MacBook Air 13 battery drain issue following the Sonoma update

Ever since I got Sonoma this week my computer fan is on super loud all the time and my computer is extremely slow. When I try to save an 8mb Powerpoint file, it crashes Powerpoint (spins out with colored pinwheel until have to force quit). Causing huge headache with work deadline. APPLE! Please fix this.

Yes I am also facing this issue since last 2 days after i updated to 14.3.1.; is there a fix expected from Apple for this or any changes to settings will fix it?

I have a Macbook Pro 13´2019 Intel with the same problem! Very frustrating. Its very hot, with the fans running even though it has been closed for a few hours. I know that Google Chrome tends to consume a lot of battery, but I used it every day without any problems until last week. For example, today the battery went from 60% to 5% in 15 minutes. I ran Apple Diagnostics, zero problems identified. Normal battery health, 84% capacity.

This does look strange.

The battery condition is said to be "Normal", which is a good thing.

My first reaction was that maybe the battery was failing, but that does not seem to be the case.

Please run Etrecheck and post its full report here. Use the "additional text" button and paste the report into the text box.

By looking at the report we may see if there is some third software that may be affecting battery management, and/or cause the system to slow down and use more power.

Thank you for this.

The report confirms that the battery is ok, which suggests that this could be a software problem.

My suspicion is that something may have prevented your mac from sleeping.

Two things of note:

you have avast, which you should really uninstall.

you have chrome, and among the bunch of background tasks that this resource hog installs, this drew my attention:

User Launch Agents:

[Loaded] com.google.GoogleUpdater.wake.plist (Google LLC - installed 2024-02-13)

Command: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/GoogleUpdater/Current/GoogleUpdater.app/Contents/MacOS/GoogleUpdater --wake-all --enable-logging --vmodule=*/components/update_client/*=2,*/chrome/updater/*=2

Since the chrome installed agents run all the time, I would not put it past them to keep your mac awake when it shouldn't.

You also have this "hotspot shield", which appears to be a vpn service. This may not be involved, but those commercial vpn services are anything but private.

A PC without antivirus may be a bad idea, but because the Macs use a very different security architecture, not only is an antivirus utility not needed on a Mac, it can actually be harmful because it intrudes into normal MacOS operations in ways that can actually interfere with the built in Mac security. Which is very secure.

For instance, for several years now, the MacOS resides in a sealed, read only volume (actually a snapshot). So neither you nor any other user nor software can modify that operating system. The only way to modify it is to run an Apple certified installer by connecting securely to an Apple server. So what is an antivirus protecting you from? It's like taking antibiotics for a disease you cannot catch. Not a good idea.

To find out if Avast is causing the overnight battery rundown, completely uninstall it. This may be challenging, even using the vendor's uninstaller. But be sure to remove all traces of it. (You can always reinstall it later if you must, but it is not needed and can only do harm.) Then test.

I do use Chrome and have never had the problem with laptops hinted at by Luis, but if uninstalling Avast does not cure this, then maybe trying uninstalling Chrome and its background tasks. Hotspotshield is a VPN Chrome extension, which might raise some suspicions given Luis' comments about Chrome running updaters in the background.

If you do decide to downgrade to Ventura, let us know if it helped.

Since you mentioned this excessive heat, I wonder if the air vents of your mac may be clogged.

This may be especially critical for a MacBook Air, since I believe this does not have a fan.

I'd have that mac looked at. More than software, by now I fear a hardware problem.

Of course, if going to Ventura fixes it, I'd proven wrong.

wallowa wrote:

Ever since I got Sonoma this week my computer fan is on super loud all the time and my computer is extremely slow. When I try to save an 8mb Powerpoint file, it crashes Powerpoint (spins out with colored pinwheel until have to force quit). Causing huge headache with work deadline. APPLE! Please fix this.

Your post is at the end of a discussion about a different problem with a battery maintaining or losing charge. It is suggested that you open a new discussion to focus on your issue, which sounds different from the original poster's battery issue. Also, to expedite analysis or diagnosis, you should download and run the free Etrecheck and post its results using the Additional text button below. One of the most common reasons for issues after MacOS upgrades is that items are installed that might have been ok with older MacOS but are not ok (or need to be updated) to work with Sonoma. The Etrecheck output, which is anonymous, contains information pertaining to those things. Etrecheck's output can be inspected before you post, you will see no revealing information. Etrecheck is also open source, you can inspect it to see exactly what it does. It basically uses tools that are built in to the MacOS but formats the output for easy perusal.

I’m also facing this issue!! In addition, my MacBook produces extreme heat i’ve never experienced before. I assumed that perhaps it is because i used my MacBook for 4 years and it get old but when i asked my friend, she said she is facing the same thing.

Check the ventilation of your mac. If the airways are clogged, the fans will run like crazy, and will not be able to properly cool it down.