut down, it relaunched the update and completed it fully. Seems to have worked. My battery is not draining as quickly and the computer is staying cool.

Hey guys,

same here. I wrote an answer on another thread in the community regarding this topic:

2020 13" MacBook Pro Battery Drain during… - Apple Community

After I had read many of posts in various communities including the Slack MacAdmins (https://macadmins.slack.com/archives/C0619KJQY/p1708103419368129), I'm sure, that there is an issue with the battery management due to an update of the Firmware/iBridge during the move to Sonoma. I had used my Intel Macbook Pro 2019 over the years connected permanently on a LandingZone dock and the hibernatemode 25 option configured without any problems.

But on the next day after the update to 14.1 in November 2023 my macbook the battery was emtpy over night, it was very hot and the fans of the CPU very loud.

There is only one solution for me: I always have to take the Macbook out of the docking station before closing it.

...and here's my next attempted solution: I've reset my Mac's SMC. So far, so good -- but it's way too early to tell. It's worth trying, and it seems to be a very benign, very low risk procedure. I seem to recall having been instructed to do this once before, several years ago, on another MacBook Pro with a power issue...

Wish me luck! 8-)

apple1435 wrote:

Thanks for the advice, unfortunately it didn't help at all. I did all of that, put my Macbook to sleep overnight to test, and woke up with 1% battery. Like I said before, I've never had this problem before ever. It's absolutely ridiculous.

System Settings > Battery > Options > Disable "Wake for network access" and check.

Battery dies because some app(s) are running in the background eating up energy. If the battery drains still, then something is wrong with the hardware of your Mac (including the battery). Better show it to a specialist service.

For the past 2 weeks. I faced this issue of M2 MacBook Pro 16 battery drainage during sleep (MacBook cover closed).

And last week, I did noticed my IPhone 12 Pro Max with IOS 17.3.1 are having similar issue of battery drainage during sleep time(midnight). My iPhone also heats up when I switch to cellular mode, including morning hours.

I have tested it with several scenarios on my MacBook without effects.

1) Making sure my AirPods Max are off.

2) turning off Bluetooth.

and finally found one solution that stopped MacBook battery from draining during sleep. Which is to turn off MacBook Wifi.

After the clean install, iPhone battery backs to normal, with no more heating issue using cellular data, and no more battery drainage during night time. At the same time, the battery drainage on my M2 Macbook Pro also gone.

I am suspecting some glitch with my IOS 17.3.1 which triggers all these battery drainage on both my MacBook and iPhone.

**there’s an abnormal “long loading time” when I use “notes app” on my MacBook. The loading time can takes up to few minutes before my notes content shows up. After clean install on my iPhone, the loading time issue on my Mac also solved.

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On my MBP 13" 2019, it seems that 14.4 somehow fixed the problem. Overnight the battery loses now less than 10%, while with 14.3 it was dead in the morning (except if I shut down WiFi and Bluetooth before putting the laptop to sleep).

HormyAJP wrote:

I'm glad it's not just me experiencing this. It's been a massive problem for the last month or so for me. Battery drains almost every night. I often find my laptop buzzing away and really hot when inside my bag.

As far as I can tell I _think_ it's mostly Chrome causing this, but I could swear I've also had VS Code and maybe other programs cause it.

Are we clear whether the expectation is on Apple to fix this or individual software manufacturers?

IMHO this should be Apple because their OS should respect my wish to have the laptop dormant when it's asleep.

Don't hold your breath. If anyone at Apple has identified this as a common problem, that fact has not propagated to any of the tech support agents I've spoken with, or if it has, they're not acknowledging it.

I did a chat with Apple Support that went nowhere. Then, after trying a few different things (reset the SMC, turn off battery optimization, ...) and taking a few more days, I tried a phone call to Apple Support, and managed to get an escalation to a second level support person. The outcome? He suggested:

• Try booting in "Safe mode" and operating that way, to see if the problem returns. My problems with this suggestion: First of all, it can take days for the problem to return, and when I tried running in Safe mode (suggested by the chat support agent), I immediately started having problems, such as the audio system going dead. Second, and more importantly, it was very unclear how Safe mode could isolate the problem, since I only enable software that I need, anyway. By the time the problem comes back, I would have enabled pretty much all the stuff that's running in normal mode, so how would this identify the culprit?
• Try wiping my drive, installing a fresh copy of Sonoma, and most importantly, NOT restoring the user partition from my Time Machine backup. Presumably, this would mean installing fresh copies of all non-MacOS apps, and selectively restoring needed data from Time Machine. And then see if the problem comes back. This seems like a LOT of work (multiple days), and again, it's hard to figure out what this tells me, when the problem resumes.
• Make an appointment at the Genius Bar, and let them have my laptop for however many days or weeks. (I allowed my AppleCare contract to expire last year, so I suspect this would be a rather expensive way to be without my laptop for a long time.)

With MacOS being a UNIX-derivative OS, event logging is incorporated heavily into the system. There are all sorts of log files in /var/log, and I would be surprised if there weren't some flags that could be set to turn on even more diagnostic logging. All I want to know is WHAT is waking up my processor when the laptop is supposed to be sleeping. A sleeping computer should only be refreshing RAM, updating its RTC, and waiting for interrupts from the lid switch, the network interface, the keyboard, the USB, etc. A log entry could easily reveal whodunnit. But no -- I brought this up with the senior Apple tech support agent, and he said they just don't do that. I find that extremely surprising. The log files are probably screaming out the answer.

So, for now, I just restart my machine every day. Ugh! I may end up poking around the log files a bit more, to see whether anything jumps out at me.

RussInMM wrote:

...and, tempting fate, I will report my latest attempt at a workaround:

I use Google Chrome. In Chrome Settings > Performance, I've got Memory Saver turned on, and Energy Saver set to be turned on when on battery.

Looking at Activity Monitor, though, I noticed that if any of my Chrome windows was open to a tab that's for a nontrivial website, the CPU was being used -- even if that window wasn't visible at all. I have found that if I go to each open Chrome window and set the current tab to just plain old Google.com (probably any static, no-Javascript-advertising site will do), CPU usage drops way down. I am no doing this for all Chrome windows before putting the Mac to sleep.

It's been two days since I started doing this, and -- so far -- the insomnia vampire hasn't yet returned. I've let it sleep with and without A/C power, and have so far found the Mac to remain cool, and battery consumption has been negligible.

But now that I've reported this, I fully expect a return of the problem. I'll report back when it does return, or if it hasn't, I'll report that in a few days.

Nope. Not even a couple of hours.

Sigh. This is so frustrating...

Since changing the performance setting in Chrome, it's been better, but still seems to be "hit & miss".

Recovery Mode re-install instructions can be found by following the links in Apple Support. Select your device, and then go to the OS Support section.

Alternatively, this link has helpful, detailed information with links to all the older OS's ... https://www.macworld.com/article/671911/how-to-get-old-macos-download-big-sur-catalina-mojave-and-more.html

I have 3 MBPs; 2017, 2018, 2020. '18 and '20 are running Sonoma while the '17 is on Monterey. The former two are both experiencing unexplained battery drain while "sleeping" while the '17 on Monterey does not!

The latter laptop was last plugged in two days ago and slept fine with nominal batt discharge.

The '18 laptop got brand new battery past Thursday which got charged to 100% - four days later (while supposedly sleeping, i.e. not plugged to power source) it now shows 59%! This is very unacceptable! Even Microsoft got this aspect right!

I'm certainly not falling for Safari (despite the benefits it may offer), but if my recently replaced battery suffers due to this suspected OS bug,

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