Q: Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

Apocaly, indeed can be the update, no qualm about that. Remins up to you to figure out what to do next.Unfortunate the update worked on so many other macbooks but not yours. Have given you a very simple set of options, am just curious what comes out of them (warranty battery tests, replacements, or logicboard, in accordance with Apple troubleshooting steps.)

Well I did ask my friends. I was sitting with two, one with a 17" MBP, and another with a 13" MacBook air (didn't get exact models) but guess what? Both of them have battery issues after upgrading to ML. so in my small circle of different machines that's 100% with issues. I doubt that we all have lemons or defective machines.  Sorry, but I like others am going to be ignoring mr. B....

That being said, I have done more testing. Using the instructions in this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3730063?start=30&tstart=0

I disabled DarkWake completely. And guess what? My battery drain during sleep is much better. I put it to sleep at 65% at about 8:00am, and at 5:30pm checked it, and was 58%. Before it would have dropped almost 20%.  Checked again the next morning and it was down to 48%. 10% in 24 hours. May still not be perfect, but seems better. Seems to me to be a Software issue.....

Of course the drain during use is still there, but I thing that'll take an update to correct. Yes an update.

Best of luck to you as well and let us know how it goes!

Umm, actually a number of people had expressed thanks for my advice, and am beginning to suspect some already had their issue resolved by Apple. As for the 17 inch, who knows- your 100%  you only know one person that has a macbook and ML? Umm thatis the tiniest circle of two ever.

So you have to fiddle with terminal, setting so on to still get worse performance then the millions of other users that downloaded ML (3 million by Jul 25) or whom bought new MBAs including myself. You disabled setting just to reduce power consumption, so you are in no way proving it is software error, rather human input. If I do the exact same thing as you my consumption will also drop and will probably push me to 9-10 hours.... Same if you did in Lion.. I power off the machine completely, I get 0% loss over the next 365 days. Umm, sorry jt, but all you proved was that by dissabling some ML settings, you lowered your consumption. You reduced it yourself, not ML, hence the argument being flawed... Same if one turns bluetooth off, wifi, brightenss, so on on a cellphone- does it mean  the IOS is flawed? If you can spot a logical error in my argument, welcome to poke it. I can do the same with ML, L, SL and even Tiger, and could not prove software is flawed, just that I reduced consumption manually.

I drain 1% / 10 hours sleep. Still think Apple can improve batery life readings/management, but 3/4 hours out of 7, that's what I call a rare, rare lemon. Oh, Apple geniuses would call it the same if they can see it on any machine.

You are welcome to go at an Apple store and unplug 10 machines, put batteryhealth, wait and let us know how many tell you 3-4 hours... that gets closer to an experiment. I already tried it, could not find one at fault. But when you do that, you and your friend would be 2/12 tested units. Go at two apple stores and it is 2/22,less than 10%.Add FutureShops, and you can test 100 units. If you prove a machine can do that, they will yank it off the table- so was told in Mtl Apple Store, anyway.

Since I am currently on my semester abroad in Ireland, my options are very, very limited

Hope you are enjoying youself in Ireland

Have tried all the fixes suggested. I have a ticket open with Apple, they went through a reinstall with me which reduced the heating but battery life is all over the place.

Hope Apple are seing these comments.

Thinman

To Beisarius and anyone else interested:

I am new to Apple and bought my Macbook Pro 9.1 (Mid 2012) approx 2 months ago. It had originally Lion OS X on it and I never had a problem. As soon as ML came out I installed that (for free) and I have not seen any problems with running on battery. I get about 6.5 to 7 hours using email, web surfing etc. and wifi on and BT on.

I have read the last few pages with pleasure and have to say that Beisarius is spot on.

Anyone who has studied Six Sigma tools will understand.

Go and type Six Sigma into google and read up. Still I feel for the people who have problems and understand their frustration and disappointment. But the best advise already given by others is to take the issue up with Apple.

Gerard

I know it was only two people, but it shows me that it's not an "isolated" problem. The claim that "there haven't been many people reporting a problem." Well, I found two that have the problem, that haven't botherd to post, or even looked online. So how many more have had their battery life affected by ML, and have not posted here? I'd say many. Not to count those who haven't noticed because their computer is plugged most of the tim. And fiddling in the terminal is trying to determine what the problem is - not blindly saying every machine is broken. I have shown that disabling some OS level / ML features have made a difference.

(BTW, I have been trained in Six Sigma, I'm certified green belt).

All things being equal, those who have reported a problem all reported the problem after installing ML. Nothing else changed except the software. So does that mean all of those machines are bad, or there's something wrong with the OS. I'm going with the software.

Hah ! This email from the Apple engineer who sent me the diagnostic tools earlier last month regarding this problem after I emailed him for some feedback or information on what Apple may be doing to rectify.

"Thank you for your email message.

I understand you may have additional questions or concerns about your device, however I am only tasked to gather information for our engineering team for analysis and can offer no further information at this time.  For your issue(s) or other questions, I'd suggest calling Apple on our main technical support line (Applecare) and document your it with our technical support team."

So still no real answers out of Apple.

I have done a complete disk wipe and reinstall of Lion now and still have minor battery problem ie.

