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Apple Magic Keyboard 22% battery drain overnight?!

M

mavidaru

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 25, 2021
37
4
Generally I've had to recharge the keyboard maybe every 3-6 weeks, but recently it seems to have been draining way too fast...

Last evening I noticed it at 22%, this morning it's at 0.

What could cause drain like this? I've had it for less than a year.
 
Strange. I've used Magic Keyboards since they've been available and don't recall that ever happening. I never turn them off either. Assuming you're like me and not turning it off before you go to bed, maybe try turning it off and see if the battery is still draining. I don't now what possibly could be drawing power from the keyboard other than physical keystrokes, so it's possible that either you have someone else using the keyboard without your knowledge (maybe even a cat walking on it if you have cats) or the battery could be faulty. But even if someone were using it through the night, that shouldn't drain it 22%, so my guess would be the latter (faulty battery) if this pattern continues.
 
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I think it was some weird anomaly that happened overnight, maybe the Mac or the keyboard got buggy for a while.
 
OK so the problem has happened a lot since then. The keyboard typically lasts 3-6 weeks, but then something randomly causes it to drain overnight. I know this because of when I charge it vs when it drains (though this should be the obvious default assumption). I charge it when I need to, that's it.

So, sure I could just turn it off when I'm done with work (if I remember), but, that seems less efficient than just figuring out what the problem is and fixing it. See what I'm saying?

Nobody else uses the keyboard because it's just my work office keyboard for my work computer. Nobody touches that, nobody's allowed to, and my desk is not disturbed when the problem happens. The cat doesn't walk on anything but the ground and couches and chairs, she's learned not to be on shelves or desks long ago. Believe me, she's a scaredy cat.

Maybe the battery's faulty? I'm not even sure how to test. What I'd like to know is how to troubleshoot this to find the problem first. Guessing is typically a time-wasting grind. I just want to know some tools (software or hardware) to troubleshoot this to figure out what's wrong.

The cable I charge with is an Apple cable that came with an iPhone (I don't remember which one, but likely iPhone 11 or higher). The cable's had no issue with the Magic touchpad, and I haven't had strange battery drain issues with it anyway. I've had the touchpad and keyboard for about the same amount of time (almost two years). The keyboard drain issue I think has existed randomly for over a year.
 
It just happened again between Saturday and Sunday... I know because I did some work late Saturday morning on it, and it was at like 48% after almost a week of usage. Now (Sunday morning) it's drained.

So, how do I find out the problem?
 
I bought it new for $129 early last year. How long is a keyboard this expensive supposed to last?

It just drained over the weekend again 😆 It was at 48% Friday afternoon.

I think something is happening in the Mac over the weekend to drain it. Anyone aware of any tasks macOS does that could drain a wireless keyboard?
 
I'm looking for ways to troubleshoot the problem, not guesses.

There's zero evidence of a stuck key, and it doesn't make sense that it would happen primarily over the weekend, and I think only Sundays.

There must be something in macOS that runs on Sunday evening or something that glitches out the keyboard and causes it to drain.

Please anyone tell me how to even look for this or trace it. There must be someone here who knows how to see what activities the Mac is doing during a certain time period where I can see what it's doing most (what's using the most CPU, RAM, etc, while I'm away).
 
I don't use macs (iPad user) but, isn't there some task manager-like interface on macOS? Maybe you could check out what's happening on Sundays using that.
 
floral said:
I don't use macs (iPad user) but, isn't there some task manager-like interface on macOS? Maybe you could check out what's happening on Sundays using that.
Click to expand...
I mean, I could randomly check Activity Monitor on Sunday, but... you're talking about a 24-hour period where the drain could happen within a seconds/minutes window. So, that's completely relying on luck, and the odds are greatly against me.

I was looking for a solution to actually trace what's happening. As in, something that checks things for me automatically, like a script or something that can check when excessive battery drain is happening, especially when the screen is not active. That seems like the best idea for a solution, but it seems like nobody here is in any way aware of anything like that.

So, I guess I need to go on hacker forums, I don't know...
 
mavidaru said:
I mean, I could randomly check Activity Monitor on Sunday, but... you're talking about a 24-hour period where the drain could happen within a seconds/minutes window. So, that's completely relying on luck, and the odds are greatly against me.

I was looking for a solution to actually trace what's happening. As in, something that checks things for me automatically, like a script or something that can check when excessive battery drain is happening, especially when the screen is not active. That seems like the best idea for a solution, but it seems like nobody here is in any way aware of anything like that.

So, I guess I need to go on hacker forums, I don't know...
Click to expand...
Wait, oh. So the issue is very sudden and sporadic? That is going to be really annoying to track down..
 
