MacBook battery drain with lid closed: Is it still working?

“MacBook battery drain with lid closed: Is it still working? I’m Not Sure If Macbook Continues Working When The Lid Is Off. The Battery looks like drained even If the lid is Off. How can I be sure of this?“

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Verifying the Battery is Not Draining with Closed Lid:

Opening up the screen, the battery always appears drained. So, sign in, and you’ll see the official battery.

Closing the lid of the MacBook does not shut it down. It simply sleeps the computer. And yes, there may still be process that continue, though there should not be.

If you want to be sure the computer does not continue to work, then select the  > Shutdown... command before closing the lid.

Apple Silicon Macs do tend to reboot pretty quickly from the shutdown mode, so that typically inconvenient process is fairly well minimized these days. YMMV.

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.

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 while it sleeps, or even if it wakes to make backups or other activities.

But what I am trying to say is the drain is more than "normal".

Not easy for a bunch of your fellow end user to know, because we've never seen a spec sheet that shows "normal." Too many variables.

Rate of drain while sleeping is a function of several things. Many apps and even the system may be "phoning home" to check for updates or new items like mail/text messages. You can't stop that usually.

If you leave a web page open while the computer is asleep, it's surprising how much battery power some web pages can demand when you think the computer is "inactive." I left an Amazon page (and nothing else) open while away from my sleeping Macbook Pro for about 60 minutes. I returned to find out the battery charge dropped from 90% down to 25% charge. Activity Monitor confirmed Amazon was the fat hog at the trough. That can be prevented by closing browsers before sleeping the computer.

Even if you turn the computer OFF, there is still a bit of demand on the battery. The battery must contribute a small trickle of current to maintain your personal settings. Were that not the case, you'd be reentering all your settings after every startup. You cannot stop that important function.

These are the costs of portability.

So how can we check the drain amount and determine It is normal or not.

Activity Monitor is your friend for "amount" and what causes it, but not what is "normal."

View energy consumption in Activity Monitor on Mac - Apple Support

My advice after nearly 20 years of using and maintaining Apple and other laptop computers: Don't' obsess over the battery!

Mainecoon364 wrote:

But what I am trying to say is the drain is more than "normal".

So how can we check the drain amount and determine It is normal or not.

???

It depends on your configuration. Mine drains very little when shut for hours and not connected to a charger -- which I rarely do, I almost always connect to power when there is an outlet available.

But the following can drain a battery a lot even with the lid closed:

• Activity with cloud storage
• Apps checking for updates
• Anti-virus, network security software ... these should actually be uninstalled, they also cause other problems
• Browsers left open, some keep downloading videos, ads, etc.
• I am suspicious that Google apps (Chrome, others) are constantly sending data to Google from our computers

Mainecoon364 wrote:

But what I am trying to say is the drain is more than "normal".

So how can we check the drain amount and determine It is normal or not.

???

Closing the lid is just a suggestion to Sleep the computer. Some jobs & processes may keep the computer awake. Selecting "Sleep" from the Apple menu makes it easier to tell whether the computer is actually being put to sleep. Plus it can easily take up to a minute after initiating sleep before the Mac will actually fully enter sleep mode.

How much work the laptop does while sleeping depends on how you have it configured as well. I have found some systems will wake up to sync photos to the cloud when iCloud is enabled....I've seen this cause a laptop's battery to drain significantly.

Some third party software has been known to wreak havoc on Macs as well. Typical culprits are anti-virus software, cleaning & optimizer apps, and third party security software.....none of which is needed on a Mac.

Also, connecting/disconnecting external devices can wake up the Mac. Touching any key or even the Trackpad can also wake up or power on the recent Macs.

If you don't want to connect the power adapter (or are unable to at the time), then you are better off just fully powering off the laptop.....or if you insist on sleeping the laptop, then at the very least close all open apps to minimize the chances of those apps preventing sleep. Maybe turning WiFi off would prevent some of the battery drain as it would prevent macOS & apps from checking for updates and syncing files to the cloud (if enabled).

It basically comes down to what third party software you have installed, whether cloud file syncing services are being used, and how you have configured the system, and what you have left running when closing the lid.

Following this. If my MacBook pro is charged to 100% and I close the lid, unplugged, it is drained to zero less than 24 hours later. I know things are dependent on how many processes are still running while asleep, etc, but isn't this excessive?

As all have posted above, there was no claim about how long the battery level would stay high under those conditions.

What is 'not normal' is to assume that computer designed to run on battery from time to time will be just fine and ready to use after 12 hours off power but not OFF.

When you set it down in one place, or set it down for the night, connect the power adapter.

Then you wont CARE how much power it used during the time it was 'just sitting there'.

I think I could've phrased it differently - "normal" is in meant in reference to what others experience. My question, hoping Allan or others may reply, is how COMMON is it. It's useful to hear from people who, because of their gaming or other very high utilization when computer is closed, it drains within hours, compared to others who might say that theirs lasts for 24 hours when closed. A generic internet search indicates that draining overnight isnt exactly common, even though technical logic indicates it COULD/SHOULD based upon how computers are made.

Been using Macbook from 2005. I know my new MacBook drains more battery than normal when the lid is closed.