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Do you keep your M1 laptop plugged in all the time?

thadoggfather

thadoggfather

macrumors P6
Original poster
Oct 1, 2007
16,173
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Or just to charge it up and using it on battery by itself?

I know its not good to just keep it at 100% charged all the time, but as of 10.15.5 or .6 didn't they add battery health improvement measures?
 
I noticed that when I leave it to charge overnight it stays at 80% and then 2-3 hours before I get up it tops it to 100%. Haven't used it plugged all day but may be when it learn your usage patterns it will stay below 100% when stays plugged in all day.
 
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I only charge my MBP when the battery drops below 30%, which is around once a week now. I would always bring the charger for my i3 MBA with me because battery life varied so much. But with the M1, I leave the charger at home and don't even worry about it.
 
It’s on charge connected to a Benq PD2720U in my office space, which is most of the time.

When I take into the lounge to serve Apple Music through my Hifi, it runs on battery.

Apple’s battery management holds no terrors for me!
 
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Yes, been plugged in from the start.
Sitting at 101% charge and 1 cycle according to coconut.
Read it'll go to 80% after some time, just don't know if I need to discharge before that happens.
 
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I don't really pay attention. I plug it in when the battery gets low, but usually I don't bother to get the charger. It moves around the house a lot anyway.
 
I'm almost always connected to a Belkin TB3 Dock Pro which charges it. I've seen my Battery Percentage drop to about 80% and then after reconnecting, charges back to 100%. Coconut Battery is showing 5 cycle counts for me. The few times I've taken it on the go, I've easily gone at least 12-15 or so hours with light use and without it dropping below 40%. I'm happy.
 
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No need to leave it on charge, only need to charge my M1 pro once every 10-12 days, battery life is out of this world.
 
Mr Screech said:
Yes, been plugged in from the start.
Sitting at 101% charge and 1 cycle according to coconut.
Read it'll go to 80% after some time, just don't know if I need to discharge before that happens.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure you need to discharge it at least once, after it has learned that you always keep it plugged in.

I wouldn't though. My 16" kept losing battery even after the management feature was introduced, faster than I felt comfortable with, and it was almost always plugged in. I would suggest you run it down to 40% twice a week to stay on the safe side. You might then notice that it only goes up to 80% when left on its own.

These batteries last longest, if you can somehow manage to keep them between 40 and 80 percent on average. I heard about AlDente but have since switched to an M1 and it won't work there. With the M1 I plug it in when it's at 40% and won't leave it plugged in the whole day. So far so good.

No matter what you do it'll go down though. Slowly but surely. My 16" went to 87% in a year, partially "thanks" to keeping it always plugged in for the first 4 months or so. Only ~10 cycles in many months.
 
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thadoggfather said:
Or just to charge it up and using it on battery by itself?

I know its not good to just keep it at 100% charged all the time, but as of 10.15.5 or .6 didn't they add battery health improvement measures?
Click to expand...
I can tell you from personal experience, leaving the unit plugged in will not afftect the battery negatively if you shut it down at the end of the day or when not in use. +2 years and 90% capacity.
 
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Mr Screech said:
Yes, been plugged in from the start.
Sitting at 101% charge and 1 cycle according to coconut.
Read it'll go to 80% after some time, just don't know if I need to discharge before that happens.
Click to expand...
It takes a while for the battery management to kick in. I’ve been leaving my M1 MBA in clamshell connected to a hub and 4k monitor recently. I haven’t seen any change to charging yet. It still always charges to 100%.
 
I use it around the house but generally it's plugged into a monitor via usb-c so it charges.

I choose not to worry about this, but it does have mixed use and that's the best I can do.
 
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I have an M1 MBP (8 / 256) and I run it off the battery. I charge it when the battery level gets down to 10%.
 
Mr.Blacky said:
Why buy a laptop and then keep it plugged in all the time? What sense does this make? 🤨
Click to expand...
Not sure if you are kidding or not. In the off chance that this was a serious question then the answer is that over time my needs change. Right now running in clamshell mode with a USB-C hub and a 4K monitor provides more productivity than using the MacBook Air open and unplugged. I use clamshell mode with a vertical stand because my desk space is limited with a 2013 Mac Pro & 27" Thunderbolt Display on the same desktop. Both the MacBook Air setup and the Mac Pro setup have keyboards and trackpads. There is not enough room to easily keep the MBA display open. I also use the MBA around the house outside of my home office--usually on the kitchen table where it is usually not plugged in.

Right now I can go days with the notebook plugged in. When I first bought it, I was using it mostly unplugged until I got the office desk setup right.
 
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jdb8167 said:
Not sure if you are kidding or not. In the off chance that this was a serious question then the answer is that over time my needs change. Right now running in clamshell mode with a USB-C hub and a 4K monitor provides more productivity than using the MacBook Air open and unplugged. I use clamshell mode with a vertical stand because my desk space is limited with a 2013 Mac Pro & 27" Thunderbolt Display on the same desktop. Both the MacBook Air setup and the Mac Pro setup have keyboards and trackpads. There is not enough room to easily keep the MBA display open. I also use the MBA around the house outside of my home office--usually on the kitchen table where it is usually not plugged in.

Right now I can go days with the notebook plugged in. When I first bought it, I was using it mostly unplugged until I got the office desk setup right.
Click to expand...
So you don't actually have it plugged in all the time.
 
This is one of those things as battery technology changes, folks folklore remains the same.

Like humans, all batteries die. Two things make it die faster.

1. Heat *
2. Charge Cycles

Apple claims that a battery is good for a 1,000 cycles. That is ~3 years of daily full cycle charging.

The battery has technology that limits overcharging. Previously overcharging caused heat. With some tools or terminal if you are handy, you can see when your charge is full, there is no pull from the charger.

It is perfectly safe to leave plugged into the supplied charger or equivalent in clamshell mode or otherwise.

* Cold effects batteries as well, but typically doesn't reduce the longevity of the battery. There are recommended operating temperatures for the device. Limit usage in the Mojave desert and polar regions.
 
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Ive read reports of batteries swelling when left plugged in all the time. I do have a dock which I would like to keep plugged in all the time since it also provides my 10GBe connection, but I've always thought it would negatively affect the battery.
Personally I think I may now leave mine plugged in all the time and just disconnect and run it down once every 2 weeks or so to keep the cells flowing!
I very rarely shut my system down.
 
Ifti said:
Ive read reports of batteries swelling when left plugged in all the time. I do have a dock which I would like to keep plugged in all the time since it also provides my 10GBe connection, but I've always thought it would negatively affect the battery.
Personally I think I may now leave mine plugged in all the time and just disconnect and run it down once every 2 weeks or so to keep the cells flowing!
I very rarely shut my system down.
Click to expand...
Another solution is to leave it connected to the dock but unplugged for a while. If you are using your MacBook in clamshell mode with an external display, keyboard, and mouse, you can keep it from sleeping with a terminal command: sudo pmset -b disablesleep 1. You can reverse this by changing the 1 to a 0. Someone on these forums posted this undocumented command and it was a lifesaver while I was trying to get my desktop setup correct.
 
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I move around with my MacBook so its mostly on battery. TBH, battery life was the one thing that made me buy a new MacBook. IMO, not taking advantage of M1's battery life would be a wastage.
 
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