Q: Lion - Horrible MacBook Pro Battery Life

I had the same problem (drastically shortened battery life after upgrading to Lion.

Resetting the SMC (System Management Controller - similar to CMOS in Windoze systems) did the trick for me.

Resetting the SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own

Note: Portable computers that have a battery you should not remove on your own include MacBook Pro (Early 2009) and later, all models of MacBook Air, and MacBook (Late 2009).

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
3. On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
4. Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
5. Press the power button to turn on the computer. 
   Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.

Original article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Ugh... I feel like Apple is hanging a giant carrot in front of me except I can never reach...

After SMC reset, for the very first time, I saw 7 hours and 30 some minutes left after unplugging from outlet!! And then, as soon as I launched Firefox, the hours just pluments all the way to 2 hours and 27 minutes.... >_<

This ... can't be happening.. must be twilight zone!

Didn't work for me I hope they might have made it beter with OS X Mountain Lion. I guess we'll see soon!

MBP 2011 15" 2.2GHz i7 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Error seemed fixed with 10.7.4, but after recent Camera Raw Update & (in my case) Epson Printer Update the low battery life is back, my mac book pro mid 2010 seems to get hot while doing not really much.

Already tried everything here, that is just really disappointing...

Did the error reappear with anyone else?

I just unboxed a brand new Macbook Pro Retina 15" about 48 hours ago. At full charge I manage to use it for about 2 hours on battery. This is way too little !!! Last time I bought a Macbook Pro 17" was 3 years ago and then I could run it for about 5 hours on full battery. I can't believe it...!

If you just purchased it, take it to an Apple store. I'm sure it will get replaced or fixed.

From all I can gather, the issue has to do with some sort of bug in the 10.7.4 code for controlling automatic graphics switching. -Particularly after installing any program that makes use of the graphics switching capabilities.

In my case, resetting the SMC wasn't enough. -I also had to (re)toggle the Graphics Switching setting in the Energy Saver section of System Preferences. -The box should be un-checked, then re-checked, then system restarted.

I've been consistently getting my usual 6 - 7 hours of battery life for the past 2.5 weeks now.

I also did install GFX Card Status and hard-switched the graphics mode to internal only, and it immediately lengthened the battery life... So that's when I realized that Lion was switching to the high performance graphics processor, even when running on batteries. Note: I am not currently using gfxcardstatus... and still getting the normal battery life. -I just installed it for trouble-shooting purposes.

Again, this may not work for every one, but it's worked for me.

-L

It seems to be a problem related to the new OSX,

I've got a new MacPro 2012 13" (Lion), and when I began to install my favourite apps, battery decreased too much, having less than 3:30 hours average battery life.

So i tried delete the most things I don't use (some email accounts, gestures, some automatic adjustments, apps with background services) and battery life get better, now i'm getting nearly 5 hours, but this might not be the solution, it only makes OS useless o little uglier I hope there will be a update soon or I'm gonna hate my mac cause i've paid too much for a "great hardware and operative system"

And today I just unregister my icloud account, and... I'v got up to 5hrs battery life o_O

YesicaH2 wrote:

 

It seems to be a problem related to the new OSX,

 

It's 12 months + old. It is not New. Mountain Lion will be out very shortly and Lion will be an 'old' OSX. Your battery life may be better or worse under ML, no one knows yet. Lets hope for all here having issues that it may be better.

Good Luck

Pete

Im now on my second Macbook Pro retina. Sent the first one in for testing - and they found that there was something wrong with the battery. UNFORTUNATELY, the second one im now using seems to have an even poorer battery life. Seriously?!?!

Going to bring this back for testing again. Am really ****** off and would love to get a refund.

Did anybody puschase Mountain Lion? does it make a differance in battery life??

I purchased and installed Mountain Lion yesterday morning. Unfortunately, battery life has not improved.. battery seems to drain very quickly with WiFi on and medium brightness. I would say that the battery life is right where it was with Lion.

I'm going to try running down my battery till about 20%, recharge, then give you another estimate. I currently have only Safari running.

I wouldn't botther. I have had Mountain Lion for some about 2 months (as part of seed program) and noticed no noticeable improvement in battery life at all in that time. As an Enterprise user, I've just come to expect no more than 3 hours now.