Hello,
I'm new to Mac and basically made the transition due to mac's insane battery life.
In order to maintain the best battery life -
*Should I work with it plugged or unplugged - Both options are available to me.
*How should I schedule my charging is there a specific protocol - I've seen mixed opinions (for example never fully charge or fully discharge and use 3rd side apps like aldente.
And in general every advice is welcome.
Thanks,
Niv
MacBook Pro (M3, 2023)
Leave it plugged in when power is available. The current MacBooks have very sophisticated power and abattery management software. You don't really need to do anything.
For some reason, there is a subset of the population that is obsessed with battery health. They try to micromanage it themselves rather than let the device do what it's designed to do. They spend a lot of time worrying about it and messing about. It's not necessary. The computer will stop charging when it needs to in order to preserve the battery.
Batteries - Maximizing Performance - Apple
Leave it plugged in when power is available. The current MacBooks have very sophisticated power and abattery management software. You don't really need to do anything.
For some reason, there is a subset of the population that is obsessed with battery health. They try to micromanage it themselves rather than let the device do what it's designed to do. They spend a lot of time worrying about it and messing about. It's not necessary. The computer will stop charging when it needs to in order to preserve the battery.
Batteries - Maximizing Performance - Apple
That bulky block that plugs into the wall is very deliberately called a POWER ADAPTER.
The CHARGER is inside your Mac, and is under tight program control. Your Mac only charges when necessary, and stops charging when the battery level is appropriate. Your Mac will NEVER over-charge.
if you enable battery power management, and do not draw the battery down heavily, the appropriate charge level will be automatically adjusted a bit lower.
When you draw the battery down lower, you showed it you need more run-time, and the appropriate battery 'full' level will be raised for a while, then adjusted over time, based directly on your demonstrated run-time needs.
The best feature of all is that you do not need to micro-manage run-time vs longevity -- the algorithms are taking care of it for you, to free your mind to do great things.
IdrisSeabright is absolutely correct on every point. Leave it plugged in all the time if you have power available. Enjoy your Mac! You have a very sophisticated machine that is perfectly capable of managing the charging based on your usage and will make adjustments when necessary.
Maintaining battery life
