Cant turn off Optimized Battery Health?

[Calaveras]

Okay I read the strange logic behind optimized Battery Health and I would rather burn through my battery faster and have 100% battery whenever I go off leash.
So I go into my system preferences, click on Battery, go to the Battery tab and deselect Optimize Battery Charging.
So anyway I says to Mabel I says...wait, my battery is at 80% and not charging to full?
I have to click a little thing 'Charge to Full Now".
Didn't I just opt out of this nonsense?

Is anyone else getting this behavior?
I've a couple other annoyances with Monterey but for now I'm wondering about this.
(can't wait until Montery Jack comes out in the fall)

 

[JPack]

Battery Health Management and Optimized Battery Charging are two different things.

On Apple Silicon, you can only turn off the latter.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Battery Health Management and Optimized Battery Charging are two different things.

On Apple Silicon, you can only turn off the latter.

True, but turning off Optimised Battery Charging on an M1 Mac should stop the 80% hold behaviour:

Maybe shut down leave for 30 secs and reboot. This is the equivalent of an SMC reset on M1 Macs.

 

[JPack]

True, but turning off Optimised Battery Charging on an M1 Mac should stop the 80% hold behaviour:

View attachment 1951695

Maybe shut down leave for 30 secs and reboot. This is the equivalent of an SMC reset on M1 Macs.

No, the hold at around 80% behavior is BHM.

If BHM determines the battery is rarely used, it won't even let the battery go past a certain percentage (somewhere between 70-90%).

OBC is about when to "finish charging." If BHM determines your computer should never finish charging in the first place, OBC doesn't matter.

If OP unplugs and stays on battery power for a while, it should let BHM know the battery is being used and stop the behavior.

 

[Calaveras]

When I contacted Apple they told me to just uncheck the Optimized battery charging if I wanted to throw caution to the wind and not have to deal with the hold at 80% nonsense.

 

[JPack]

There is a difference between hold 80% permanently and hold 80% temporarily.

On iPad and M1 MacBook, you can't prevent the former.

 

[satcomer]

I tend to think sense to preserve the battery for longer! The Mac Books use AGM battery they are trying to save the battery by only charging to 80% to make the battery life longer! This only a hunch!

 

[Mike Boreham]

No, the hold at around 80% behavior is BHM.

If BHM determines the battery is rarely used, it won't even let the battery go past a certain percentage (somewhere between 70-90%).

OBC is about when to "finish charging." If BHM determines your computer should never finish charging in the first place, OBC doesn't matter.

If OP unplugs and stays on battery power for a while, it should let BHM know the battery is being used and stop the behavior.

No. My screenshot of the Optimised Battery Charging Setting in pref pane is quite clear that that is controlling the 80% hold behaviour. If what you are implying were correct all M1 MacBooks would always be subject to the 80% behaviour with no control, which is not the case.

Read this Apple article:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212049

Optimised Battery Charging is on by default in M1 and T2 Macs but can be turned off with that setting. "On by default" does not mean it is on all the time, only that that is the default setting.

 

[Mike Boreham]

No. My screenshot of the Optimised Battery Charging Setting in pref pane is quite clear that that is controlling the 80% hold behaviour. If what you are implying were correct all M1 MacBooks would always be subject to the 80% behaviour with no control, which is not the case.

Read this Apple article:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212049

Optimised Battery Charging is on by default in M1 and T2 Macs but can be turned off with that setting. "On by default" does not mean it is on all the time, only that that is the default setting.

To clarify what I wrote above, I agree that BHM, which cannot be turned off in Silicon Macs, can sometimes reduce the maximum charge, but this is not the same as the routine hold at c80% which is overridden by the "charge to full now" option which the OP is complaining about.

I think this article has the best description of BHM and OBC. It has this summary:

"However, on M1 Macs, the option to turn off battery health management is gone but users can still turn off optimized battery charging. Long story short, it appears there may be more to battery health management on Macs than just the optimized charging but that is the main aspect according to Apple (and the more minor aspects can’t be or don’t need to be disabled on M1 Macs)".

 

[Calaveras]

It's not the only such thing.
Also seems I can't really control brightness.
I've disabled adaptive brightness, but any time I check by pressing F1 or F2 it's been dialed down.
Not that I'm trying to blast my retinas. Just annoying that I uncheck a box in settings, yet the OS continues to manage that setting when I asked it not to.
As far as the battery management goes. Does anyone have any source on this whole 'it's better for the battery not to charge it all the way' thing?
I've never heard of this in regard to laptops, cameras, or solar batteries.
I almost feel like it's just damage control on Apple's part due to so many swelling battery problems with past laptops.

 

[Mike Boreham]

As far as the battery management goes. Does anyone have any source on this whole 'it's better for the battery not to charge it all the way' thing?
I've never heard of this in regard to laptops, cameras, or solar batteries.
I almost feel like it's just damage control on Apple's part due to so many swelling battery problems with past laptops.

This page has some data on the subject.

I believe the basic principle of limiting max charge to extend battery life is widely applied in electric cars, and also in space/satellite applications where the life of the batteries is absolutely critical because the mission ends when the batteries die.

Also most PC makers have options to apply it (I recently bought a second hand Surface PC which wouldn't charge above 50%...turned out the previous owner had turned on the battery life setting in BIOS and set a BIOS password that no-one knew. I got my money back)

Its not just Apple!

OTOH even though it has scientific basis it doesn't mean we should all be molly-coddling our MacBooks to extend the battery life. To many, like the OP, it isn't worth the hassle, and I have been pleased with my Macbook battery lives over the last 20 years even though they were mostly plugged in and at 100% charge.