itsdan2

Q: New MacBook only getting 5 hours of battery life

Hello all,

 

Just purchased this MacBook last week and it seems I am not getting the advertised battery life. I have my wifi and bluetooth turned on with display brightness at about half. The backlight for the keyboard is not on and all I am doing is basic word processing/web browsing on safari (no video streaming). I am also listening to music through spotify connected through my bluetooth headphones. Why am I only getting 5 hours of battery life? I do not believe there are any other background processes that would be running, especially since I just got it and there are almost no third party applications installed.

MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)

Posted on Apr 22, 2015 7:55 PM

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Q: New MacBook only getting 5 hours of battery life

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  • by EternalGold,

    EternalGold EternalGold Jan 8, 2016 1:11 PM in response to gatesbuster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 8, 2016 1:11 PM in response to gatesbuster

    For the past few days my MacBook 12" has been really draining battery power like crazy. I only use Sublime Text, Chrome (with 10 or so tabs open) and Slack. I sometimes open up Mail, but then close it once I'm done checking for new mail. I also use Slack, but that has never been a problem!

    Just today, I opened up my MacBook to 100% at 10am and then at 12:30pm it was at 60%!!! This is really freaking me out! Now I'm at 50% at 1pm.

     

    I've also heard that the MacBook Air has a better battery life, but I was told (and read) that the MacBook 12" can last a day. Really disappointing that this is happening, especially since it did hold up most of the day (I used to gloat about it during study sessions, guess I can't now!), back in the beginning of December.

     

    There needs to be some sort of maintenace manual or something for these little guys. I love my MacBook, but I really can't believe how much the battery performance has decreased since December when I bought it.

  • by Andreas Paterfamilias,

    Andreas Paterfamilias Andreas Paterfamilias Jan 12, 2016 11:39 PM in response to EternalGold
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2016 11:39 PM in response to EternalGold

    I have the same problem as you guys. I had my MacBook 12" for about two months, and now I get five-six hrs out of it when working with wifi and Safari and MS Office running.

     

    I have a MBP retina 2014 as well, and I got the MacBook to use it when traveling. Turns out it it indeed ultra portable, but I have to get where I'm going real quick and find a power outlet once I'm there. I'm not terribly impressed with this, and luckily my employer paid for the MacBook. Otherwise I'd feel seriously scammed. The reason I get expensive stuff from Apple is that I never have to worry about quality issues; now all of a sudden, I do. Get your act together, Apple!

  • by gatesbuster,

    gatesbuster gatesbuster Jan 13, 2016 12:25 AM in response to Andreas Paterfamilias
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Jan 13, 2016 12:25 AM in response to Andreas Paterfamilias

    The battery ***** and in no case it reaches even half of what it is supposed to be. I just booted my macbook and the battery app to monitor the time tells me I have 3:54 hours; I am running safari to type this response and the mail app with the screen at 80%

  • by goldsteinsa,

    goldsteinsa goldsteinsa Jan 16, 2016 5:55 AM in response to itsdan2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 16, 2016 5:55 AM in response to itsdan2

    I too am experiencing battery life issues with my 4 week old Macbook 12.

     

    With the brightness around 60% and the keyboard backlight off or very low I'm consistently getting the following:

    15% per hour battery drain using Chrome - mostly reading tech, deal and food websites, no video

    20% per hour battery drain using Netflix

     

    I'm also seeing 5-8% battery drain while sleeping overnight for about 8 hours (Wi-Fi on but PowerNap off while on battery)

     

    I restored my Macbook to factory (deleted drive, reinstalled OS) and have not seen an improvement.

     

    I'm very disappointed.  I'm within my Best Buy return window, but I'm not convinced that a replacement will be any better.  I'm not sure how to proceed.

  • by Lanny,

    Lanny Lanny Jan 18, 2016 10:06 AM in response to goldsteinsa
    Level 5 (7,900 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 18, 2016 10:06 AM in response to goldsteinsa
    With the brightness around 60% and the keyboard backlight off or very low I'm consistently getting the following:

    Try 50% or less.


     

    15% per hour battery drain using Chrome - mostly reading tech, deal and food websites, no video

     

    Stop using Chrome, it is a notorious cpu resource hog, especially compared to Safari.


     

    I'm also seeing 5-8% battery drain while sleeping overnight for about 8 hours (Wi-Fi on but PowerNap off while on battery)

     

    When a portable Mac is in Sleep mode, the Airport card is not powered, which means that WiFi is turned off.


    Use your Activity Monitor to identify any commonly used apps that may be using excessive cpu resources.


  • by timothy250,

    timothy250 timothy250 Jan 19, 2016 2:05 PM in response to Madsy003
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 19, 2016 2:05 PM in response to Madsy003

    Are you still getting 7-9 hours of battery life? I just erased my hard drive and I'm about to migrate my things manually. Also what did you actually migrate over? I read some articles about manual migration and they mention preferences and application support files and I'm just nervous they might carry a file that could kill my battery life. I've only had my MacBook for a few days and the battery life after migration assistant was a bit disappointing considering my MacBook air had 8+ hours of battery life.