I've determined that the keyboard normally drains about 5% per day with a full workday. It obviously should be less without using the computer for the full day over the weekends (typical).
 
floral said:
Wait, oh. So the issue is very sudden and sporadic? That is going to be really annoying to track down..
Click to expand...
I've said that it seems to happen over the weekend when I'm not using the computer. I don't know if it happens in seconds, minutes, or hours, but typically when I've seen things like that happen, they tend to happen within minutes/seconds. Only recently when I used the computer on a Saturday and then a Sunday evening that I saw that it drained from like 50% to 0 between those periods. My hunch is just that it happens on Sunday evening.

Regardless, either way is going to be hard to track manually unless I get lucky, because even if it's happening over hours, it could be hard to spot, and even harder to trace what's doing it (because the discrepancy of CPU usage for any app in the Activity Monitor list is not likely to be noticeably larger than normal). See what I'm saying? Trying to find it manually is probably the most difficult way to troubleshoot it (unless you know a way that I don't that actually worked easily). Considering it's only seemed to happen when the computer isn't being used means trying to trace it while using the computer is probably not gonna be effective.

Maybe I can check the percentage at the beginning of the work day then after, which could show a strange significant battery drop, which may help me nail it down, but I'd really like to know a way to hook into the keyboard battery monitor and CPU monitor through some kind of output monitor (through Terminal or something) to see what correlates... but it seems like I need some hacker knowledge to even try.
 
The same has only recently started happening to my keyboard and trackpad - very strange... I have to turn them off when I shut down my iMac, the odd thing is if I keep my iMac on for days, it doesn't happen, the keyboard and trackpad batteries don't drain.
 
_Spook_ said:
The same has only recently started happening to my keyboard and trackpad - very strange... I have to turn them off when I shut down my iMac, the odd thing is if I keep my iMac on for days, it doesn't happen, the keyboard and trackpad batteries don't drain.
Click to expand...

Try this:
Use and drain the battery on your keyboard and trackpad until 50% or lower, then unpair them from the iMac, repair them to another Mac computer, even iPad.
Leave them there 1 night to see if you can reproduce the issue.
 
The Console app is where you will find a log of events that happen on your Mac. There may be something there that can provide some insight.

Console User Guide for Mac

Learn to use Console on your Mac to find and view log messages and reports that provide system information about your Mac and connected devices.
support.apple.com
 
dborja said:
By any chance, are you noticing this after moving to Sonoma (V 14.0)? I'm also noticing my trackpad battery draining a lot quicker with the same usage. The keyboard also but to a lesser degree. I wonder if this is related to cases where Bluetooth connections drop sporadically: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/bluetooth-spontaneous-disconnection-reconnection.2401735/
Click to expand...
I am experiencing this too. Trackpad is 4+ years and it drains fast (2 weeks maybe), but the Magic keyboard with touch ID is 3 months old and the battery drains too fast, IMO. I will monitor battery percentage more often now and report it here.
 
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To update, after 24 hours my Magic keyboard loses only 2%. But it is true, I've updated my Mac Mini to macOS 14.2, disconnected (Forget device) the keyboard and reconnected it again. So, I'm not sure about everything now.
 
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After 48 hours my Magic Keyboard is on 76%. So I guess this is normal.

Maybe there was a bug before that is now fixed. However, I always restart any Apple device after the OS update (one extra restart).
 
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macuros said:
After 48 hours my Magic Keyboard is on 76%. So I guess this is normal.

Maybe there was a bug before that is now fixed. However, I always restart any Apple device after the OS update (one extra restart).
Click to expand...
I noticed that, too. I'm still seeing Bluetooth disconnects with my keyboard and trackpad but not as often after the updates and the battery drain has slowed to almost normal.
 
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I have had this issue intermittently for years, first on my 2017 iMac. When they are functioning correctly, they should drain 1-3% per day, depending on use. I have a battery level tracking spreadsheet, and devote way too much attention to this.

Until Monterey, it was possible to option-click on the Bluetooth menu, and “reset module” and also “reset Apple devices to factory settings.” This would typically help.

The issue is now happening on my MacBook Pro M2, which I use at home in “clamshell” mode. For most of the fall, while on Ventura, it was limited to the Magic Trackpad. I deleted a series of Library files while in Safe Mode, and thought that had resolved it, though it may have been the recent Ventura update. However, I updated to Sonoma (14.2) three nights ago, and the issue is now back on both my Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard. They drained 5-10% last night after being “forgotten” and while the MacBook was completely shut down!

Some further digging, especially on MacRumors, and I get the sense this is a sleep, issue. This MacRumors thread is especially helpful…I can’t follow all of it exactly, but may end up copying and pasting some of the Terminal commands posted by others there. In addition, I found this app, Sleep Aid, which is proving very helpful. (Thanks to Eclectic Light Company for posting about it over a year ago.) https://ohanaware.com/sleepaid/

I will try a clean install when I have time, and am realizing it is probably best in the future to wait until late spring to upgrade. Apple’s software quality being what it is these days. Meanwhile, I hope this helps others.
 
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