macOS Mojave battery drain

@pduke7

1. I believe you're right. The wake drain problem has never been solved by the thousands of people who visited this thread after Mojave hobbled their healthy batteries.
2. The main proposed fixes on this thread have involved giving up on the graphical interface that once defined Apple Computer as intuitive and user friendly, and instead using a command-line interface just like in the days of DOS, Commodore, TRS-80, etc.

Yes, it feels like Apple, unlike Apple Computer, is losing interest in computers. Apple has pointed out recently that the corporation is basically shifting its focus to becoming a banking company because the devices market--and by inference the OS platforms--is no longer growing at an adequate rate. The Mojave fail brings that home.

i don't know if they will turn to banking or just become titanium card manufacturers..., but for the sake of Steve's 90-92 designed OSX masterpiece, the strong bonds with the millions of professionals that stood for them( and they stood back, "apple computers") for decades and the rest of "todays crowd" that can still tell the difference between style and pose, they have to do better.

I mean we are with Cook on the wheel, he was the "chosen", imagine what will happen when the next one turns up!!!

More than half the people i know use macs and iphone cause of fashion, they can't even understand what design(software and product) is. Are we left in such hands?

Folks,

An update, FWIW.

My new MacBook drained battery (when unplugged with lid closed) overnight maybe 1st and 3rd nights after first connecting to internet a few weeks ago. It has not drained since when left overnight without power.

Some of you report changes to battery rate-of-draining but I have not tested that; I'm rarely unplugged for more than an hour or two when working. If this becomes an issue, I will try some of the workarounds posted here (thank you).

In the meantime, I'll guess these were critical updates (Apple) or critical malware (China) that are triggered to install themselves on new systems and that Apple is too busy (or worse, cannot easily reproduce) to make transparent. Even if this is false, it makes for a great movie plot.

Also, has anyone checked the logs? I have not used Console app much but would think that any background updates would log something meaningful?

2c,

-dave

Hi Dan! Thanks. I don't know why but I believe that MBA and especially the 2017 version are not impacted by the battery drain issue. But checking the recent messages posted, I think I will hold back for a while more before taking the leap :-)

It's been too long since I updated to Mojave so I can't go back to HS or some things won't work properly (at least that's what Apple told me). I'm running 10.14.4 and I'm still having issues.

On another note ....my son just got a new MBP 2018 this past week and he said the battery doesn't last as long as his Late 2012 MBP which is running HS.

YES me too! I JUST got this new Macbook last week and I've spent the past 3 days with Apple Support trying everything under the sun. Nothing worked so I googled and found this thread. Clearly, it is a KNOWN ISSUE. This brand new laptop has the same battery power as my 5 year old Macbook.

Never had this issue before. Every 5 years my Macbook would die and I'd get a new one, seamless transition, no

issues. But now it's draining at 1/3 of the advertised rate of 10 hour battery life. And no one seems to know why.

Does anybody have a 2018 Macbook Air that doesn't have a bad battery? I've had to buy and return two so far and each one (brand new) had this issue. I'm about to try a 3rd one but I'm losing hope. Apparently Sierra OS does the trick but on the newest Macbooks you cannot downgrade from Mojave. Has anybody bought a 2018 version without the battery issue?

i am having the exact same issue, i've been holding off on updating my macbook because i have been busy working on it and decided to finally update last night. i've been using it in class all day today and my computer keeps turning off around 40-48 percent. i have never had this problem with my mac before until today. what can i do to stop this from happening i can not keep having my computer turn off on me while i do my work.

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.

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.

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.

I have a Mac air few months old. Just upgraded to Mojave and have the same issue. I close my laptop at 100% open it up the next day and its down to 70% without even using it. This is awful, its useless with a 2hr battery life.

i read it is because of the dark mode feature. The LCD works more on dark mode... not really sure but are you using the dark mode feature? IF you did, does switching to light mode fixes the issue? I am just curious.

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?

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.