Catalina battery health management

[citivolus]

I am running the latest Catalina macOS with the new battery health management checked. My 2020 13-inch is plugged in and running in clamshell mode almost always. Occasionally I disconnect it and run it like a normal laptop for a few hours. I’ve noticed that it always charges back up to 100%.

With the new battery health management feature, shouldn’t it be holding off until it drops to something like 80% before recharging it?

 

[06tb06]

I experienced issues with battery health management so I disabled it. It's a weird feature.

I noticed when running heavy workloads the battery would drop to about 80% charge while plugged in before recharging again. I'm not an expert on battery technology, but I know some batteries loose charge cycles over time. Therefore, I always try to run my devices all the way down, about 5 or 10% charge remaining, before recharging them.

Side note: I also disabled Power Nap because of reliability issues in Catalina 10.5.4.

 

[Fishrrman]

I wouldn't trust Apple's battery management software to take the place of careful "owner management" of the battery/charging process.

My recommendations:
1. DO NOT leave it plugged into the charger all the time. This will often lead to battery swelling.
2. At least 3-4 times a week, take the MacBook OFF charging, and let the battery run down to, say, 40% or so. Then plug it back in.
3. At night, UNPLUG the charger from the wall (whether you let the Mac sleep or shut it down). The next morning, plug it back in. I would not do this with the MacBook USBc plug itself, to reduce wear-and-tear on the USBc port. Use the wall outlet instead.

 

[raymanh]

1. DO NOT leave it plugged into the charger all the time. This will often lead to battery swelling.

How do you know this?

 

[citivolus]

How do you know this?

Agreed, not sure this is current best practice. Anyway I am using the MBP in clamshell mode with my USB-C monitors so I have no choice but to have it charging continuously while I am using it.

My original question is why is my MBP staying at 100% rather than dropping down to around 80% and then charging up again, which is what I expect with the battery health management feature enabled?

 

[chrfr]

My original question is why is my MBP staying at 100% rather than dropping down to around 80% and then charging up again, which is what I expect with the battery health management feature enabled?

The behavior I've seen is that the computer will periodically discharge to around 90%, then recharge. I'm not sure how often this happens but it seems to be roughly daily.

 

[Supra Mac]

The whole battery health management is a bigger benefit to Apple and not the end user. Extends battery just enough to reduce battery warranty claims while not moving the needle much on extending battery life long term. To do that you need something like Al Dente and set the max level to 80% and switch manually higher if you please when needed.

When I had it enable (Apple feature) it just went from 100-90-100% once a day, just adding cycles at the extreme end of charge. My work laptop HP Elite "something or other" keeps my battery 75-80% with the Bios enable feature to extend battery life. So looks like other manufactures provide this to benefit the end user.

 

[Tankmaze]

Just use little script called charge limiter that limit charging your macbook to a specific percentage
rather than using the catalina battery management

What should I limit my battery charge level to?

This thread has caused me to learn a lot more about Li-ion batteries! Based on this thread, I've started using AlDente (thanks David Wernhart) to limit the max charge to 55% when I'm not traveling (i.e. now and for who knows how long :mad:), and probably 95% when traveling. I know various folks...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[jent]

I experienced issues with battery health management so I disabled it. It's a weird feature.

I noticed when running heavy workloads the battery would drop to about 80% charge while plugged in before recharging again. I'm not an expert on battery technology, but I know some batteries loose charge cycles over time. Therefore, I always try to run my devices all the way down, about 5 or 10% charge remaining, before recharging them.

Side note: I also disabled Power Nap because of reliability issues in Catalina 10.5.4.

The whole battery health management is a bigger benefit to Apple and not the end user. Extends battery just enough to reduce battery warranty claims while not moving the needle much on extending battery life long term. To do that you need something like Al Dente and set the max level to 80% and switch manually higher if you please when needed.

When I had it enable (Apple feature) it just went from 100-90-100% once a day, just adding cycles at the extreme end of charge. My work laptop HP Elite "something or other" keeps my battery 75-80% with the Bios enable feature to extend battery life. So looks like other manufactures provide this to benefit the end user.

I just got a new MacBook Pro and noticed that on a few occasions it was draining battery despite being plugged in, with the battery menu bar item reading "Battery Is Not Charging / Power Source: Power Adapter." It seems to be random, and it fixes itself.

