Help with Battery - Mac Air early 2015

[Laraan]

Ok so I'll start this by saying I know nothing about Mac or Apple as a whole so your advice would really come in handy. I've had this early 2015 Mac Air and started using it in 2020, almost every day. Until a month ago I knew nothing about battery cycles and only when I saw, 3 weeks ago, that my battery charged until 92% and then went up to 100% (the same happened discharging, went from 100% to 92% in like 5 minutes), I thought it was time to gather knowledge. I searched but I guessed I did wrong since most blogs in spanish (I'm not from America or an english spoken country) said that 'nothing happened if you used your Mac while it was charging on 100% all the time', so I did. I kept it charging on 100% all the time, for 2 weeks, and, also my mistake, no need to shame, while playing Minecraft.

As I said, I know my mistakes now, and I should have started reading blogs in english since Apple forums are mostly in this language. The thing is, when I first knew about cycles, my Mac had around.. 1200 cycles and it said the battery condition was Ok, no need for nothing so nothing is what I did. Two weeks ago, out of curiosity saw it was charged, unplugged for a little bit (It didn't spend all the time charging, I unplugged it from time to time, but I'll say it was 60% of the time plugged) and saw, that 10 minutes later or so, the battery dropped to 52%. Got scared really fast and just closed it after I saw that the system said it needed to be checked.

The thing is: inflation. I can't really change the battery right now and I really need my Mac. I've read a lot about Al Dente and such but I'm not sure what to do. I know it needs to be changed, asap, but economically I just can't, and an Apple Store is nowhere near where I live, since I would have to ship it to my country's capital and I'm not sure how's that gonna go. The only option I have is an alternative battery (I know the risks... but that's all I can do right now, and I can't even afford an alternative).

I thought of downloading Al Dente and make it like a desktop computer? I don't need to carry it around really, and I'm scared someone could steal it so it's not coming out of my house. I thought that with that app I could just use the energy coming from the charger and stop using the battery at all until I can afford something... any advice?

Thanks.

 

[xboxbml]

Ok so I'll start this by saying I know nothing about Mac or Apple as a whole so your advice would really come in handy. I've had this early 2015 Mac Air and started using it in 2020, almost every day. Until a month ago I knew nothing about battery cycles and only when I saw, 3 weeks ago, that my battery charged until 92% and then went up to 100% (the same happened discharging, went from 100% to 92% in like 5 minutes), I thought it was time to gather knowledge. I searched but I guessed I did wrong since most blogs in spanish (I'm not from America or an english spoken country) said that 'nothing happened if you used your Mac while it was charging on 100% all the time', so I did. I kept it charging on 100% all the time, for 2 weeks, and, also my mistake, no need to shame, while playing Minecraft.

As I said, I know my mistakes now, and I should have started reading blogs in english since Apple forums are mostly in this language. The thing is, when I first knew about cycles, my Mac had around.. 1200 cycles and it said the battery condition was Ok, no need for nothing so nothing is what I did. Two weeks ago, out of curiosity saw it was charged, unplugged for a little bit (It didn't spend all the time charging, I unplugged it from time to time, but I'll say it was 60% of the time plugged) and saw, that 10 minutes later or so, the battery dropped to 52%. Got scared really fast and just closed it after I saw that the system said it needed to be checked.

The thing is: inflation. I can't really change the battery right now and I really need my Mac. I've read a lot about Al Dente and such but I'm not sure what to do. I know it needs to be changed, asap, but economically I just can't, and an Apple Store is nowhere near where I live, since I would have to ship it to my country's capital and I'm not sure how's that gonna go. The only option I have is an alternative battery (I know the risks... but that's all I can do right now, and I can't even afford an alternative).

I thought of downloading Al Dente and make it like a desktop computer? I don't need to carry it around really, and I'm scared someone could steal it so it's not coming out of my house. I thought that with that app I could just use the energy coming from the charger and stop using the battery at all until I can afford something... any advice?

Thanks.

I have same model as you. I got a battery from iFixit a few years ago.. wasn't too expensive. I don't know what Al Dente is, but a new 3rd party battery is what I would do from iFixit..

 

[Bigwaff]

I've read a lot about Al Dente and such but I'm not sure what to do.

Al Dente isn't going to help your situation. Your battery needs to be replaced. After replacement installed and calibrated, then Al Dente might be useful in extending the life span of the new battery ... but Al Dente hasn't been around long enough for anyone to provide statistical evidence using it actually extends battery life. Anything you read is anecdotal. In fact, I'm a licensed user of Al Dente. I prefer the visibility and manual battery management Al Dente provides over Apple's built in battery management feature.. but I'm not expecting my battery to last 2x or 3x longer than if I weren't using Al Dente.

Enough about Al Dente. What version of macOS is installed on your 2015 MBA?

 

[xboxbml]

Al Dente isn't going to help your situation. Your battery needs to be replaced. After replacement installed and calibrated, then Al Dente might be useful in extending the life span of the new battery ... but Al Dente hasn't been around long enough for anyone to provide statistical evidence using it actually extends battery life. Anything you read is anecdotal. In fact, I'm a licensed user of Al Dente. I prefer the visibility and manual battery management Al Dente provides over Apple's built in battery management feature.. but I'm not expecting my battery to last 2x or 3x longer than if I weren't using Al Dente.

Enough about Al Dente. What version of macOS is installed on your 2015 MBA?

Thanks for insight.. I had never heard of Al Dente till I saw this post..

 

[MBAir2010]

my Macbook pro 2012 went weird 2 weeks ago, jumping and page moving
then the screen went to the 4 finger swipe to display time-calendar-weather-calculator.
what i did Friday was remove the battery, inspected the trackpad and replace the battery

now this Macbook pro works fine, with our with the power and that ran the entire Olympic road face today,

maybe this might help your Macbook Air e_2015?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Replace the battery, sooner rather than later. With the behavior you're seeing I would not be surprised to find the battery swelling when plugged into power, and that can cause a lot more (expensive) issues than a new battery.

 

[StardustOne]

You hopefully already did replace the battery, they are super inexpensive, just get the battery from amazon, the ones that are sold most and have great review are all great choices.

Swollen batteries can also damage internal parts.

For replacing, you can watch a youtube video and the tools to replace the batteries, they are provided with the battery, it is super easy and well worth the money to save a MBA.

 

[xboxbml]

You hopefully already did replace the battery, they are super inexpensive, just get the battery from amazon, the ones that are sold most and have great review are all great choices.

Swollen batteries can also damage internal parts.

For replacing, you can watch a youtube video and the tools to replace the batteries, they are provided with the battery, it is super easy and well worth the money to save a MBA.

I think swollen batteries could burst and damage more than the device... could burn your house down..

 

[JPack]

You have a 10 year old computer with a dead battery. Focus on saving up for a new MacBook rather than wasting money trying to preserve this old one.

If you get scared and closed the computer after seeing a battery service warning, there’s no chance of you replacing the battery even if you somehow got the part in hand. More importantly, it doesn’t make economic sense to do it.