I have a optimised charging question

[TrancyGoose]

Hello everyone,

We have 2 MacBooks in the family, one is a new M5 Air, that I got very recently after dumping windows.
My wife has a M1 Pro, A2338, still going very strong to this day, she likes it so much, I don't think she will let it ever go.

On the A2338 M1, Optimised battery charging is on, she does use it mostly at her desk. Battery health is at 86%. Power icon mostly shows a lightning symbol and beneath it say: Power Source - power adapter. But it never goes to plug icon any more, it used to way back, it doesn't, and does not drop to 80%.
On the new Air M5, couple of weeks in, plug icon shows and it is slowly moving towards the 80% mark.
Now, most of the time, the M1 Pro, had a Ugreen USB-C hub connected, with ethernet port going in, and Mac power adapter powering the hub and hub powering the Mac. She is not a heavy user, as in, it's mostly browsing email and videos. Adapter used, was the original adapter that came with it. I am thinking, is it because due to Ugreen hub taking some power away, maybe it was getting less than needed in the process, and that messed up the whole learning thing?
We have now removed the adapter, she is using wifi for testing for couple of days, but not much has changed, I turned the optimised charging off, rebooted and then back on.

Bottom line, I want it to go back to, showing "the plug" and keeping it roughly at 80%. Or is it no longer possible? Is there something I am missing? I simply want to preserve that battery for as long as possible.

 

[Bigwaff]

Bottom line, I want it to go back to, showing "the plug" and keeping it roughly at 80%. Or is it no longer possible? Is there something I am missing? I simply want to preserve that battery for as long as possible.

Tahoe 26.4 lets you choose charge limit. Set to 80%.

 

[TrancyGoose]

Tahoe 26.4 lets you choose charge limit. Set to 80%.

No I get that, seen it, I am just wondering why it doesn't go back to the "plug icon" when it's stationary most of the time, so hope was, that maybe someone knows more about the feature.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

It will, eventually. Once it decides it's "Staying" plugged in - could be a few days, normally well within 2 weeks it'll do that.

 

[ignatius345]

Yeah, it will definitely happen at some point if you leave connected constantly. Every time I remote into my mom’s MacBook to help her with something, I see this because she basically uses it as a desktop:

 

[benwiggy]

Battery health is at 86%. I simply want to preserve that battery for as long as possible.

86% of original capacity is entirely standard for c. 5-year-old M1. I have an M1 MBP, bought in October 2021, with a similar state.

You should expect to replace the battery when it reaches 80%, if you plan to keep it. This will probably happen in the next year or so, no matter what you do.

Restricting the battery to 80% when it is relatively new, and capable of holding the higher charge, is much more significant than doing it once the battery has already lost a chunk of its capability.

 

[TrancyGoose]

86% of original capacity is entirely standard for c. 5-year-old M1. I have an M1 MBP, bought in October 2021, with a similar state.

You should expect to replace the battery when it reaches 80%, if you plan to keep it. This will probably happen in the next year or so, no matter what you do.

Restricting the battery to 80% when it is relatively new, and capable of holding the higher charge, is much more significant than doing it once the battery has already lost a chunk of its capability.

Yeah I get that, it is just curious that it stopped restricting it to 80% automatically even though it was plugged in all the time .... I get it won't do much, but nerd in my was curious as to why it instead on keeping it at 100%, using AC power and lowering it to 80.