  • by gatesbuster,

    gatesbuster gatesbuster Jan 19, 2016 2:25 PM in response to itsdan2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Jan 19, 2016 2:25 PM in response to itsdan2

    Battery on the new macbook is poor and the all day or 9 hours advertising is unrealistic. Having owned, macbook pro, macbook air 13 and 11, the battery life is the worst of all the lines. Not only you will get 5 hours and with work on photos, you won't get 3 hours of battery life. I have less than 30 cycles now on my battery and I have 90% of the capacity; so not only battery time is poor but it will have to be replaced sooner.

  • by goldsteinsa,

    goldsteinsa goldsteinsa Jan 19, 2016 4:37 PM in response to itsdan2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 19, 2016 4:37 PM in response to itsdan2

    Well, this Macbook 12 is going back.  Battery life continues to be below specification and after only 9 cycles my battery is down to 91% of capacity.  As usual, with new technology (the tiered battery) it's better to not buy the 1st generation.

  • by Paulo.GC,

    Paulo.GC Paulo.GC Feb 4, 2016 8:17 PM in response to itsdan2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 4, 2016 8:17 PM in response to itsdan2

    Downgrade to Yosemite work for me, up to 10 hours web, youtube, photoshop...

  • by Andrew Symond,

    Andrew Symond Andrew Symond Feb 5, 2016 2:47 AM in response to itsdan2
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 5, 2016 2:47 AM in response to itsdan2

    You need to check on your program list. As it is totally new version, we can guess all the applications also. Browser may also consuming more battery. I Would recommend to using a different browser. Safari is only "okay" on most sites. Many sites, including twitter, Safari has a harder time rendering, and just burns more CPU cycles then Chrome.

  • by Andreas Paterfamilias,

    Andreas Paterfamilias Andreas Paterfamilias Feb 9, 2016 8:24 AM in response to Andreas Paterfamilias
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 9, 2016 8:24 AM in response to Andreas Paterfamilias

    Update: I called Apple support and was advised to do the reset NVRAM. Option-Connect-P-R (hold until you heard starting sound twice). Now I have 14:10 hrs to go from 100%, although I can't tell whether it will last.

     

    On the downside, the LED backlight on my M key on my keyboard broke. Gotta take it to the store anyway. But give the NVRAM-reset a shot, guys!

  • by gatesbuster,

    gatesbuster gatesbuster Feb 9, 2016 9:17 AM in response to Andreas Paterfamilias
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 9, 2016 9:17 AM in response to Andreas Paterfamilias

    what do you mean by "connect" ? is it "command" or "control" ?

  • by gatesbuster,

    gatesbuster gatesbuster Feb 9, 2016 11:30 AM in response to Andreas Paterfamilias
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 9, 2016 11:30 AM in response to Andreas Paterfamilias

    I did a reset of the SMC as suggested . It did not change anything; the battery monitor is giving me 95% after using my macbook (only safari and mail opened) for 5 minutes. I have a remaining battery time of 5:47 so lucky you if you get 14 hours of battery, it has not changed anything on my macbook. Battery life is lousy on the macbook retina, worst than my macbook air 11" and in par with my macbook pro retina 15" which gives me between 5 to 6 hours max (but I do use adobe lightroom sometimes which is a power hog)

  • by Andreas Paterfamilias,

    Andreas Paterfamilias Andreas Paterfamilias Feb 10, 2016 2:12 AM in response to gatesbuster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 10, 2016 2:12 AM in response to gatesbuster

    Sorry, should be command + option + P + R (press and hold when starting computer). I'm currently running a few heavy processes to see how many hours I get on one charge. I also reset Systems Management Controller (SMC) by pressing shift + control + option when starting.

     

    Let me get back to you with results.

  • by gatesbuster,

    gatesbuster gatesbuster Feb 10, 2016 2:37 AM in response to Andreas Paterfamilias
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 10, 2016 2:37 AM in response to Andreas Paterfamilias

    command + option + P + R is a reset of SMC. My brand new macbook came with a battery showing 4 cycles and less than 5000 mh; they normally are between 5200 and 5100 mh. After 29 cycles I am at 4800 mh (92% battery life). I did follow what Andreas suggested which is a SMC reset with no improvement. I get between 5 to 5:30 from full charge to stop, running safari and mail 75 to 85% screen dimmed. I get 2:00 hours to 2:30 max if I edit pictures with lightroom. It is definetely not a whole day laptop; it is a half day laptop. I will eventually bring it to a genius bar if the battery life keeps on going down; for the time being I have been able to be near an outlet wherever I am and my commute is less than two hours, so I can live with it.

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