Q: Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

Yes, dispute it in the app store and they will contact you - you can then state its not fit for purpose and you have uninstalled it etc - same as any app refund.

I followed Beisarius advice to go back to Snow Leopard.

After draining all my battery I left it without connecting to power for more than 6 hours then I charged it overnight and today I unplugged it.

Well I am still stuck on approx 4 hrs !!! (I used to have 6+ with normal usage like web sufing and word processing).

I have a late 2010 Macbook air 13" (manufactured in 2011) but it was bought by my university lab on late 2011 (I know, they sell us stock!). I am using it for some 8 months now. I guess (but I am not sure) that ML done some harm to my laptop. I now have 6335 mAh currect capacity out of the 6700 (design?) capacity which means a 95% health. I dont know if a 5% drop in 153 loadcycles (8months or less) is normal.

At the time I am writing I am on 26% that is 1:04 hrs.

i have tried to repair preferences in Disk utility (a lot of problems mostly assosiated with java 1.6 - i installed the late update).

SO I feel that ML has done something wrong to my "hardware" - I mean I am in SL after a clean install and I am not running any program/daemon or sth.

I have done reset SMC  and PRAM/NVRAM (I think done them correctly)

HOWEVER I now feel that the problem IS maybe the FIRMWARE ?

I cant think of anything else. That was the last thing I updated before installing ML. (firmware update 2.3)

I am now in  MBA31.0061.B07. I dont know if i can downgrade.

Is there anyone who went back to 10.6 or 10.7 after installing 10.8 and has solved the battery problem ?

I now have 6335 mAh currect capacity out of the 6700 (design?) capacity which means a 95% health. I dont know if a 5% drop in 153 loadcycles (8months or less) is normal.

Pretty normal.  Check here: http://burgos.emeraldion.it/mbl/list/MacBookAir3,2

Is there anyone who went back to 10.6 or 10.7 after installing 10.8 and has solved the battery problem ?

Yes, me.  I got 4.5 to 5 hrs. after upgrading to Lion and 5.5 on 10.8

A couple of days ago I went back to SL and got 7 hrs. (all tested with only Safari [1 Window, 14 tabs, no flash, nor self-refreshing pages] and Mail open).

Edit: MBP8,2 (early 2011), 2.3 GHz i7 with SSD (480 GB Mercury Electra 6G)

Edit again: tests also on wipe and clean installations with no data migrated (and with or without iCloud, but only on Lion).

And another edit: battery cycles 285, health 91.8% smack bang where it should be.

ML done some harm to my laptop. I now have 6335 mAh currect capacity out of the 6700 (design?) capacity which means a 95% health. I dont know if a 5% drop in 153 loadcycles (8months or less) is normal.

Well my MBA (13-in, mid-2012, i5) came with Lion pre-installed. First thing I did was a clean installation of ML, and I've been having the same issues as everyone here (although I did SMC reset, disable notifications, etc...). I will go back to Lion or even SL, that's an easy fix, but what worries me is that my battery is in the same condition as yours... except I only have 11 cycles, and already 6300 mAh max capacity out of the original 6700 --> 95% health. I find it highly unacceptable that my battery has lost as much health in such a short time. I will downgrade the OS, but I fear I may never recover the health lost, meaning that Apple and their lousy software has physically degraded my machine. Heck, even Microsoft, through all the blunders they've made, has never made me regret a purchase so much.

<-- is angry. Very angry.

Edit : 2% lost while writing this. Awesome.

Well I reverted back to Lion and have been using it for 3 minutes. Within that time span - battery has dropped from 100% to 95%.

Right now I'm banging my head against the wall.

Fiberluver wrote:

 

Well I reverted back to Lion and have been using it for 3 minutes. Within that time span - battery has dropped from 100% to 95%.

 

Right now I'm banging my head against the wall.

So it seems that even reverting back to an older OS won't do much. I think the "right" solution, for those whose battery is still under warranty, is to keep using ML until the battery health drops under the threshold (I believe it is 80% ?) to get it replaced, and hope that by then Apple will have sorted that issue out. Until then... godspeed !

