MacBook Pro not charging, persistent red indicator light

Brocccoliboy1 wrote:

I tried to plug in when my Mac completely shut down or went to sleep.

Sometimes the adapter does not charge when it shuts down, and the only way to make it work again is reconnecting the cable to the Mac (not the adapter to the power source). Not frequently, but I can see that it is very annoying. Should I call for the Apple care?

You may be overthinking this.

If the computer does not charge when it is below 70% battery and is connected to the power supply, there may be something wrong. If you can reliably reproduce that, then I would contact Apple Service to investigate.

But note also that (a) there can be a delay of a few minutes when connecting before charging actually starts, this is normal, and (b) if the computer is shut down, on some models the charging indicator is not accurate until the computer is powered on -- not sure if that applies to your M3 model but it is certainly the case with older MacBook Air models I have.

The image you posted is showing totally normal behavior, and I would consider it normal in that image as long as the charge level is above 70%. Yours shows 97%.

I use two different MacBook Pros, both have Battery Health Management active. Usually the display looks like yours except the charge level can be ~ 80%, or 70% or something more. Also, part of the Battery Health Management includes charging up to 100% at which point the display changes from "charging" to just "plugged in" as yours shows. Then the charge drops slowly down to something close to 80% (not always 80%). So I have seen a display very similar to yours (which happens to show 97%) many times. While a battery will last longest if it is at a charge 60%-80% long term when connected to power, it does need to spend some time at higher charge levels so it gets "exercised." You are probably seeing that. I wouldn't worry about it, any more than you worry about your automobile battery, just use it as you ordinarily would and connect to power when power is available. . All these batteries eventually get used up and have to be replaced. However with the Apple Battery Health Management, your battery's life will likely be close to the maximum possible.

What is amusing is to read posts from people who are trying to improve on the built in battery management by unplugging and plugging in their charger cleverly. What they are really doing is preventing any regular pattern of use form being established, hence making the process sub-optimal and decreasing their batteries' lifetime.

Batteries are somewhat variable in their manufacture quality and lifetime. I have a 2010 MacBook Air still on its original battery, which shows 84% of original capacity, which is rather remarkable. Another Mac, a 2013 MacBook Air, had to have its battery replaced in 2020. Neither of those had Battery Health Management (their MacOS versions were too old for that). I have a 2019 MacBook Pro with Battery Health Management and its battery shows 91% of original capacity after 5 years.

when NOT using Battery Health Management, the design typically stooped automatic charging when battery fullness exceeded 92 percent. Yours in showing 97 percent, and the fine-ness of the estimate was never very good anyway. Your battery is finished charging automatically.

Re: LED, which is set under program control by the Computer, not the power adapter:

If you have Battery Health Management ENABLED, often the Mac will light the amber LED to tell you, "I got this, I am maintaining Optimum battery charge levels, based on your usage patterns over time."

when you started this discussion you showed you battery was already 97 percent -- essentially FULL by old rules or' Battery Health Management' rules.

Since staring a new charge cycle is ever-so-slightly destructive of battery longevity, there is a substantial hysteresis built into the charging algorithms that prevent (or at least slow) starting a new charge cycle when it is not absolutely needed.

I think that effect may be messing up your experiment.

it does not sound to me like you have anything to worry about, the computer is taking care of charge levels for you, and you are not unexpectedly running out of power. I think you are trying to do work MUCH better suited to a computer.

this is the only article I know of on the MagSafe lights, and it is not exactly brimming with information.

About your Mac laptop’s power adapter - Apple Support