Is this the Battery Health Management feature? If so, is there any indication in macOS that it is that feature intentionally doing that instead of a battery / logic board issue? It seems like a bad UI/UX decision to just have the battery draining without the user being able to click the battery icon and then get a small snippet of text explaining that this is the intended behavior.

Are the parameters of the Battery Health Management feature public? As in, is there a way to know when it's the expected behavior? I spoke to Tier 2 Senior AppleCare Advisors and they didn't have any information on Battery Health Management so I really want to make sure my computer isn't a lemon. It's hard to actually observe the problem/feature because you have to be constantly monitoring the battery icon and can't just be notified of when it happens.

 

[Supra Mac]

I bet you’re fine. Turn off the battery management feature and monitor the behavior. Consider Al Dente, it’s less smoke and mirrors.

 

[Patcell]

I just got a new MacBook Pro and noticed that on a few occasions it was draining battery despite being plugged in, with the battery menu bar item reading "Battery Is Not Charging / Power Source: Power Adapter." It seems to be random, and it fixes itself.

Is this the Battery Health Management feature? If so, is there any indication in macOS that it is that feature intentionally doing that instead of a battery / logic board issue? It seems like a bad UI/UX decision to just have the battery draining without the user being able to click the battery icon and then get a small snippet of text explaining that this is the intended behavior.

Are the parameters of the Battery Health Management feature public? As in, is there a way to know when it's the expected behavior? I spoke to Tier 2 Senior AppleCare Advisors and they didn't have any information on Battery Health Management so I really want to make sure my computer isn't a lemon. It's hard to actually observe the problem/feature because you have to be constantly monitoring the battery icon and can't just be notified of when it happens.

Shut off the Catalina battery management feature in System Preferences and see if the problem persists. I you no longer have battery drain while connected to power, then it was likely the battery management feature working as Apple intended.
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It is awful odd that Tier 2 AppleCare has no information on this 'feature' though. Apple had to expect phone calls when people noticed their machines losing charge while connected to power...

 

[06tb06]

I just got a new MacBook Pro and noticed that on a few occasions it was draining battery despite being plugged in, with the battery menu bar item reading "Battery Is Not Charging / Power Source: Power Adapter." It seems to be random, and it fixes itself.

Is this the Battery Health Management feature? If so, is there any indication in macOS that it is that feature intentionally doing that instead of a battery / logic board issue? It seems like a bad UI/UX decision to just have the battery draining without the user being able to click the battery icon and then get a small snippet of text explaining that this is the intended behavior.

Are the parameters of the Battery Health Management feature public? As in, is there a way to know when it's the expected behavior? I spoke to Tier 2 Senior AppleCare Advisors and they didn't have any information on Battery Health Management so I really want to make sure my computer isn't a lemon. It's hard to actually observe the problem/feature because you have to be constantly monitoring the battery icon and can't just be notified of when it happens.

I read somewhere on here that this feature is designed to prevent battery swelling on MacBook models that are constantly plugged in. I'm not sure I believe this considering the MacBook lineup, and its predecessors, have been around for a while now and it hasn't been much of a concern prior to the release of Catalina. Also, every new MacBook design is rigorously tested by Apple before the final product reaches the hands of any user.

I'm sure it's more of a utility designed to improve long-term battery health and prolong recharge-ability.

 

[jent]

It is awful odd that Tier 2 AppleCare has no information on this 'feature' though. Apple had to expect phone calls when people noticed their machines losing charge while connected to power...

Agreed!

I read somewhere on here that this feature is designed to prevent battery swelling on MacBook models that are constantly plugged in. I'm not sure I believe this considering the MacBook lineup, and its predecessors, have been around for a while now and it hasn't been much of a concern prior to the release of Catalina. Also, every new MacBook design is rigorously tested by Apple before the final product reaches the hands of any user.

I'm sure it's more of a utility designed to improve long-term battery health and prolong recharge-ability.

I actually like the idea but am just surprised at Apple's lack of communication to their staff about the feature, since as another user wrote here, they had to have expected some customers would be calling in about this. I just wish the battery draining text in the menu bar did a little more to let the user know it is the intended behavior.

 

[bugFinder]

The behavior I've seen is that the computer will periodically discharge to around 90%, then recharge. I'm not sure how often this happens but it seems to be roughly daily.

I have had similar observations on my 16inch MBP.

 

[jent]

There is now an official statement from Apple about this feature.