New MacBook only getting 5 hours of battery life

Hello Cheryl,

So we may not be talking about the same laptop here. This is the new "MacBook" section, the all new designed laptop /w 12" retina display Apple released about a month and a half ago. There is no fan on the MacBook. You must be using either the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, but lets see what we can do,

You listed a decent amount of apps Do you have them all running at once? that's going to drain your battery. Further, simply clicking the red x on the top left does not completely close the app in many cases. Look at your dock; do you see a little dot under any of the icons? That dot mean the app is still running in the background, similar to how the iPhone works when you open another app, it does not close the first one unless you forcibly do it manually.

Here, Safari and FireFox are closed, but Chrome is not.

To forcibly close an app, right click it in the doc and select quit

Another thing i'd recommend is using a different browser. Safari is only "okay" on most sites, and as a developer myself, i promise performance on Safari comes last on the list. Many sites, including twitter, Safari has a harder time rendering, and just burns more CPU cycles then say Chrome.

I see you're using Mail too, which unlike Outlook on Exchange (assuming exchange for you) it polls the internet for new messages every n minutes, causing a hit to wifi and that app.

I'm not big on twitter, not sure how much having that run plays a role.

A last thing you can do is use Activity Monitor to see if anything is using an odd amount of resources on you. Go to Finder > Utilities > Activity Monitor. As you can see there is a lot going on, but at the very top left of your screen go to View > Windowed Processes; much better:

Go through the tabs too and see if anything sticks out.

Good luck!!!

I forgot to add about screen brightness. I run mine at 75% brightness on battery, and that's considered high. 1/2 brightness is pretty much the standard, lower if you need a lot of time on battery.

Hi John0001

I am 100% using the new Macbook 12" and there was a "fan" noise when I was using Microsoft Lync via the web. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I thought for sure I would hear nothing. I actually picked up my laptop to hear it and ensure that is where it was coming from. Once I shut that tab it stopped.

I have been a Mac user for about 8 years, a couple Pro's, then a MacBook Air and am trying to migrate to the new Macbook hoping to not have the battery or CPU issues. I typically have more than the apps mentioned above running and understand it does drain battery life but if it is dead in 4 hours by only using social media apps, a web browser, mail and admittedly most of the Microsoft office apps (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Lync), then I will need to go to the new MacBook Air.

I have tons of stuff that shows up in my Activity Monitor, it is currently doing a backup, WindowServer (?), kernel_task, Tweetdeck and Mail are the bigger issues.

Did you use Migration Assistant or start fresh?

Thanks!

Cheryl

Here is the activity monitor, the backup was NOT running when the Lync meeting was causing the issue, it just started running.

I did not use migration assistant, never do... Just ports the problems from the last box to the new one =)

ive run Diablo 3 on the MacBook, at native 1440p res, it got HOT, but there was no fan noise For me. Weird.

Thanks John,

I think that is my problem... I probably need to wipe it and start new. Just such a pain to try and get all the settings, mails accounts, bookmarks, files, etc, never mind finding all the software and the software product keys... but... I am 100% sure that the biggest part of my issue. So I will wipe it and try again.

Thanks for the input/advice. Glad you are so happy with yours, you give me hope!

C

I am 100% using the new Macbook 12" and there was a "fan" noise when I was using Microsoft Lync via the web.

The new MacBook doesn't have a fan.

Lanny,

I understand it doesn't have a fan. I am advising that there was a "fan" like noise when I was using Microsoft Lync via the web. A definite increase in noise of the computer than disappeared when I closed that app/tab in Safari. It was very strange.

C

HI, I'm just wondering if you ever found a final solution to this issue of the battery not lasting to its advertised potential. I'm also having a similar problem with my new Macbook 12. Did you ever get this issue finally resolved, and if so, what was the fix?

I also have a poor battery life of 5 hours max. The thing I worry most is that my macbook came out of the box with 4 cycles already and 97 % capacity of battery life. After draining it and recharging fully, I have 95% and 4991 mah (I am using coconut battery and battery logger to check on my battery status) I worried that this battery is going to be an issue. Having only one port makes this macbook running on battery much more than the other line of macbook. I thought that Apple was always very optimist if not unrealistic on its claim for battery life, as well as the press.

I got my Macbook in June and I've almost always had the same problem. If I quit all apps except Chrome, turn off the keyboard light and run the display at about 70% brightness, I get about 5 hours. In the first month, I brought it to the apple store and he fooled around with a bunch of things and got it to say it had 8 hours. But when I got home, within a day, it was back to 5. I have a wifi booster in my apartment, so i can connect either to the router directly or to the booster in the other room. I notice that the battery prediction varies depending on which wifi I'm connected to, though not by much. I am thinking of going back to the apple store.

no need to calibrate any MacBook battery as of today...

Curious if anyone ever had more information on this topic. I don't have hard numbers, but my Macbook (12" Retina) has also had noticeably poorer battery life from day one. I thought it might just be due to the higher resolution screen at first, but the disturbing thing is it always seems to drain abnormally fast - even when I'm not using it and presumably it's in sleep mode. This is in marked contrast to my MBA which I have often not touched over a weekend or more and still says I have 100% battery life (which also seems odd but that's another story) when I come back to it.

I did not migrate, I am not running anything special at all. The only thing I have that's even slightly different is Dropbox which I do not believe should cause much battery drain, and certainly not when I'm in sleep mode. I tried diagnostics and everything was OK, and all my Energy Saver settings are default. I'm running El Capitan 10.11.2 now, but the behavior has been the same since I purchased it (at release).

The new macbook is definitely not a whole day laptop as claimed. I still run about 5 hours. I also have a macbook pro 13" with retina and I get a longer battery time by at least 2 hours. I also have dropbox on whole my macs and bit virus installed. The most scary part is that my mac came with a battery max charge of 4800mah vs 5200mah. I have 90% capacity after only 23 cycles. The battery also drained while in sleep. I am basically waiting to see if it goes down to 80% while still under warranty before making a stop to the genius bar.

Thanks for the info - how do I check the battery max charge capacity?

Also a quick update. With everything but Finder off, I closed my Macbook and let it drain off of battery power for the past 4 hours or so and it lost over 10% - that can't be working as intended, can it?