Q: Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

"downgraded" to lion until this issue with ML gets sorted out.  seeing an estimated 7:30 on a full charge with safari and ichat open, and also downloading software updates (2GB worth).

for me it's without a doubt a ML issue and not a hardware issue.  bummer; wasted $20

Also having battery issues on my Late 2011 MacBook Pro. Battery drops very quickly. Lost 15% over the past 10 minutes. Went from a full charge yesterday to 6% with the clamshell closed for 5 hours yesterday. Haven't found anything that helps so far.

My battery seems to be working as it was with Lion now for some reason. To sum it up, I did these things:

1. Do a clean Install instead of upgrading on existing Lion setup(Erase SSD completely, Verify Disk, Install ML)

2. After install do a PRAM/SMC reset. Did SMC twice to be sure it works(The light on the adapter blinks orange/green)

3. Did not install any other App other than the ones ML installs ( Kept this for 3 days)

4. Repair permissions on disk (There were a lot of wrong permissions after a clean ML install)

5. Charged battery to 100% and then removed the adapter. I let the battery drain completely till 0% and MBP shutdown overnight.

6. The next day I charged the battery again to 100% with MBP shutdown and let it keep charging for another 2 hours after the adapter light turned green.

7. Did another PRAM/SMC reset.

8. Installed my regular apps. (Mint, Twitter, Pinterest Tab, Dreamweaver CS6 (Trial), Photoshop CS6 (Trial), Lightroom 4)

-My battery has been on a constant 7.5+ hours at 100% with following apps open (Safaril, Mail, Mint, Twitter)

-After opening Dreamweaver and keeping the above apps open, battery drops to 5.5 - 6 hours. (Previously it was dropping to 3 hours)

-Battery percent is dropping slower now, I was down to 85% from 100% on Dreamweaver and other apps open for about 1.5 hours. (Previously 1.5 hours was dropping me to atleast 60% or more)

Before, when I kept MBP on sleep overnight, I saw a huge drop in battery (15-20%), which was ridiculous. Now my battery percent drops 4-5% overnight (6 hours on sleep)

I am happy with the battery life for now, and this has been constant for the last 5 days. Hoping it does not drop again (Touchwood ). I will update if it does, hope this is helpful.

Hardware: Macbook pro 13 Late 2011 i5 2.4, 16GB Corsair 1333, 256GB Corsair SSD.

Thanks,

Sushant

Ask for a refund - I have

I have the exact same issue. My Macbook is only 5 months old. I used to have 6-7 hours battery life. If I fully charge I only geb 2:30hrs battery life... Its absolutely disgraceful.

APPLE YOU NEED TO FIX THIS ISSUE IMMEADIATELY.

Adding name to this as well.

Aluminium Macbook, battery issues, overheating and in general slow performance.

Slow performance has improved a little by repairing disk permissions, removing startup items.

Appointment with Genius tomorrow to investigate battery performance, first bad experience with an Apple product to date. MacBook has run like a dream since day it was bought!

I have to say, my new macbook retina, out of the box with Lion and instantly upgraded to Mountain Lion, has about three hours' worth of life in it. That's considerably less than the 7-hour claim in the box, and that would be acceptable if I was playing games or watching videos, but this estimate is given while doing web surfing and word processing. I'd like an answer that does not require 'clean installs' unless this is the last resort.

thanks!

I think this is an huge issue...after updated to ML battery drops from 100% to 0 in 2h and 30min ...Moreover I see that the battery health decreased from 95% to 75%!!!!! Needs a fix as soon as possible!

Sushant, coincidentally, I did quite a few of these things "together" and they help me to get to about the same imporved state. What I did from this list is;

1. I installed a brand new ML partition alongside my existing one. Both performed the same. Poor battery life.

2. I ran the battery down to 0% and had it shut down

3. I did about 3 SMC resets (there's no indication you do it except the light on the power connector)

4. I did 1 PRAM reset

5. II now get about 6-8 hours in the new partition AND the old one (with little running) - safari/mail

So, I wonder if anyone out there wants to try the LET BATTERY RUN DOWN TO EMPTY, reboot on power, do a couple of SMC resets, recharge, reboot and see if that helps? Coincidence it's helped us both.

