Severe battery drain issue on Mac after macOS 26

Question

Level 1

12 points

Severe battery drain issue on Mac after macOS 26

I’m experiencing significantly worse battery life since updating to macOS 26, and the issue still persists on macOS 26.2.

Device

MacBook Pro M3 Pro (Apple Silicon)
(I’ve also seen similar reports from MacBook Air users.)

Symptoms

Battery drains much faster than before even with very light usage (Safari, Notes, Mail).
Noticeable battery drain during sleep / idle.
Battery health status: Normal.
This has been happening for many days after the update, so it does not appear to be Spotlight indexing or post-update background tasks.
Usage pattern has not changed compared to before macOS 26.

Before macOS 26

Battery life was excellent with the same workflow (Sequoia)
Sleep drain was almost negligible

After macOS 26 / 26.2

Battery life is clearly degraded.
Sleep drain is measurable and consistent.
System feels like something is preventing proper low-power idle states

What I’ve Tried

Restarting multiple times
Checking Activity Monitor (nothing obviously abnormal)
Letting the system “settle” for many days
Verifying battery health (still Normal)
Contracting apple with no solution after waiting on the phone for 38 Min.

Questions

Is Apple aware of this regression?

This feels like a system-level power management bug introduced in macOS 26.

Would really appreciate input from others or acknowledgment from Apple.

[Edited by Moderator]

Original Title: 🔋 Severe Battery Drain on Apple Silicon After macOS 26 / 26.2 — Even During Sleep

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 26.2

Posted on Jan 16, 2026 9:56 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

steve626

Level 6

13,941 points

Jan 18, 2026 9:18 PM in response to Anonymous981

Things you can try:

Boot into Safe Mode. (Apple provides guidance and instructions for different Macs for booting into Safe Mode.) Do you see similar poor battery performance in Safe Mode. To be frank, because Safe Mode (Safe Boot) disables many extensions and even changes the way graphics are handled, I don't know how conclusive allowing your Mac to run for several hours would be in Safe Mode. But at least boot into Safe Mode, then reboot normally and test for the battery issue.
Obviously you have reviewed your sleep and screen saver settings I would presume.
Can you create a new user, log out of your normal account, log in as the new user, then do some web browsing for a while, is the battery still not behaving as you expect?
Not sure if the M3 MacBook Pro has a fan -- if it does, do you hear it more often than you did before? If so, is it correlated with any specific activity, such as Time Machine ... something else? Fans running means heat is being generated and more energy has to be used, battery runs down. I think your Mac is fairly new so it is not likely to have a lot of dust inside blocking vents.

If no resolution from the above, I suggest this -- download and run Etrecheck and post the report here following these instructions: How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community Since you indicated that this happens even during sleep, then that suggests something running in the background ... MAYBE Etrecheck will find it.

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Answer 2

Owl-53

Level 10

103,117 points

Jan 19, 2026 3:55 AM in response to Anonymous981

From another similar question Did anyone find a solution for this? I was even ready to go back to Sequoia

With a similar suggestion , run the " Etrecheck " application from @ HWTech

For a more intensive suggestion

If the user ( you ) believes these current issues stem specifically from macOS 26 Tahoe.

For a thorough test of both Tahoe / Hardware and to determine the root cause of all the computer issues.

Use the “Atomic” option and select “Erase All Content and Settings.” Apple Silicon computer

Apple Intel computers >> Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac followed by How to reinstall macOS

Always make a Time Machine backup before proceeding.

Run the computer without installing any additional software and without restoring from your Time Machine backups.

Run the computer in this mode for approximately 6 to 8 hours and report back if the previous issues reoccur.

I can and will say

Have a M4 15" MBA - 16 GB Unified RAM and 500 GB SSD Drive that originally arrive with macOS Sequoia and subsequently upGraded to macOS 26.2 Tahoe

The Battery Performance has not changed at all

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