2016 macbook pro 15" with touch bar poor battery life

No. Happy again. It was the reason why I kept going, yesterday. Had the feeling I was getting near - at least - pinpointing the problem: the CPU-usage of the WindowServer was absurd. Too bad that CSound1 kept harrasing everyone and blurring the discussion. But hey, he's level 9, so he must be excellent at something.

Though I can't say that I'm encouraged by Sierra 10.2.2 making it increasingly difficult to find out what the battery life actually is. Deleting the predicted time remaining from the menu bar is already irritating, though as others have pointed out, it's available through the Activity Monitor. Then also deleting even the option to see average energy usage from Activity Monitor makes it worse; it means that I no longer have a way of monitoring which apps are using large amounts of energy over time, and so I can't actively manage the energy usage of my laptop. I'm no longer sure whether Apple are fixing the problem or just hiding the evidence.

I think it's the discrete graphics card. If you install gfxcardstatus and run the computer on integrated graphics card the battery life is much, much better.

I'm still running some tests, but this is my working hypothesis right now.

Amir

I'm implying that there is probably a misallocation of resources at Apple; I think a firmware update is in order over and above diversity programs for the customers to stay happy. Nevertheless, in my initial tests, I found that if you hold constant the dynamic switching from the discrete graphics card to the integrated graphics card, the battery life goes back from 2 hours to about 10 (still testing, but those are my initial results). The "unreliability" of the battery estimate has to do with the unpredictability of the user taxing the discrete graphics card.

nickf72 wrote:

. . . Then also deleting even the option to see average energy usage from Activity Monitor makes it worse; it means that I no longer have a way of monitoring which apps are using large amounts of energy over time, and so I can't actively manage the energy usage of my laptop.

Hmmm... I still have that column showing after updating to 10.12.2, but I also noticed that it is no longer listed in the available column for Activity Monitor.

Perhaps this implies there is a way to enable it by some configuration setting under-the-hood and mine still has it enabled--even though one can't select it in the list of columns from the GUI interface.

tarpus wrote:

I'm implying that there is probably a misallocation of resources at Apple; I think a firmware update is in order over and above diversity programs for the customers to stay happy. Nevertheless, in my initial tests, I found that if you hold constant the dynamic switching from the discrete graphics card to the integrated graphics card, the battery life goes back from 2 hours to about 10 (still testing, but those are my initial results). The "unreliability" of the battery estimate has to do with the unpredictability of the user taxing the discrete graphics card.

Why don't you tell Apple about their misallocation of resources and what they should do about it. We can't do anything at all about it, so either you live with it, or report it here. Apple Feedback Line

Sounds good. One problem with turning off the discrete graphics card - you can't use an external monitor. So the laptop needs to be plugged in if you're using an external monitor after about 3 hours ...

Thanks LidoShuffling. I'm running 10.12.1 and there isn't an update available to me. Should it work anyway? I've tried it once and it hasn't.

rkane: I have to be a little careful in what I post here so I'm not able to go into detail. There is stuff in 10.12.2 which I believe affects not just the readout but also the charge/discharge cycle I described in my instructions.

If you do not have access to 10.12.2 yet, there's no point in doing the rest of the instructions. I had thought 10.12.2 was released worldwide yesterday. If you are not being offered that update by the App Store, you should be able to download it from this page:

Apple - Support - Downloads

The "Update" is only for people who already have 10.12.1. The "Combo Update" will update from 10.12 or 10.12.1 and, in this case, is only slightly bigger.

Regarding the removal of estimated time remaining from the battery charge icon menu, besides launching Activity Monitor you can also run one of these commands in terminal:

pmset -g batt # Show battery status.

pmset -g pslog # Ongoing log of battery status.

pmset -g rawlog # Ongoing log showing %charge, estimated time, current draw, charge cycles used/max.

LidoShuffling...I very much appreciate your help but it doesn't look like it worked in my case. I installed the 10.12.2 update, reset the SMC the way you described (and this may be because of the new power key but it almost seemed like the power may have been turned on when I very briefly held down the shift, control and option keys while pressing the power key. In any case I released those 4 keys and then pressed the power key and almost immediately saw the Apple logo and progress bar appear). Then with the computer fully charged I ran down the battery until it hibernated of it's own accord and then I fully charged it and then unplugged it. After all that it only show 7:21 time remaining (although if I actually got that amount of time it would be much better than the 3 1/2 so hours that I've been getting).

Much appreciated, thank you.

rkane: The fact that the time estimate has changed by so much is a good sign. Please continue to use your computer for another few days while it recalibrates its power/usage curve. Some of the time it should be plugged in, other times it should be running on battery, though there's no need to do any more complete power cycles. This should lead to continued improvement in its estimate for how long a full charge will last. Just give it another day or two and see if it still shows around 7:20.

The FileVault also had some impact on battery life as well, that's why I think why Apple starts to set it off by default in this line of Mac.

I'm getting approximately 45 mins more battery life with FileVault turned off.

Well, this time it’s final: my MPB t/b 13” 3,3 Ghz is being returned. Problems were gone after updating to 10.12.2, but returned. Warning: the extended return policy doesn’t apply to everyone!

My MBP has not one, but two battery problems. Battery estimate is lousy, mostly just a little more then 5 hrs, sometimes not more then 2 hrs, and it’s not just the estimate: when it gives 2”17” it completely unloads en automatically shuts down after 2’17” exactly. Worse, the computer gets so heated up, you can’t work with it in your lap anymore. In just ten minutes, having only the lid open, no apps running, the battery heats up tot 39.8 degrees C and stays there. I did a clean install of Sierra. Shut down Dropbox en Sync. Don’t use iCloud or TimeMachine. Stopped working with Epic (a Chrome clone). Waited for Spotlight to finish indexing. Reset the SMC and the PRAM. Repaired disk permissions. Let Onyx do an deep clean of the computer. Updated to 10.12.2. Some actions helped, one loadcycle long. In the old Sierra it was the system app WindowServer that was acting up, demanding 130 percent of CPU usage constantly. After the update it is the Finder demanding 98 percent of CPU usage, no apps running. The battery drains like crazy, one time from 42 percent to 0 (and automatic shutdown) in just 45 minutes, with no apps running, and no syncing or indexing going on. I’ve been trying for more then 40 hrs now to get this computer to work. That’s crazy, especially a Pro computer should work right out of the box. Apple is not acknowledging the problem, and therefor not addressing it. The guy of the Apple Helpdesk here in Holland ridiculed and denied the problem, was indifferent, lectured me, and even got rude. Yesterday, with again the computer to hot to hold in my lap, I discovered that the extended return period doesn’t apply to this MPB, maybe because I ordered it end of october. If I want to return it, I have until december 19. It forced me to make a decision. Apple left me no choice, I feel. I want my money back. I’m not confident a new computer will work properly right out of the box and offer a decent and reliable battery time, and don’t want to spend any more time trying to fix these problems. It was the most expensive computer ever for me, and I so much wanted it to be best computer I ever owned. Not. As a 29 year long Apple only user I’m very disappointed. As a long time Apple stockowner I’m deeply worried.