MacBook Pro battery drains rapidly even when plugged in

Question

Level 1

4 points

MacBook Pro battery drains rapidly even when plugged in

My MacBook Pro’s battery drains rapidly even when plugged in. It can go from 100% to 52% in around 30 minutes and then progressively from there to single figure battery %.

It runs Mac OS Tahoe.

My main browsers are Duck Duck Go (DDG) and Safari. I mainly use Adobe Audition to edit wav and mp3 files, DDG & Preview for album art for imported CDs, Apple Music & Bandcamp for buying/ streaming music and Word for Mac for playlists.

Last year I bought a refurbished Macbook Pro from a computer shop after my original one died outside warranty. At the time the cost of repair was prohibitive as was buying a new machine. Also the quality of repair could not be guaranteed by the repair shop. This shop, which I used over many years for phone and laptop advice and repairs, has since gone out of business (financial issues post-COVID I believe).

After all this, should I bite the bullet and buy a new MacBook Pro?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 26.2

Posted on Jan 30, 2026 2:41 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 30, 2026 10:50 AM in response to AGC_KL

Poisoning Internet performance:

By far the easiest way to cause poor performance, instability, overheating and crashing is to install ANY third-party speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, Virus scanners, Bit Torrent, or a VPN that you installed yourself.

¿Are you running anything in any of those categories?

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

155,888 points

Jan 30, 2026 5:01 AM in response to AGC_KL

Hard to say. Did you consider having Apple fix it?

I assume you are discussing a refurbished Mac purchased directly from Apple and not one purchased from the other vendor having since gone out of business. Only Apple sells refurbished Macs.

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