Optimized battery charging isn't kicking in!!!

shafyrafeek wrote:

Hey everyone! It’s been two weeks since I got my MacBook Pro M4, and I’ve been using it both with the power adapter and on battery. But the optimized charging feature hasn’t started yet. I’m a total newbie to Mac OS, so I’m not sure what’s going on. Does anyone know what could be causing this?

It can take much more than two weeks for the tool to discern your use patterns and develop an optimal charging scheme. When this happens, you may see your battery holding at ~ 80% (it can be 70% or higher than 80%).

If you are using your computer both on and off the charger, if the battery is being depleted moderately and then charged back up to full periodically, the algorithm may not see a need to hold the charge at ~ 80% since the use pattern may be exercising the battery adequately so it does not need to suppress charging to full.

Optimized Battery Charging is a feature that must be turned on in System Settings... > Battery

For your reading pleasure:

If battery charging is paused or on hold on your Mac - Apple Support

Change Battery settings on a Mac laptop - Apple Support

Tthe algorithm is based on your long term usage patterns and trends.

From your description, you have not allowed the algorithm time to accommodate to a pattern of 'generally fully charged, with occasional use of SOME battery power' that would allow it to charge to only 80 percent. (Also, since you are strongly exercising the battery, there is NO advantage of 80 percent charged.)

Your Mac does not want to leave you with an EMPTY battery, and as long as you run it down to 50 percent, it will recharge to near 100. That's how the algorithm works.

shafyrafeek wrote:

Hey everyone,

I need your help with a battery routine for my Mac. I mostly use it for Microsoft Office, browsing, and watching movies. I usually charge it when it reaches 50% and then charge it up to 80% whenever I can. I’d love to keep my Mac plugged in all the time, but I’m worried about how it might affect its battery life. I’ve read that keeping it at 100% might shorten its lifespan, and the optimized battery charging isn’t kicking in.

Thanks a bunch!

You don't need to worry about this anymore. Simply connect to the charger when it is available. The Apple battery health management will periodically reduce the level of charge to optimize the battery life if the charger is always connected (or connected most of the time). After several weeks to months, it will settle on a pattern based on the way you normally use your Mac.

<< I’d love to keep my Mac plugged in all the time, but I’m worried about how it might affect its battery life. >>

if you discharge it to 50 percent, then you will NOT get automatic recharging stopping at 80 percent, because that MIGHT leave your battery empty sometime. Based on THAT use pattern it will likely re-charge to above 95 percent to cover the times when you might decide to draw it down.

If you want the computer to manage charging for you, then connect external power whenever AC power is available, and it will manage charging admirably, and give you the results you SAY you want.

STOP fiddling with it! It can't work when you keep intervening!

TheWalkman wrote:

The 80% toggle is a solved problem on the 2024 iPads. My question - to Apple - is have THEY considered an 80% absolute toggle under Battery Tools on MacBooks?. Perhaps Apple is open to suggestions from customers who do care about optimizing the life of their laptops and might take this back to the development team and consider this upgrade which certainly seems possible since there are apparent charge limiting circuits built into in the newer MacBook Airs.

Should Apple choose to implement this, you are certainly under no obligation to use it. I, on the other hand, along with at least one other user on this thread, will use it daily, and with great appreciation and satisfaction that Apple cares about listening to- and not arguing- with their customers.

I respect your opinion on this (to TheWalkMan) -- although I (and apparently others) don't agree with it. You mentioned

"I’ve had my MacBook M3 for 6 weeks and it has yet to stop charging at 80%. If left plugged in, it charges to 100% every time."

I have recent experience with three MacBook Pros, all of which are connected almost all the time to the chargers. It took several months of but all three now charge to something close to 80% (the one I am using now is at 76%). I doubt 6 weeks is enough time, and you wrote "if left plugged in ..." which maybe indicates you don't leave it plugged in all the time? If it is allowed to discharge once in a while, that might mean it does not require to be "managed" at 80% as it is maybe is being exercised away from 100% just from your use pattern.