@Redarm : thank you for the link. It seems that ML battery drain has not done any problem to my battery's health - or I was lucky and switched back to SL soon.

Regarding the 7hrs you get in SL I am now pretty sure it has to do with firmware.

After 2 cycles I am still stuch on 4hrs max - which is not what i previously had in SL.

What equipment are you (MBP?) and what firmware (Boot ROM Version) ? 

Is there anyone running 10.8.1 in a late 2010 Macbook air and does not have battery problems? Ie has more than 6hrs?
If yes, please can you tell me the Boot ROM Version? (Can be found in 'About this Mac' -> 'more indo', Hardware overview)

is anyone (APPLE can you see this????) that can help me downgrade my firmware? I have a MBA no cd (it seems there is a restore cd but I have no cd-rom!)

thanks in advance - I will also try searching on the net and I will post any updates.

I did an update to 10.8.1 on both computers, MBP early '08 and MB late '09 but have still the ongoing battery drain problem.

Battery capacity dropped 4% for this post!

@hricca
First of all let me say that I am new to OSX (switched after 18 years in windows).

I cannot be sure if ML has caused problems to my battery or yours.

Redarm ia a previous post send me a link for a webpage with battery statistics.

http://burgos.emeraldion.it/mbl/list/MacBookAir5,2

A MBA like yours (i guess it is Air5,2) according to that link has obviously more than 6300mAh although I can see some reports like this. This is maybe a proof that ML DOES cause problems and the people reported their battery stats to that website are in the same position as you are with a very new hardware.

However given the 11 cycles it means your laptop is new so it may has not reached the maximum capacity yet ? (I am not an expert- sb else can confirm that?)

Conclusion: If downloading to Lion does not give you much battery then it means it has to do sth with the firmware update that we all did before updating to ML. You probably did too -check.

With my ignorance in hardware (although not in software) I do not know if running a hardware for let's say 5 days can seriously (5%) damage a battery (it is a point that sb has to confirm). If not and it is just some electronic info that is stored in the battery I guess a patch (or new firmware) may solve it.

If not, I am not sure if Apple is going to admit sth like this which means that they have to replace our batteries.

Someone suggested to stay in ML and let the system harm your battery (80% or less in less than 1000 cycles) means that you have to service (or change) your battery.

I do not want to risk this: in my country(Greece) I will spend more that 1 week to solve this problem (we have no Apple Stores in here). If I were in the US where service works fine I could do this.

Hey dantheman,

1- There is no contradiction between the two statements, as they should be considered separately. So yes, for the minority of affected machines (one of which was mine), there never was a fix for the Lion battery issue. It also did not seem to be as large as that of ML. Second statement, about #1- well for some people with affected Lion machines, they simply got a case and had the machine/logic board replaced. So problem was never fixed with a hardware, but lots of people in warranty with evidently leaky batteries got it adressed with a replacement. Hence the #1 customer service. Seen defective units where you have to 'ship' back to some manufacturer, etc. Wait for weeks. But with the macbook you can get a free diagnostic at a genius bar (usually worth $ 50 anywhere else), free troubleshooting and, if covered by warranty, a super fast replacement. Neither Samsung nor Dell beat that. there is no koolaid to the fact that you can walk in an Apple store and solve, rapidly, a stressful computer problem. Just watch one day the stressed clients by the bar, and how they leave reassured. I could never ever do that with microsoft, hence I became a tech on my own years ago (PC)- be it that it is not my current profession.

2. Reconciling performance with record. Unsure if there is a 'recent performance' issue- Apple just passed $650 stock value, the most valuable in the world. Apple's reputation is not tarnished. Even if the entire RMBP turns out to have a 10% lemon factor, it will not dent Apple's reputation. Will PO Apple's QC director. Apple will just replace them. There is no rush of people out there to return MBP with dying batteries. Not at Futureshop, bestbuy and not at Apple's store. So those that post here have a real problem and are working hard trying to solve it, but are a minority in the Retina MBP world. yes, I find it very suspicious that so many Macbook Pros are affected, but that might be discovered by Apple and adressed, or, as written above, replaced with another working unit.

