Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Do you leave your MBP plugged in while using?
- Thread starter seasurfer
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
There is no harm in leaving your Mac plugged in. Once a month make sure to use the battery some and you should be fine. I use the app AlDente Pro (as do many here) to control battery usage and maintenance.
Last edited:
There is a taskbar util called AlDente that allows you to set a default maximum %, with the ability to 'top up' to 100% by clicking a button in the util.
Only works on Apple silicon. Have it running on my 14" at 85%, if I want to head out for the day just set it to top up as I'm doing my morning routine. If I'm only heading out to say a cafe for the morning no need, this machine still gets ~2x runtime of my 16" i9.
Only works on Apple silicon. Have it running on my 14" at 85%, if I want to head out for the day just set it to top up as I'm doing my morning routine. If I'm only heading out to say a cafe for the morning no need, this machine still gets ~2x runtime of my 16" i9.
Last edited:
It also works with older machines. Intel ones. But only the newer ones.
I set mine at 75% but yeah. I only top it up when I need to
Thanks for the correction, looks like full support for the prior gen back to 2016. My actual issue is it requires Big Sur, stuck on Catalina due to IT dragging their feet.
Yeh. It's a nice app though! Really nice being able to always set it to a set maximum. And just topping up when u need it.
Although my only suggestion for people that use this and mostly use it plugged is to calibrate it once a month to make sure the percentage is accurate when you need to use it . I think it's as easy as charging to full. Then draining to 15% then fully charging it again. Then you can drain it to the limit again.
At my desk its plugged-in to my external monitor but if I'm away from my desk its generally just on the battery, especially with the M1 Pro as it lasts for so long.
I'm not going to look at battery stats, "calibrating" or cycles or health - so long as its working as-expected, there's no point obsessing over the details.
I'm not going to look at battery stats, "calibrating" or cycles or health - so long as its working as-expected, there's no point obsessing over the details.
If you are running Bug,Sir! or Monster-Bay, you can set the battery to optimized charging. It will periodically lower the charge to 80% and then bring it back up. Last evening, my M1Pro told me that it was letting it go back to 80% but would have it back to 100% by 7 AM, this morning, and it did.
If you sit at a desk most of the day when you use your computer, it would be ideal if you left it plugged in. If you have optimized charging enabled, it'll set your battery level to 80% and give you the option to top it off if you want to. I use my m1 mbp on the desk these days and it looks something like this -
