What can I use for a low battery warning on a Mac Book OSX10.8?

I have the same problem. All the mac laptops i've used over recent years have had a 'reserve battery power' warning pop up, the one posted by Baby Boomer. My 5 year old Snow Leopard MacBook had to be replaced a couple of weeks ago, i have a new MBP with Mountain Lion. The previous computer has, among other problems, a battery that doesn't hold a charge anymore, and i got that message pretty regularly as it was getting to that point.

Suddenly now on my new computer, i never get that message. The message was always at 20%. On my new computer, at 20%, the little battery indicator in the upper right corner of the menu bar turns from black to red, but i don't get a pop up. The little battery indicator doesn't always get my attention, i'm too engrossed in what i'm doing and time flies. I really want that pop up message. What i'm trying to find out is whether it no longer exists in Mountain Lion. Is this a Mountain Lion thing, or is there a problem with my system? If it's a Mountain Lion thing, i would love it if there was a third party program that would perform that warning message function.

I do not deliberately let my battery run low, and usually it doesn't, my previous computer battery lasted almost 5 years with hours of daily use. But having that message would help me never let it get down really low. Some people don't need it, they're in the habit of checking the indicator often, or plugging in often. I haven't needed to be in that habit before and would rather not if it's possible to get my current system to do what all my previous computers have done, including the older MBP i had before the MB. I don't know if earlier laptops had the warning, it's too long ago to remember, but i bet they did.

So far, googling and searching the Apple forums has not led to any evidence that other users know specifics about this particular subject---the warning message in Mountain Lion. I haven't uncovered any yet, but maybe i haven't used the right search terms? One last thing--i don't have any programs that cover the battery indicator in the menu bar, but i still would find it a lot more helpful to have the pop up message.

Plotinus Veritus--thank you for the link to Coconut Battery. That looks cool. i haven't downloaded it or tried it yet but i can't tell how it works from the info at the link--does it jut sit on the desk top open, or do you access it from a pull down menu? It doesn't look like an automatic pop up kind of thing, right?

I just found a program that may work for this purpose, it's called Unplugged, i just purchased it on the app store for $2 bucks, it automatically installs when purchased. It's been around a long time and has some very good reviews. I tried setting it up, just to do what Mac OS used to do. I am not completely clear on the settings for that, but overall, i'm optimistic. I'm at 80% charge right now and will see if it gives me a warning at 20% which is what i'm attempting. It uses the Notification center, there are screenshots on their website. Apparently you get both visual alerts on your desktop and alert sounds. it does other things like, such as alerting you when charge reaches 100% which i like. When i unplugged just now, there was a small message telling me i'm on battery power now, it was next to the menu bar icon for the program. I am hopeful. It's at:

http://briksoftware.com/products/unplugged/

btw. right after it was installed, when i clicked on the developer's email address to send him a message with a question about setting it up (after googling to see if there is a user manual), Mail was very slow to open, it wasn't opening at all. That hasn't happened before, it's very fast. Then there was a beach ball. A mail message to the developer was supposed to open after clicking on the email address in the 'about' part of the program, and Mail was really having a problem with this for some reason. Then, when i tried to type the email, the keyboard didn't respond. So this was troubling, hoping there isn't going to be any conflicts. I force quit Mail, it wasn't responding, and after that it's been perfectly fine.

Unplugged was last update in May 2013. Fingers crossed.

btw, as i was typing this, i had unplugged at 80% and just now, a small unobstrusive message showed in the upper right corner of the display saying '76% charge now.' No alert sound. Alert sounds would be good.

I've been using Unplugged for one day now. It works great. No more slow downs or odd Mail crashes, computer is working optimally.