3- My MBA am testing dropped 1 percent over a 10 hour sleep period- so no drain. I bought with confidence knowing even if it came a lemon I would have replaced it immediately for a working one. How many people own toyotas and experienced the uncalled acceleration? 100 in North America... That was a strange academic question.

4- If Snow Leopard works on your machine, I would keep it as such. You may have surprises with Lion, it might stress your machine. More so for ML, and some firmware updates may prevent a rollback to your current Snow Leopard. So fo your usage, i would really consider a Macbook Air, it is more powerful than your current MBP, and more powerful than the 2011 model. And if your 2010 battery reaches is normal life en, just repalce it and use that machine as some backup.

Chris_gr,

Mountain Lion may have affected your battery, but what matters here are the figures. 4 hrs for a 2 yr old machine, with over 165 cycles, and 95% health, is not bad. First, let the machine settle, do its indexing, several boots, and 1-2 cycles in SL and come back to us. Second, as mentioned before, likely a new battery could revert you to 5+ hrs or so. But for a 2010, your MBA, if you get 4--5 hrs in SL is not bad. Rest is variables- what brightness etc.

I also suspected thats some firmware issues remained after going down to SL- but the nasty ML drain is gone on the machine I reverted to ML. So yes, for all I know SL may perform 90% of what I used to have before ML, but you and I know for sure is that ML would kill your battery in the next 15-20 cycles if draining fast. So i would redo a few more SMC resets, and test the machine to make sure at least you get 4 constant hours. All we wanted was to delay your having to dish $ 140 or so or get the Sevice Battery icon. You can still go buy a  new one- and if the new battery does not do as well, go at Apple and return it for full rembursement. Quite legitimate.

Hey erica,

All 2012 machines report health a bit differently. So they will no longer show 100%- they can never have 100% health and that was an artificial algorithm. So Apple techs will tell you that they are supposed to start at 98. Brand new one I have came with 98. Much more sensitive tracking. For you, yes, 3% lost in 11 cycles is not acceptable, as that means 30% lost in 100.Two, hopefully you had a chance to do a full calibration. And three, if you appear to drop life, I would not go down one OS- why, below.. Unsure it can be done on a new MBA- genius bar.

First thing I would do, before any OS change, call Applle and document. They will escalate, do the tests. They will replace once your battery if it continures to fail, and logicboard for sure if it continues. So you will get a brand new MBA if it is not solved, and I would take that over just downgrading the OS. Sorry you have to take time and make calls though, but Apple North America is very fast - 5 min waiting max.

Chris_gr,

Fiddling with firmware is something only a qualified technician could do- especially rolling back version. A firware update failure could render a machine inneffective. Ummm, good question. Has anyone called Apple and asked if they can revert firmware to original purchase status? I am not sure if a 2009/2010 machine retain original firmware or how to return it to factory settings. not even iphones do that after certain updates.

I am now down to 65% with 73 cycles on my 14 month old MBP 

I have backed up all of my data so I will call Apple today and see what I can find out.

Ok, so after having the battery issue on both my Mid 2009 13" MBP & Mid 2010 15" MBP  I upgraded to 10.8.1 the other day on both machines.  It sems to have corrected my 15" MBP to some degree as it now shows 96% battery & 7:50 hours remaining. It also seems to have fixed my fan/extreme heat issue.  On the other hand, I am still having the exact same issue with my 13" MBP. It's overheating, the battery only lasts about 2 hours (if I'm lucky) and the battery health is at 81%.  See attached photos.  Photo # 1 is from the 15" MBP photo # 2 is from the 13" MBP. Whats the deal Apple?  I, like so many others are not happy with this. Also note that my 15" MBP has dropped 3% in battery since writting this post!