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Battery Life Help

I

ILM

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 5, 2013
8
0
Hi All,

I've recently bought a MacBook Air, It's my first ever Apple computer and I don't know how I managed to resist buying one for so long!

My only problem with it is that I've been reading a lot on this forum and lots of people are mentioning how great their battery life is on their Macbook Airs (Over 7 hours) . On mine I'm struggling to get over 4 hours use on the battery and thats with the brightness at 4 bars and the keyboard light off. I only really have a couple of internet tabs open and skype for messaging (no video).

At the moment it's at 83% stating that theres only 2 hours 19 minutes remaining. As I'm new to Mac I'm not sure what other things I can do to try improve the battery life, can anyone help?
 
ILM said:
Hi All,

I've recently bought a MacBook Air, It's my first ever Apple computer and I don't know how I managed to resist buying one for so long!

My only problem with it is that I've been reading a lot on this forum and lots of people are mentioning how great their battery life is on their Macbook Airs (Over 7 hours) . On mine I'm struggling to get over 4 hours use on the battery and thats with the brightness at 4 bars and the keyboard light off. I only really have a couple of internet tabs open and skype for messaging (no video).

At the moment it's at 83% stating that theres only 2 hours 19 minutes remaining. As I'm new to Mac I'm not sure what other things I can do to try improve the battery life, can anyone help?
Click to expand...

The "time remaining" indication is an ever-changing estimate, based on the current workload of your system. It will fluctuate up and down from minute to minute as your power demands change. It is not perfectly accurate, but only an estimate. There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.
​
The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.
 
Hi all thanks for the replies. I have tested it a few times, it fails to reach the 4 hours mark. It's still good battery life compared to the windows 8 laptop I was using before but since most others seem to be getting more out of theirs, I thought I'd best asking the question on how I could improve it.

Thanks for the link GGJstudios, I'll read through that later today :)
 
ILM said:
Hi All,

I've recently bought a MacBook Air, It's my first ever Apple computer and I don't know how I managed to resist buying one for so long!

My only problem with it is that I've been reading a lot on this forum and lots of people are mentioning how great their battery life is on their Macbook Airs (Over 7 hours) . On mine I'm struggling to get over 4 hours use on the battery and thats with the brightness at 4 bars and the keyboard light off. I only really have a couple of internet tabs open and skype for messaging (no video).

At the moment it's at 83% stating that theres only 2 hours 19 minutes remaining. As I'm new to Mac I'm not sure what other things I can do to try improve the battery life, can anyone help?
Click to expand...

Did you buy the MacBook used or brand new? The 2013 13 inch MacBook Airs get around 12- 13 hours of battery life. The older models get around 7 hours. If you bought a used computer it is very likely that the battery has had several cycles and does not hold its full capacity. To check this, go to the  menu and click "about this mac" then "more info" and then click on "system report" and navigate to the "power" section. Check and see how many cycles have been used and what the capacity of the battery is.
 
ILM said:
Hi All,

I've recently bought a MacBook Air, It's my first ever Apple computer and I don't know how I managed to resist buying one for so long!

My only problem with it is that I've been reading a lot on this forum and lots of people are mentioning how great their battery life is on their Macbook Airs (Over 7 hours) . On mine I'm struggling to get over 4 hours use on the battery and thats with the brightness at 4 bars and the keyboard light off. I only really have a couple of internet tabs open and skype for messaging (no video).

At the moment it's at 83% stating that theres only 2 hours 19 minutes remaining. As I'm new to Mac I'm not sure what other things I can do to try improve the battery life, can anyone help?
Click to expand...

1. Apple Menu, "About This Mac", "More Info", "System Report", click on "Battery" to get all the information about your battery. If it is a used Mac and the battery was abused by the previous owner, battery life will be short.

2. Start "Activity Monitor" (it's in the Utilities Folder inside the Applications Folder, or press command-space then enter the name) check the CPU usage of the apps you are running. There might be some app using the CPU a lot, and that will empty the battery quickly. If that's the case stop using that app.

If you run Mavericks (which is a free download), the "Battery" menu in the menubar also shows you which apps are using a lot of energy.
 
Hi Drew017 and gnasher729

It's the 2013 model I bought brand new out of the Apple shop a few months ago. I checked system report and it's on Cycle Count 17.

I checked the battery menu as gnashed suggested and it says 'Spotlight' anyway I can stop this?

Thanks :)
 
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