You can set Unplugged the way you want, right now i'm experimenting with having it notify me at each 10% change in the charge level. It uses Notification Center and i have it set for alerts, not banners, so it gives me a message in the upper right of my desktop letting me know various things i have it set for. when it was not plugged in, the charge went down and it's set to notify me at 40%, 30% and 20% while discharging. Today, when i got the notification for 40%, i plugged it in, i got an alert saying itwas now running on AC power. It also gives an alert message if unplugged, saying battery power. After it's plugged in, it notifies me every 10% as it charges. I am finding the notifications effective, i definitely notice them. So this solves my problem.

I am not getting alert sounds with the notices, although it's supposed to do that. I emailed the developer, he said it might be a bug and he was going to work on it for the next release. He said he used the Growl code and thought it would work with Noticiation Center, and didn't notice the problem because he just uses Growl with it. I don't have Growl, am thinking about installing it because i think it does other things that would be useful for me, like certain notifications repeating, and cusotmizable sounds. anyway, as far as a low battery warning goes, Unplugged effectively does it for me.

The trouble is, since upgrading to Mavericks, the usual warnings have stopped working. No more red bar warning. No more this:

It was handy, simple, and it worked. Where the heck did it go?

Battery APPS

2. coconut battery (coconut doesnt estimate time however but mAh)

3. Battery time v 2 (mAh and % remaining, not time remaining)

4. Battery APP "fruit juice"

BTW, this used to work great. I'm trying to figure out why it stopped working after I upgraded to Mavericks. Perhaps I have to reinstall it. Might be worth a try, if you're installing it fresh.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/low-battery-saver/id480383312

Hey, I quit Low Battery Saver and restarted it, reentered my preferences and ran a test. It worked! When the battery falls to a certain level (you decide), a ding will sound and you'll get a big red bar across the screen (you can't miss it—unless you aren't looking at your screen at the time) warning you how much time you have to plug it in before it'll shut down. A big help!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/low-battery-saver/id480383312

wilmok and platinusveritas

Thank you for the apps. low-battery-saver looks really good for my needs and so does fruit juice, i will try them both.

meanwhile, i've been happy with Unplugged which i posted about above, i've been using it for a couple of weeks. It's working great. I don't know why Apple has left out the low battery warning pop up but i'm not running Mavericks, i have mountain lion and no low battery warning at all. Have others had it with mountain lion? I've been trying to find that out but no one seems to kow whether it's deliberate design of the OS or a glitch that might be fixed.

Anyway, i've moved on. Unplugged is great for me, the Notification Center notifications easily get my attention. I'm not getting the alert sounds, which i would like. The developer is very responsive to emails and questions. He said no alert sounds is a bug that will be fixed. Alert sounds work if you have Growl, which i don't. But i don't need them, it would just be cool.

Now, i have two other attention grabbing apps to try out thanks to you guys, Fruit Juice and Low-Battery-Saver. If you need pop ups, you might like Unplugged. But i like that red alert across the bottom on Low battery saver, with an alert sound. will try it.

I've been using FruitJuice for about a week now, also still using Unplugged. FruitJuice provides a lot of info about your battery and battery usage. According to what i read on their website, after you've been using it for about 2 weeks, it has enough information about your usage to give you info about your battery and usage, and to give you advice on how to get the most out of your battery, to keep it in the best shape you can, and for it to last a long time. I have not reached this point yet. I'm waiting for that.

It's probably just me, but i have not found it always possible to understand what the numbers mean that it displays, but i think i will understand better after the program has what it needs to explain my battery to me better. One thing i did not like is that, when i installed it, i got a message that recommended that i run a "maintenance cycle," i clicked OK and expected some kind of progress bar or something. You're supposed to start with the battery fully charged and then run the maintenance cycle until it runs down to 20%, and then, according to the documentation on the website, FruitJuice will tell you what to do. So, a very long time went by, my battery was plugged in, the green light was on, it was fully charged, the FruitJuice info said it was fully charged, and there was no sign that anything different was going to happen. i would have to unplug it for it to run down to 20%. But the website said FruitJuice would tell me what to do and when.

