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Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

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Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#61

Post by leejoramo »

wrs wrote: post #42

I've noticed that on newer (past few years) MacBook Pros, if their battery runs down too far they refuse to start up, even when plugged into the charger. The battery has to charge for 10-15 minutes with the "dead battery" icon on the screen. It's exactly the same behavior as iPhone/iPad. In past MacBook models, the battery could be dead--or even completely removed--and the charger would power the laptop fine. Anyone…

I haven’t noticed this on my 2017 MacBook Pro.

However, waiting for a initial charge has always been true if you use a smaller power adapter than the one that shipped with your MacBook. For example you use a MacBook Air 40w charger with your Pro

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#62

Post by bdcravens »

geoelectric wrote: post #28
ben_w wrote: post #23

Huh. That explains why my MacBook Air is doing so much worse than I expected from the number of cycles it’s reporting. It’s a mid-2013, so I’m not expecting much, but a few times I’ve seen “100%” when waking it unplugged, only for this to be immediately followed by an emergency shutdown, and when the reboot completes it claims “42%”. It’s plugged in almost continuously these days.

If you check the power tab under System Information, you can find some battery health info that might be illuminating. For example, my newish MBP16: Charge Information: Charge Remaining (mAh): 8362 Fully Charged: Yes Charging: No Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 8647 Health Information: Cycle Count: 18 Condition: Normal Looking it up, specced full capacity is 8818 mAh, so I'm at 98% health right now--probably lost a point…

Yikes - I have the same, and with a cycle count of 41, I'm down to 94%.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#63

Post by KarlKemp »

wrs wrote: post #42

I've noticed that on newer (past few years) MacBook Pros, if their battery runs down too far they refuse to start up, even when plugged into the charger. The battery has to charge for 10-15 minutes with the "dead battery" icon on the screen. It's exactly the same behavior as iPhone/iPad. In past MacBook models, the battery could be dead--or even completely removed--and the charger would power the laptop fine. Anyone…

That's been the default behaviour for as long as I can remember. I'm fairly certain of my 2008 Macbook Air doing this. Less so (but still better than even odds) for my 17" PowerBook.

You'd want some minimum charge to, at least, safely start up and immediately shut down again. Maybe throw in a little extra to be on the safe side. The higher-performance MacBooks also operate within a an extreme width of power requirements, from about 5W to close to 100W. I'm not sure if they can throttle based on battery status. But if not, you'd need a buffer to accommodate load spikes.

I guess you could criticise them for not trusting you to keep it plugged in. But any UI to clearly communicate that unplugging now might cause data loss is bound to be a horrible sludge. It could also easily fail if you happen to trip over the cable or the power went off.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#64

Post by Someone1234 »

rubber_duck wrote: post #53

I got a top spec 15 MBP a year ago and I have to say the experience is appalling - 4000$ device that goes full airplane takeoff levels of noise at any serious workload, no ability to control performance (I would gladly throttle the CPU sooner to avoid everyone in the office turning my way when I start an emulator or keep the fans at lower RPM but constantly instead of letting the CPU idle at 60-70 degrees with no fan…

Unfortunately this is not new. A lot of good can be said about Apple's devices (inc. Macbooks), but in terms of thermal performance the Macbooks are pretty bad and have been for a very long time. They often use software to paper over the problem. Part of that seems to be a design trade-off to hide the exhaust vent and continuing the match towards thin.

As an aside the 2019 redesign of the Mac Pro likely has the best thermal design we've seen from Apple by far. I often wonder what an actual mobile workstation laptop from Apple would look like, I'm talking at least three times the thickness, hardy case/screen, great thermal design, and huge battery. It would be niche but fantastic.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#65

Post by post_break »

sahaskatta wrote: post #16
6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #7

PSA: If you have a thinkpad, the lenovo settings app lets you control this too. In lenovo vantage, go to Device > My Device Settings > Battery settings > Battery Charge Threshold.

The Dell XPS 13 also offers an interface in the BIOS that lets you set a charge limit, hours not to charge the laptop, and a bunch of other great controls. The only big issue is that they don't expose it through a friendly UI within Windows 10. It's nonsense that I need to go to the BIOS to tweak these settings.

Honestly it’s great that it’s in the bios because I run Mac OS on mine and it still works.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#66

Post by prismatk »

ben_w wrote: post #23

Huh. That explains why my MacBook Air is doing so much worse than I expected from the number of cycles it’s reporting. It’s a mid-2013, so I’m not expecting much, but a few times I’ve seen “100%” when waking it unplugged, only for this to be immediately followed by an emergency shutdown, and when the reboot completes it claims “42%”. It’s plugged in almost continuously these days.

I had a similar issue with a 2012 MBA, tried SMC and PRAM reset which worked intermittently and ultimately replaced the battery for about $60.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#67

Post by konschubert »

ratww wrote: post #56
wrs wrote: post #42

I've noticed that on newer (past few years) MacBook Pros, if their battery runs down too far they refuse to start up, even when plugged into the charger. The battery has to charge for 10-15 minutes with the "dead battery" icon on the screen. It's exactly the same behavior as iPhone/iPad. In past MacBook models, the battery could be dead--or even completely removed--and the charger would power the laptop fine. Anyone…

I've been explained that this is because those computers might need more power than the AC Charger is able to provide, so the battery is also used as a "backup" for burst loads. This [1] seems to confirm it. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20081225111200/http://support.ap...

That would mean that it would not charge while being used.

That’s not the case I assume.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#68

Post by frizkie »

bdcravens wrote: post #62
geoelectric wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you check the power tab under System Information, you can find some battery health info that might be illuminating. For example, my newish MBP16: Charge Information: Charge Remaining (mAh): 8362 Fully Charged: Yes Charging: No Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 8647 Health Information: Cycle Count: 18 Condition: Normal Looking it up, specced full capacity is 8818 mAh, so I'm at 98% health right now--probably lost a point…

Yikes - I have the same, and with a cycle count of 41, I'm down to 94%.

Just another datapoint here for a 2019 16" MBP bought at launch: 8542/8587 mAh for ~99.5%.

I have 46 cycle count, I keep it at my desk plugged in at 100% the vast majority of the time.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#69

Post by p_l »

NullPrefix wrote: post #55
idoby wrote: post #25

They should just make 50% the new 100% and then let you "supercharge" to 150% when you need to. I'm kind of surprised Apple hasn't done this already.

This could actually work for Apple devices, because no one compares them against other laptops by specs. Although they would be compared against last gen macs. Saying "Battery is half the size" would need some marketing polish, implying that it's lighter or something.

They already removed time left on battery because of that.

Re: Apple changes default MacBook charging behavior to improve battery health

#70

Post by bitL »

idoby wrote: post #25

They should just make 50% the new 100% and then let you "supercharge" to 150% when you need to. I'm kind of surprised Apple hasn't done this already.

Additional idea - alongside RAM and SSD size, one chooses also supercharge size while shopping (the same battery, locked to the amount you paid for). Great, isn't it?
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