MacBook Pro M1: Immediate power on from flat battery?

Alexander Lake wrote:

You know, this could be as simple as not having held the power button down for long enough if 10s is really needed. However, it seems to me that (when charged) it powers up with a much shorter press.

Holding the power button for 10 seconds these days will force the system to power off.

You only need to momentarily press the power button these days.

The longer the battery has been at 0% charge....the more likely it will take longer for the laptop to be able to power on since it must charge the battery enough to allow a system power on. And when it does power on & boot, it may even reboot again unexpectedly while you are using it due to how the battery's cells fluctuate in capacity during use/charging.

Leaving a Lithium Battery at 0% will actually cause permanent physical damage to the battery even if it seems to work properly from your perspective.....internal damage has occurred which will reduce the useful life of your battery...perhaps even causing it to swell at some point.

<< if I leave it running without being plugged in, it turns itself off. >>

that is expected behavior.

<< Then I can't get it back running unless I leave it plugged in for about 10 mins charging. >>

that is also expected behavior, because there is a hysteresis built in. Otherwise it would attempt to power up only to immediately power down due to low battery.

the solution in all cases is to leave it plugged in when power is available.

Managing the battery is a job your computer is very well equipped to do for you. Enable battery health management and do not spend another moment of your time anguishing over charging, loss of power, or over-charging.

Only cheap toys charge themselves to death, not your extremely well-engineered Macintosh computer.

Generally speaking, yes, once power is available to the laptop from the ac adapter the Mac should startup.

This is some of Apple's guidance for startup problems: If your Mac doesn't turn on - Apple Support

most Macs have a setting in the energy pane:

Start up automatically after a power failure

With that set to ON, if you ran the battery so low that it went to sleep or powered down, applying power will start it up rather quickly.

That computer is a battery-CAPABLE device, It is not optimized as a battery-operated device (it is not an iPhone.)

Your computer performs best when connected to AC power, such as the power adapter. It can use the full output of the Power Adapter AND when doing especially challenging work could also freely "borrow" power from the battery. In some cases, even with the power adapter connected, the charged state may decline during very stressful work.

The CHARGER is inside the MacBook Pro, and is completely under program control. Your Mac accepts some power when needs to run, and accepts more power when it intends to charge its internal battery. A power source like the Power Adapter or certain Displays can not 'force itself' on your MacBook Pro. Only the algorithms inside your Mac can decide when is a good time to charge the battery. Your Mac can NEVER be over-charged.

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When used only on battery, your computer has no extra cushion of power, and may perform more slowly. However, for ordinary non-stressful tasks this may not be objectionable (possibly not even noticeable.)

In general, you should ALWAYS connect a power source when it is possible to do so, and only run on batteries (which could be somewhat slower) when no power sources are at hand. Modern Macs maintain optimum battery charge levels under program control, and will NEVER over-charge. Connected to Power is NOT necessarily charging.

When you set it down in one place, or set it down for the night, Plug it in. Then you won’t CARE whether it would drain the battery.

Alexander Lake wrote:

You know, this could be as simple as not having held the power button down for long enough if 10s is really needed. However, it seems to me that (when charged) it powers up with a much shorter press.

Yes, that's correct, and that is mentioned as a troubleshooting step in the document I linked previously.

When charged or ac powered and turned off, then a momentary press of the power button is all that is necessary to startup the Mac. In fact, pressing any key is enough to startup the newest Apple laptops.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

<< is there any difference between using a magsafe cable and using a USB-C cable for this?>>

The MagSafe can produce all the power your Mac can possibly use.

default USB-C cables can provide only 60 Watts power; premium cables up to 100 Watts power; super-premium up to 240 Watts power. Choose carefully and there will be no difference.

The OP's tag line indicates that they have a M1 Pro MacBook Pro. The OP didn't say if it is a 14" one or a 16" one, but if I remember correctly, the 16" models can only fast-charge using the MagSafe 3 port.

This is because the 16" M1 {Pro/Max} MBPs need 140W to fast-charge, but the 14"/16" M1 {Pro/Max} MBPs don't support the newer version of the USB-C Power Delivery standard that raised maximum power delivery from 100W (20V, 5A) to 240W (48V, 5A). If you charge them through one of their USB-C ports, I believe that they will draw at most 100W even if more power is on offer.

Fast charge your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro - Apple Support

<< is there any difference between using a magsafe cable and using a USB-C cable for this?>>

The MagSafe can produce all the power your Mac can possibly use.

default USB-C cables can provide only 60 Watts power; premium cables up to 100 Watts power; super-premium up to 240 Watts power. Choose carefully and there will be no difference.

<< and yet... I get this issue. >>

could you please clarify... what unsolved issue are you having, exactly?