Finally, after maybe 3 hours, i didn't want to wait any longer for FruitJuice to tell me what to do next. This was after i had emailed the developer to ask if a maintenace cycle was suppsoed to act like this, because FruitJuice cautions you against leaving your computer plugged in when the battery is fully charged, yet that was what i was doing, waiting a very long time like that. I didn't hear back from the developer, and now, days later, have not heard back. After waiting a long time, finally, wihtout being instructed by FruitJuice, i unplugged and let my computer run down to just under 20%. When i got to that point, no response from FruitJuice to tell me what to do next, despite the website help documentation saying that during the maintenance cycle FruitJuice would instruct me long the way. It seemed kind of apparent that there wasn't any maintenance cycle happening.

So after giving up on that, despite being told by FruitJuice that this maintenance cycle should be done after you first install the program, i have been just using FruitJuice to watch the info it gives about the battery usage, while waiting for the two weeks to go by and for FruitJuice to provide me with info and advice about my battery usage.

The info FruitJuice gives me about my battery is detailed, and i suppose it's nice to have, for some people more than others. The main thing i have needed was some kind of alert if my battery went under 20%, to replace the now nonexisting Mac pop up alert. While FruitJuice does display a notification when that happens, and when other things happen, according to how you set the preferences, the notification does NOT remain displayed until you close it. It closes automatically after a few seconds. So that does not meet my need. I need something like what the Mac OS used to do, which is display a clear and obvious alert message pop up to let me know i'm on reserve battery power. I don't like it that the FriutJuice notification goes away. You can still see it in the notication pull down menu, but for me, that defeats the purpose. If i know to look in the menu, then i don't need to be alerted.

Fortunately!!! i had already found Unplugged. Unplugged is doing exactly what i need. According to how i set the preferences, it displays a notification telling me when my battery is down to 20%, among other things i have selected. If i want, i can just have the 20% warning notification and nothing else. That is ALL i needed. Unplugged gives me that, it's a desktop message that gets my attention and tells me what i want to know, and remains on my desktop until i close it---like in case i was in the other room when the message came up--it doesn't help me if it closes automatically before i get back.

When i frist started using Unplugged a few weeks ago, there were some things i didn't understand or that didn't work. I emailed the developer and he quickly got back to me and addressed my questions. My overall experience has been really good. In fact, i now like Unplugged better than the old Mac reserve battery warning pop up.

Ultimately NOTHING any battery app tells you is of any use. 😉

Why?

If you know the NATURE of a lithium battery and how you treat one, then it becomes 100% irrelevant what a battery APP spits out on the "health" of your battery.

Every lithium battery is going to go toes-up and die eventually, period. Its only HOW fast.

Keep it plugged in when near a socket so you keep the charging cycles down on your LiPo (lithium polymer) cells / battery, but not plugged in all the time. When not being used for several hours, turn it off.

And best "tip" is if its near a socket,...plug it in as long as you can (especially at home) since cycle count on the battery are the "miles that wear out the tires (battery)", however again, not plugged in all or most of the time.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

"Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time."

While cycle count is commonly seen to be the “miles” on your Lithium Ion pack cell in your Macbook, which they are, this distinction is not a fine line at all, and it is a big misconception to “count charge cycles”

*A person who has, for example, 300 charge cycles on their battery and is recharging at say 50-60% remaining of a 100% charge has better battery usage and care than another person who has 300 charge cycles at say 15% remaining on a 100% charge.

DoD (depth of discharge) is far more important on the wear and tear on your Macbook battery than any mere charge cycle count. *There is no set “mile” or wear from a charge cycle in general OR in specific. As such, contrary to popular conception, counting cycles is not conclusive whatsoever, rather the amount of deep DoD on an averaged scale of its use and charging conditions.

