MacBook Battery drains quickly post Sonoma update

System Settings > Login items > disable and delete everything that's there > shutdown your MacBook, wait a while and reboot it.

The idea is to not to have any 3rd party apps starting at login and/or running in the background eating up energy.

Also, if you have and 3rd party modifier apps, such as Cleanmymac, any antivirus apps, any VPNs, all kinds of auto-updaters, uninstall them. Then reboot.

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.

JamesCameron7 wrote:

Exact same problem, very frustrating. 14.3.1 just released, hopefully sorts the problem...

No two people, or two devices have the exact same problem. So, better open your own thread explaining the specific problems your Mac has.😏

The battery drains not because of Sonoma, but because of the way the user uses the device. My MBP is nearly 5 years old, and "drains" just 2-3% if I leave it sleeping at night, that is bit more than 9 hours. It was the same with Ventura and Monterey. Do you think, Apple made a special MBP just for me?

The battery is a consumable component, and it "drains" faster if used, and how it is used. Even a car battery drains a bit in the driveway. If a battery drains quite fast, "unused," then it had become bad, so have to be replaced. Why blame the pillow for the headache?

Just checking in eldon276, how has the situation been over the last week? I believe mine went to sleep in the middle of the 14.3 upgrade as well, and am willing to reinstall, but wanted to check first. BTW, would you happen to have links for recovery mode instructions? TIA

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

After much mucking around mine seems to only do this when Chrome is installed, doesn't even have to be running strangely, after a reinstall all was ok until I installed Chrome, closed Chrome completely and still had the same issue, removed Chrome and seems ok........

Early days and am still experimenting but this seems to have cured it, bit of a pain as I prefer Chrome!

My problem with this explanation is simple: I've been a Macbook Pro user since 2006, and I haven't experienced this behavior until Sonoma 14.3. Up until then, when I closed my MBP, it stopped consuming power, or very close to it.

SOMETHING changed, and it's not the apps. Chrome was always a memory and power hog, more or less -- yet it never used to burn through battery while the cover was closed (which puts the OS into "sleep" mode). And yes, I also explicitly invoke sleep mode, to no avail.

So, now I have to close Chrome before I invoke sleep? I shouldn't have to do that!

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).

After an update to 14.4 it started draining overnight again, what I have found is that it seems to do this with another browser installed, even if the browser process is not running! I have tried this with Chrome and DuckDuckGo, if either of these are installed on mine my battery drops to 0% overnight with the lid closed, if I have no other browser installed the battery is still at 100% in the morning, the battery indicator shows a sudden plummet from 100% to 0% at the time of opening the lid so it is not recording the drain properly, I am still trying various things but so far the only consistent-ish thing is with no other browser installed all seems ok........

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).

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'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.

To be honest, for the first two weeks using, about the system setup, Win and Mac has their own benefit. Windows was quite stable now, and the system step is very easy to use as well (jump between windows, looking for different windows). Honestly, Apple's windows operating setup (jump between different windows) is a bit complicated.

If the battery drains so quickly, what is the point to buy mac. Mac's most attractive point is the overall stable and battery last very long. That's the main point that I am trying mac. But the Sonoma's battery performance is so disappointed.

...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.