External Battery packs stop working on MBAir 2020

[quietrider25]

I sit outdoors most mornings for several hours using my 2020 MBAir, to browse mostly. I have been using 2 different hi-capacity (20000 mah and 27000mah) external battery packs to power it since I purchased it 14 months ago. That method had been keeping the internal battery nearly fully charged for up to 6 hours, after which it would slowly begin to discharge the internal battery

I noticed a week ago that it would no longer run off of them at all. When I plug either of them in the morning the machine now only runs on it's internal battery and ignores the fact that a fully charged battery pack is plugged in to the USB-C. The same packs work fine to run my iPhone while driving (I tested that yesterday for a 4 hour round trip).

FYI, a few days ago I updated to the OS to the latest version of Big Sur, 11.6.5. I think it started being an issue before the update, but am not sure of that.

Has anyone had a similar experience lately?

 

[Rustyfan]

I have a similar problem, but with my iPhones. I have a Cincred 20,000mAh battery pack with LCD display, 3 USB, 1 Micro-USB and 1 USB-C PD port. The display shows the current voltage out and amp draw and supports fast charging.

This battery pack, since upgrading to 15.4.1, no longer charges any of the 3 iPhones in my house, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 11 and iPhone Xr via the USB-C port. The USB-A ports work fine, the USB-C port just fluctuates charging and not charging and showing no amp draw.

This battery pack still charges my Intel 2020 MacBook Pro 13", 11" 2021 iPad Pro and 10.5" iPad without problem and fast charges, but any iPhone that can fast charge doesn't work with the USB-C port any more. I've tried reaching out to friends, family and co-workers and everyone is on 15.4.1, the charging problem affects them as well.

 

[russell_314]

It’s probably an OS update to protect the battery. That would be my guess