(as a very rough analogy would be 20,000 hard miles put on a car vs. 80,000 good miles being something similar)

*Contrary to some myths out there, there is protection circuitry in your Macbook and therefore you cannot overcharge it when plugged in and already fully charged

*However if you don’t plan on using it for a few hours, turn it OFF (plugged in or otherwise) ..*You don’t want your Macbook both always plugged in AND in sleep mode (When portable devices are charging and in the on or sleep position, the current that is drawn through the device is called the parasitic load and will alter the dynamics of charge cycle. Battery manufacturers advise against parasitic loading because it induces mini-cycles.)

Keeping batteries connected to a charger ensures that periodic "top-ups" do very minor but continuous damage to individual cells, hence Apples recommendation above: “Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time”, …this is because “Li-ion degrades fastest at high state-of-charge”. This is also the same reason new Apple notebooks are packaged with 50% charges and not 100%.

LiPo (lithium polymer, same as in your Macbook) batteries do not need conditioning. However...

A lot of battery experts call the use of Lithium cells the "80% Rule" ...meaning use 80% of the charge or so, then recharge them for longer overall life.

Never let your Macbook go into shutdown and safe mode from loss of power, you can corrupt files that way, and the batteries do not like it.

The only quantified abuse seen to Lithium cells are instances when often the cells are repeatedly drained very low…. key word being "often"

The good news is that your Macbook has a safety circuit in place to insure the battery doesn’t reach too low before your Macbook will auto power-off. Bad news: if you let your Macbook protection circuitry shut down your notebook at its bottom, and you refrain from charging it for a couple days...the battery will SELF-DRAIN to zero (depending on climate and humidity)…and nothing is worse on a Lithium battery being low-discharged than self-draining down to and sitting at 0

Contrary to what some might say, Lithium batteries have an "ideal" break in period. First ten cycles or so, don't discharge down past 40% of the battery's capacity. Same way you don’t take a new car out and speed and rev the engine hard first 100 or so miles.

Proper treatment is still important. Just because LiPo batteries don’t need conditioning in general, does NOT mean they dont have an ideal use / recharge environment. Anything can be abused even if it doesn’t need conditioning.

From Apple on batteries:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446

Storing your MacBook

If you are going to store your MacBook away for an extended period of time, keep it in a cool location (room temperature roughly 22° C or about 72° F). Make certain you have at least a 50% charge on the internal battery of your Macbook if you plan on storing it away for a few months; recharge your battery to 50% or so every six months roughly if being stored away. If you live in a humid environment, keep your Macbook stored in its zippered case to prevent infiltration of humidity on the internals of your Macbook which could lead to corrosion.

Important useful info on your Lithium cells as compiled from battery experts:

Heat increases battery performance but shortens life by a factor of two for every 10°C increase above 25–30°C (18°F above 77–86°F). This is yet another important reason for the cooling of any notebook, not just keeping the processor and GPU cool. Mavericks lower power tasking (app nap) and combined with the cool running Haswell processor both greatly protect battery life on your Macbook now more than ever before.

Good news: *Mavericks not only increases a single charge cycle for longer battery use off a full charge,… but also prolongs the overall long term life of the LiPo battery in a Macbook by reducing the load conditions the battery experiences from heavy peak-use.

Counting cycles is not conclusive because a discharge may vary in depth and there are no clearly defined standards of what constitutes a charge cycle on a Lithium Ion battery empirically. Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, so also does the depth of discharge (DoD) determine the cycle count and genuine wear and tear on your Macbook battery.

The shorter the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine.

Frequent HIGH depth of discharge rates (draining the battery very low) on a Lithium battery will hasten the lowering of maximum battery capacity.

Although better performing when warm, lithium polymer batteries live longer when kept cool.

Lithium cells prefer draining conditions at a steady pace rather than fast pulsed or quick discharges, …this fact is idealized now with the Haswell and Mavericks app-nap low power tasking for battery use.

You can negatively impact battery life if you leave it plugged in all the time. It will not hurt to leave it plugged in after it's fully charged, since you cannot overcharge your Macbook once fully charged.