1: drains some percentage points clamshell shut and asleep with no Appps running

2: Battery health down to 93% after only 27 cycles (it's not going to last long if I use it every day)

3: Battery health just dropped overnight on recharge cycle from 94% to 93%

Waiting now for some word from Apple regarding fix/and/or replacement of batteries/logicboards ?

Apple genius and Apple Care in Australia (sydney) don't seem to be aware of the problem after my enquiries anyone else in Sydney or Australia for that matter had any success with them ?

ApocalyArts,

Just wondering what you mean by your options being very limited? Is that in relation to being able to take advantage of your warrenty/applecare outside your home country?

There are many authorised apple service providers and an apple store in belfast if your close to it.

Interested to know if they can help you and if not, why not. (If you know that is? )

Everyone,

I'm glad the bickering seems to have come to a stop. There is no rational reason for it and helps no one.

From my own experience of this issue both my partners and my own Mac with ML, the battery drained super fast and eat the battery life. I reverted both to SL (clean Install) and then went to Lion(upgrade from a Disc Image I made after getting Lion) checking Battery stats both times afterwards and I got and continue to get the pre-ML batery performance on both machines minus the lost battery life.

So for me, solved, for now, but I would still like to use 10.8 so would be nice if apple could sort this.

Whether software/hardware, whichever combo gave the result, the ultimate question is how to solve it?

Apocaly, even if in Ireland, I would try to open a case, and specifically request Sr Advisor. They have decision powers that others do not. tell them "Hey, I get 3 hours." They will try to document. May ask you to ship your unit at a center. They are pretty fast (a week you may have a new one back) But if in school, I hope your warranty goes beyond.

JT, the question on how to solve it still remains. a few possibilities:

- 1-  software flaw and worth waiting for a fix may come along. Personally I find this overly optimistic, and we are nearing, quite fast, the half way point for the 10.9 anouncement. A wait and see approach, and it is nearly October and no solution is out yet.

- 2- Warranty units: Some are contacting Apple. If one has a warranty, call a Sr Advisor, work through the steps, get a working macbook replacement, I think it would be worth the effort. Hands on fix, no more headaches and watching the drain.

- 3 Contacting Apple for an out of warranty 2011. From experience, Apple is quite a generous company, and might be surprised what a Senior Advisor can do for you when you prove 3-4 hours. Try a new battery, if unresolved, you are entitled to a reimbursement. Let Apple support come up with other options.

- 2009-2010 units. Am inclined to think ML is not suited for those platforms even if Apple says they can run it. Ok, but at what driange cost..? In some cases reverting to SL/L solved the issue. If under Apple Care warranty, call Apple, tech document 2 hour drains, likely you will get a logic board replacement if a battery swap solves nothing. If new logicboard yet same result with ML, I would just install SL/Lion and be happy to have a new (be it 2010) macbook.

Apple is very good at following through and contacting for case follow up. They will call, email, leave callback numbers and will do their best to improve the experience.

Still fingers crossed Apple improves power management under ML. One just moves the mouse and the clock jumps. Also, if users do not want power nap, notification or icloud, we should have the option to turn these off with some "maximize battery life" energy setting.

Silvolde, thank you, it is a far cry from earlier references about pigs. Oink. Anyway, we were missing input from people that upgraded without issues- be it I would not expect them to find this forum.

If anyone has simpler options to solve the issue to folks such as Apocaly, jt and so on, please suggest them. I think it nasty if away to study and you just lost your mobility.

Cirr, you got a free battery replacement, but never came back to let us know what happened after that. We are curious.

I agree with Beisarius on contacting Apple. 

Whether or not a fix comes through via an OS update, your best shot is to work with a senior advisor.  I would do so even if out of warranty and it requires a $50 (or local equivalent) fee to get into their support structure.

If your system was, in fact, irretrievably fouled up by ML, that's your only shot to get relief from Apple.

greghei1

As a side note, I'd also like to publicly apologize to Beisarius for implying that he was a pig when I paraphrased the old analogy about wrestling with a pig leaving both parties dirty and the pig enjoyed it. 

While I do disagree with him on a variety of issues that he has raised in this forum and believe that his arguments aren't internally or externally consistent, I obviously don't know him at all, and am sure that he is a fine individual.  My intention was only to highlight that all participants (including myself) were getting dirty in the exchanges, and I did not intend to make any sort of personal attack.

Again, my apologies, Beisarius.

greghei1

my macbook pro i7 mid 2012 also had this battery life issue after updating to ML now only got 3-4hours of battery when it is 100% and it drains really so fast my macbook pro is only 2mos old with me and this is happening and this is my first mac laptop hope they can come up with the fix of putting back the 6-7hrs of a full charged battery...

I think this is something we all agree on, contacting Apple.  BTW, you get 30 or 90 days (not sure which) of free support when you buy ML, so you may not need to pay.  The Sr advisor got me 90% of the way there, but the Customer Care (not sure of title, next level) rep got my battery replaced. 

BTW, after replacing the battery, everything has been great.  The battery life of ML still blows, byt the health is still great, and that is the most important part.

greghei1 wrote:

 

I agree with Beisarius on contacting Apple. 

 

Whether or not a fix comes through via an OS update, your best shot is to work with a senior advisor.  I would do so even if out of warranty and it requires a $50 (or local equivalent) fee to get into their support structure.

 

If your system was, in fact, irretrievably fouled up by ML, that's your only shot to get relief from Apple.

 

greghei1