Fast battery drain when running YouTube in Safari on MBP

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Level 2

186 points

Fast battery drain when running YouTube in Safari on MBP

When I'm casually browsing Safari and have YouTube run in one of the tabs my battery drains faster than it probably should.

I lose approximately 1% per 1,5-2 minutes playback time. Even when YouTube is not playing any video or audio in the background I lose about 2% in 10 minutes.

My questions are if this is normal behavior and if not what I can do about it.

I am using a new 13-inch MBP with the Touch Bar from 2017 if that helps.

MacBook Pro TouchBar and Touch ID, macOS High Sierra (10.13.2), 13-inch, 2017, Space Grey

Posted on Dec 12, 2017 5:02 AM

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Answer 1

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sterling r

Community Specialist

Dec 20, 2017 10:00 AM in response to Mr. Unko

Hi, Mr. Unko!

Thanks for stopping by the Apple Support Communities. From your post, I understand that when YouTube is open in Safari (whether a video is playing or not), your battery seems to drain faster than expected. I'm happy to help!

Based on what you've described, I would first check to see if you have any extensions enabled in Safari: Install and manage Safari extensions on your Mac - Apple Support . If you do, turn them off and test to see if the battery issue occurs while they're off. If so, turn them on, one by one, testing in between to isolate a specific extension that could be causing an interference.

After testing extensions, I would next recommend quitting Safari by pressing Command+Q from within Safari, or by clicking Safari from the Apple  menu and choosing Quit Safari. Then, open Safari again while holding shift on your keyboard. Test your battery while running YouTube.

Should the issue continue, I would suggest using Safari with YouTube in a new user account. More information on why this is helpful, and how to set a new account up, can be found here: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support .

Cheers.

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