annaaddis
Level 1 (5 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Poor battery life after Sierra upgrade

I upgraded my 2014 Macbook Air to Mac OS 10.12 Sierra last week. For some reason I hadn't upgraded to El Capitan, so I went straight from Yosemite to Sierra. Since then, my battery life more than halved, and now lasts about 3.5 hours (see screenshot below), with no change in my usage pattern.

 

Screen Shot 2016-10-11 at 20.21.42.png

 

Following advice from Apple support, I reset the SMC and then also the NVRAM, with no results.

 

I called again and I've been told that I should try testing my Mac in safe mode, as if the problem was caused by some software I had installed, while the only thing I installed recently is Sierra, or otherwise have my hardware checked in an Apple store. It is clearly NOT a hardware issue since it only started after installing Sierra, and the status of my battery shows up as "normal".

 

The operator of the customer care was quite unhelpful, dismissing my claim that the issue only appeared after upgrading to Sierra as according to him it's not a known issue (even though I was able to find some other users with similar complaints in various forums). The only other option I have been given was to do a factory reset, wiping out my hard disk in the process, which is something I'd rather avoid.

 

Is anyone else having similar problems? Any possible solutions? Long battery life was one of the reasons why I bought a Macbook air, and losing this feature overnight is really disappointing.

MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014), macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Oct 11, 2016 12:43 PM

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annaaddis

Q: Poor battery life after Sierra upgrade

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  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Oct 11, 2016 9:21 PM in response to annaaddis
    Level 9 (50,514 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 11, 2016 9:21 PM in response to annaaddis

    Post that entire Activity Monitor page, showing the processes and their relative "energy impact" values.

  • by annaaddis,

    annaaddis annaaddis Oct 12, 2016 3:13 AM in response to John Galt
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 12, 2016 3:13 AM in response to John Galt

    Here is a screenshot of the activity monitor right after I fully charged the battery. Please note it's not the same as the one posted yesterday but estimated time remaining on battery is about the same (3.5 hours). I look forward to receiving any piece of advice! Thanks

     

    Screen Shot 2016-10-12 at 11.10.31.png

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Oct 12, 2016 6:27 AM in response to annaaddis
    Level 9 (50,514 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 12, 2016 6:27 AM in response to annaaddis

    Please read and follow all the steps in this Apple Support document: Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support.

     

    As you can see from the report Google Chrome is a notorious energy hog. If you want to enjoy the battery life Apple advertises for its portables, don't use Chrome.

  • by annaaddis,

    annaaddis annaaddis Oct 12, 2016 6:39 AM in response to John Galt
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 12, 2016 6:39 AM in response to John Galt

    Hi John,

     

    thanks for the advice but I already reset the SMC, with no results.

     

    As for Chrome, it might be an energy hog but I was using it all day before the Sierra upgrade and my battery lasted about 10 hours. As I said I didn't change the way I use my mac and did not install any new software.

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Oct 12, 2016 6:57 AM in response to annaaddis
    Level 9 (50,514 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 12, 2016 6:57 AM in response to annaaddis

    Be sure to select "All Processes" or "Active Processes" from Activity Monitor's View menu.

     

    Uninstall Google Chrome and evaluate the results. Follow Google's instructions for uninstalling it.

     

    Google insists upon pushing updates to your Mac at all times as a background task, which makes it difficult to correlate performance to any actions you may know about. Google doesn't care how that affects your Mac or much energy that takes. All they care about is harvesting your personal information. If that makes your Mac run poorly it's not their problem.

     

    Don't rely upon the initial time estimate. You need to actually use your Mac for some time to determine its actual battery life. If it's still unacceptably low contact Apple: Contact Support.

  • by annaaddis,

    annaaddis annaaddis Oct 12, 2016 7:11 AM in response to John Galt
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 12, 2016 7:11 AM in response to John Galt

    Thanks for the advice. I'll do it even if it's really hard for me to part with google chrome as I find it much more user friendly than other browsers, and also because there wasn't any problem with it before so it's hard to believe that it started consuming more battery exactly when I downloaded sierra.

     

    As for the time estimate, I'm not relying on those. I first noticed the battery drain and timed how long it took from 100% to 15% (less than 4 hours), and then timed it again after each step I took (resetting SMC, NVRAM...). I'm only listing it here to show that it's not just my impression, but that the system itself estimates about 3.5 hours as the duration on a full charge. Too bad I didn't make screenshots of the previous behaviour, but trust me I could go an entire day without my charger.

  • by John Galt,

    John Galt John Galt Oct 12, 2016 8:05 AM in response to annaaddis
    Level 9 (50,514 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 12, 2016 8:05 AM in response to annaaddis

    I believe you, just keep using Activity Monitor in an attempt to correlate any particular process to increased power consumption.

     

    Although Google is known to be inefficient I am not suggesting permanently uninstalling it as a solution. Temporarily uninstalling will help advance troubleshooting. It's not enough to simply not use Chrome though, you have to uninstall all Google products. You can always reinstall them again.

     

    Chrome's inefficiency is not limited to Macs: http://lifehacker.com/google-chrome-kills-battery-on-windows-faster-than-ie-o-16 05816299

     

    I find it much more user friendly than other browsers, ...

     

    Unlike other browsers such as Firefox, Google Chrome is not just a browser. It is a pervasive and automatically updating system modification that operates at a privileged level, essentially hijacking your Mac into a full time information-harvesting and -uploading "bot" for Google's sole benefit. As such it is indistinguishable from a "computer virus", if such a thing were to exist on a Mac, which it doesn't.

     

    You might want to reconsider using Google after reading some of these:

     

    Google Chrome Listening In To Your Room Shows The Importance Of Privacy Defense In Depth

     

    Chrome is still a threat to your MacBook's battery

     

    The Android Administration

     

    How to Manage the Secret Software That Google Chrome Installs on Your Mac

     

    The dark side of free

     

    It's your Mac, your money, and your personal information though, all yours to do with as you see fit.