I have informally asked people at work (I work with dozens of people using Mac laptops) about this and not one is worried about battery life, most were not even aware of "battery health management" but the ones that are expressed satisfaction with that built in method.

I am going to GUESS (just a guess) that less than 0.01% of new Mac users worry enough about this to want to have these extra options. Maybe 0.001%, or even less. So I doubt Apple will expend resources to add these extra "toggle switches" etc. you want. But posting in Apple Discussions is not communicating with Apple, this forum is only USERS, not Apple employees. To reach Apple, use this link and ask for your desired new options:

Product Feedback - Apple

Batteries are a wear item, like the soles of your shoes and the tires on your car. Their expected lifetime depends on use (as reflected in Charge cycles) and also in the passage of time, used or not. After a while, you should expect to have to replace the battery.

Battery life also depends on two factors you may be able to control a bit better. Lithium polymer batteries deteriorate when they get too hot, and when they are subject to very deep discharge. These should be avoided when possible.

Despite using these batteries in millions of Apple devices, there is still a lot of of randomness in exactly which battery will fail when.

Your fixation on 80 percent full, when you are already drawing the battery lower than that, is unwarranted, and unlikely to make much difference in the life of YOUR particular battery.

But I do worry about it.

If I could simply choose, “Charge to 80%” like I do on my 2024 iPad Air then, voila, the problem is solved.

Apple - as my CS professors taught me many years ago, the simplest solutions are often the most elegant. (Remember the KISS principle?)

Grant -

Beg to differ.

I’ve had my MacBook M3 for 6 weeks and it has yet to stop charging at 80%. If left plugged in, it charges to 100% every time.

That leads me to believe that Apple’s algorithm needs tweaking and/or I have a very different usage pattern than their engineers had in mind when they designed it. (Since I rarely use my laptop undocked, that could very well be the case.)

Therefore, I stand by my earlier point: give me a simple toggle to stop charging at 80% just like my M2 iPad has. When I need extended battery life (rarely), I set the toggle to charge to 100% or any fraction there of. I’m a big boy and can handle that responsibility. I don’t need an Apple battery nanny, thanks.

<< I’m a big boy and can handle that responsibility. I don’t need an Apple battery nanny, thanks. >>

You can also read out the measured temperatures (the computer does it about ten time a secon) and adjust the fan speeds yourself while you are at it. But temperatures, fan speeds and battery longevity are problems that are managed FAR better by the computer than by a human.

Surely you have FAR more important other work to accomplish than what the computer is perfectly capable of talking care of automatically.

“Surely you have FAR more important other work to accomplish than what the computer is perfectly capable of talking care of automatically.”

Agreed. If only it stopped charging at 80% but it doesn’t take care of this automatically.

End of discussion.

Cheers.

“Battery life also depends on two factors you may be able to control a bit better. Lithium polymer batteries deteriorate when they get too hot, and when they are subject to very deep discharge. These should be avoided when possible.”

So if I leave my MacBook plugged in 95% of the time with a toggled 80% charge max selection, your hypotheticals are addressed: slow charging (less heat); no deep cycling. QED

So Apple picks an optimization number of 80% as a random number to target as a maximum optimal charge level like other manufacturers using Lithium batteries do as well? (But I suppose you are more knowledgeable than Apple, Tesla, etc and my friends who try, as well, to charge their cars, to 80% for most local driving are misinformed and overly fixated on caring for their batteries?)

Grant, as you have made abundantly clear, this issue isn’t important to you. Fine. It is to me. Perhaps you might find another thread to opine on.

The 80% toggle is a solved problem on the 2024 iPads. My question - to Apple - is have THEY considered an 80% absolute toggle under Battery Tools on MacBooks?. Perhaps Apple is open to suggestions from customers who do care about optimizing the life of their laptops and might take this back to the development team and consider this upgrade which certainly seems possible since there are apparent charge limiting circuits built into in the newer MacBook Airs.

Should Apple choose to implement this, you are certainly under no obligation to use it. I, on the other hand, along with at least one other user on this thread, will use it daily, and with great appreciation and satisfaction that Apple cares about listening to- and not arguing- with their customers.