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macOS Mojave battery drain

Just updated my OS to Mojave this morning and brought my laptop to work. It was on full charge when I left home. 2hrs after using it, the battery percentage was down to 40% which never happened before during any of my regular use. Also, the texts on the screen are blurry.

MACBOOK AIR (13-INCH, 2017), macOS Mojave (10.14)

Posted on Sep 25, 2018 9:17 AM

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Oct 1, 2018 10:21 PM in response to Meshua.n

Meshua.n wrote:


(...) likely to be back to normal. Will keep an eye on over next days...


Cheers, Meshua.n

Hi there,


Just a short-term update after following dineckos suggestions (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8553128?answerId=33954586022#33954586022):


dinecko wrote:

Now change the settings by these commands, one by one:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25

sudo pmset -a standby 1

sudo pmset -a standbydelaylow 60

sudo pmset -a standbydelayhigh 60

Results for my MacBook 12":

  • 12:01 a.m (midnight): 100% Charge, then unplugged with lid closed
  • 7 a.m. : still 100% carge - no drain over night :-)

Hope that experience helps someone - Kudos to dinecko! :-)


Cheers, Meshua.n

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Nov 9, 2018 2:42 AM in response to Starkfan126

I've managed do downgrade back to high Sierra through a quite tedious process...

  1. First I reinstalled my MBP 2015 to El Capitan through recovery (CMD + OPT + SHIFT + R) on boot.
    1. Format drive to journaled
    2. Reinstall El capitan to drive
  2. Download high sierra from app store by following this link: Upgrade to macOS High Sierra - Official Apple Support
  3. Upgrade using the installer


I'm not sure if you can skip reverting to factory and just make a bootable usb from the High Sierra installer since I havent tested downloading High Sierra from Mojave. Not sure if the new app store allows downloading this installer.


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Sep 25, 2018 6:41 PM in response to hvbris

I'm having the same issue here! Battery will drain while the computer sleeps. It drains about 5% for every hour. Also the battery meter (menu bar) is wild. Started at 41% when I read this post, was at 33% when I started typing this reply, now is at 36%. I have a Macbook 12" Retina Early-2016, did a software update from High Sierra. Please someone help! PS: I already did some coding via Terminal to kill the Wi-Fi signal used for Find My Mac, but it didn't help.

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Sep 26, 2018 11:17 AM in response to hvbris

My laptop's battery life has reduced from 8 hours to 3 hours after upgrading to Mojave. Apple needs to work on this issue as there is is also lot of lagging in my MacBook for the first time.

Apple should create a patch or someone please tell me how to downgrade back to High Sierra.

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Sep 27, 2018 12:25 AM in response to hvbris

I am from India, updated my MacBook Air yesterday which is 1 week old, Mojave was draining battery like smartphone from 2015, the battery died in 4 hours against 10 hours on High Sierra with similar usage. Used time machine and back to High Sierra, now its back to normal.

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Sep 27, 2018 8:39 AM in response to hvbris

I have same problem too. I am using early 2015 13" Retina MBP. Just installed Mojave yesterday, but I found that battery drained 10% in 30mins under new OS. That never happened the day before when I was still using Sierra (When I was using Sierra, a fully charged battery can be ran a whole day over 10hrs, but now I believe 6hrs will be the max for my MBP). Checked from system information, battery is healthy in normal condition, Cycle Count only 490.

What happened to the new OS? Any offical reply from Apple? Any solution to resume normal or can I switch back to Sierra?

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Sep 29, 2018 6:01 AM in response to hvbris

I spoke to Apple support, suggested resetting the battery/memory by holding down the control, shift, option and power keys then release the first three at the same time. Also noted this update will take time to configure the file structure. It does this while sleeping and takes a incredible amount of resource. It took three days but my Mac has returned to normal all on its own or maybe the reset helped. Give it a try, sometimes waiting does pay off.

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Sep 29, 2018 6:26 AM in response to jefftown32

Spoke to Apple, I was skeptical when told it may take 24 to 48 hours for the OS to reorganize the file structure. Also suggested resetting the battery/memory by powering your Mac off then hold the left shift, control, option and power buttons down, then release the first three at the same time. I did that, not sure it contributed to the solution but on day three of the upgrade my Mac has rerturned to normal all on its own.

Give it a few days, things should be just fine. I’m fact this morning I opened to a 100% battery life after a 10hr sleep mode.

Cheers

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Nov 19, 2018 10:40 AM in response to Starkfan126

Starkfan126 wrote:


also lot of lagging in my MacBook for the first time.

I can't help you with the battery issue but regarding the lagging download and run Etrecheck. Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.


User uploaded file

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Sep 28, 2018 7:11 AM in response to Alvizio

For anyone having battery problems, usually the first thing to do is to reset the SMC:


How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support


Second, if this does not fix it, is try and see what programs are using a lot of energy.

Look at Activity Monitor's energy pane; or click the battery menu in the menu bar.

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Oct 6, 2018 2:50 PM in response to hvbris

On a fresh install, Mojave seems to go a little nuts with Spotlight indexing. That means a tremendous amount of disk access, possibly even while your portable is "sleeping". There's a lot of disk I/O going on in Mojave behind the scenes, and I have some reason to think it doesn't handle corrupt files particularly well, so that could be contributing to your problem. Also, Mojave defrags in the background. Previous releases did as well, but combine that with its apparent difficulty accessing files it thinks are corrupted, and you might end up with the drive being hit even more than usually.


So best bet, for a portable, is to leave it plugged in for a day or two, at all times, after install.


(I put up a fairly lengthy discussion here; some of the issues I've found may be related to what you're experiencing: Frequent system hangs and freezes in macOS Mojave 10.14: Notes, reproducible errors, and possible workarounds)

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macOS Mojave battery drain

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