Avoiding full charge has benefits, and some manufacturers purposefully set the charge threshold lower on purpose to prolong battery life. Charging Li‑ion polymer, also referred as Li-polymer, is very similar to a regular lithium-ion battery and no changes are necessary in their use and handling. Most users won’t even know if their battery is Li‑ion or Li‑polymer. The word “polymer” (or pack cell) refers to a battery that is built in a different way to a standard Li-ion.

The reason display model notebooks receive battery service before they are sold is because of parasitic loading due to being either on or in sleep mode constantly.. and also on charge.

When the charger is connected, the battery is periodically topped up, both on and in sleep.

Charging procedure automatically performed when plugged in

1. Charge current
2. Balance (not required once a battery is balanced)
3. Charge voltage

The notebook system controller charges at different rates depending on battery charge state. When the battery is full, it drops a little charge to the battery to maintain that full state. The controller has no way of knowing what the actual "full" charge state of all cells is, so it does a calculated estimate. As cell capacity diminishes over time, this estimation is adjusted, but it's often the case that one cell or another will be ever so slightly overcharged from time to time. The effect of doing this to lithium-based cells is decreased service life due to perpetual charge-state.

As gaming rapidly drains the Lithium cells, it is best, if possible to be on power when gaming, since fast-discharge rates are less than ideal on your notebook Lithium batteries.

Knowing that, now you dont need any battery applications to "monitor the obvious" 😊

Thank you for all that info. I wish i knew some of those things when i first got my new MBP in early November. Still, i probably take pretty good care of batteries by habit and common sense. I got used to appreciating the reserve battery power pop up on my previous computer, a MacBook, because the battery was going out on it for the past 6 months or so, and it ran down faster and faster, so that message helped me to plug in before losing power and before discharging completelly.

i never even heard of battery cycles before i started trying to find out why my new computer didnt' have the reserve battery warning. i never paid attention to that information, no need to know. I've had a few laptops since the iBook days, in fact, i had a Duo 2300 in the mid 90s. I never had a battery get low and wear out until my previous computer, the MacBook, but it, and its battery, were almost 5 years old so....The MBP that the MB replaced, i only used for 3 years and that computer is stored, but when i ever i needed to use it for something, it has always started right up and the battery has a high charge, not low. This has been my experience with all my laptops. So i never gave cycles any thought.

but now that i'm used to having the reserve power warning, i want the back up security of it being there. I have never left my laptops plugged in all the time, but i never let them run down on a regular basis either. Since i don't keep it plugged in, i want my current computer to alert me about how much charge it has. After reading the comments of another forum member recently to the effect that lithium batteries should be plugged in as much as possible and cannot be overcharged, based on other comments he made, i have made it a habit to plug in when my battery gets to about 40%.

Because i don't have a problem with batteries, i don't seem to have a use for FruitJuice, but i do have a use for Unplugged. I like getting the info it gives. I guess it's just some kind of gimmicky security blanket but i enjoy having it. I was on Leopard for a really long time and then in the last few months i was on Snow Leopard on my MacBook, so notification center and other newer OS things are fun, new and fresh. i like getting notifcations about things i want to know about.

Thanks again for all the info, i will bookmark it, and will be informed by it.

i never even heard of battery cycles

Battery cycles dont account for anywhere near at much as many people give them credit for.

Or, Id rather have a used car from a little old lady with 100,000 miles on it than one from a hot rodder with 40,000 miles on it.

General RULE of Lithium is:

never drain them LOW, never store them HIGH

You said---lithium batteries should be plugged in as much as possible and cannot be overcharged

Cant be overcharged ...yes.

DONT LIKE being 100% charged.......also yes

charging and OFF ....ok

charging and in SLEEP........awful.

Macbooks are not shipped with 100% charge, but with 50% roughly for very good reasons.

I dont see how that would work... I tried and in system information you cant edit anything