Sushant wrote:

 

My battery seems to be working as it was with Lion now for some reason. To sum it up, I did these things:

 

1. Do a clean Install instead of upgrading on existing Lion setup(Erase SSD completely, Verify Disk, Install ML)

2. After install do a PRAM/SMC reset. Did SMC twice to be sure it works(The light on the adapter blinks orange/green)

3. Did not install any other App other than the ones ML installs ( Kept this for 3 days)

4. Repair permissions on disk (There were a lot of wrong permissions after a clean ML install)

5. Charged battery to 100% and then removed the adapter. I let the battery drain completely till 0% and MBP shutdown overnight.

6. The next day I charged the battery again to 100% with MBP shutdown and let it keep charging for another 2 hours after the adapter light turned green.

7. Did another PRAM/SMC reset.

8. Installed my regular apps. (Mint, Twitter, Pinterest Tab, Dreamweaver CS6 (Trial), Photoshop CS6 (Trial), Lightroom 4)

 

-My battery has been on a constant 7.5+ hours at 100% with following apps open (Safaril, Mail, Mint, Twitter)

-After opening Dreamweaver and keeping the above apps open, battery drops to 5.5 - 6 hours. (Previously it was dropping to 3 hours)

-Battery percent is dropping slower now, I was down to 85% from 100% on Dreamweaver and other apps open for about 1.5 hours. (Previously 1.5 hours was dropping me to atleast 60% or more)

 

Before, when I kept MBP on sleep overnight, I saw a huge drop in battery (15-20%), which was ridiculous. Now my battery percent drops 4-5% overnight (6 hours on sleep)

 

I am happy with the battery life for now, and this has been constant for the last 5 days. Hoping it does not drop again (Touchwood ). I will update if it does, hope this is helpful.

 

Hardware: Macbook pro 13 Late 2011 i5 2.4, 16GB Corsair 1333, 256GB Corsair SSD.

 

Thanks,

Sushant

Same problem here on a MacBook Retina.

Is there a documented process for going back to Lion from ML from scratch

ie. Save your data, install Lion clean, re-install all apps, restore data etc?

The upgrade to mountain lion has SEVERELY killed my battery life. I'm down to 1 and a half hours! With only Google Chrome and Pages in use, and a few more apps running in the background. I used to get about 4-5 hours when on Snow Leopard. With video streaming etc. it might come down to 3 hours once in a while, but otherwise it was steady at about 5 hours. Why is this happening? Could it be because of using iCloud?

ruffellprefley wrote:

 

"downgraded" to lion until this issue with ML gets sorted out.  seeing an estimated 7:30 on a full charge with safari and ichat open, and also downloading software updates (2GB worth).

 

for me it's without a doubt a ML issue and not a hardware issue.  bummer; wasted $20

Ask for a refund !

mac.guru wrote:

 

The upgrade to mountain lion has SEVERELY killed my battery life. I'm down to 1 and a half hours! With only Google Chrome and Pages in use, and a few more apps running in the background. I used to get about 4-5 hours when on Snow Leopard. With video streaming etc. it might come down to 3 hours once in a while, but otherwise it was steady at about 5 hours. Why is this happening? Could it be because of using iCloud?

Remove Chrome and all other 3rd party software, don't accept the estimate, actuaaly test how long the battery life is, then post back with your results.

So do u think this works? I am in a good mood to do it myself. Notification bar and all other stuff is good, but for me, it can wait. battery is more imp. how to do it? i had taken a time machine back up just before installing 10.8.. can i just restore my machine back to that level? will it work? and are u sure that the battery life is sorted out with this? n the problem doesnt persist? wld love to get your views on this.

and yeah.. if u do get a refund, let me know the channel to.. i ll be more than happy with my 20$ unless apple is willing to do something abt this.