Macbook Pro 16" battery life < 1.5 hours

[Coldhatez]

Hi,

In June 2020 I bought the Macbook pro 16". I have a lot of issues with the laptop, but the biggest one that is getting worse is the insane battery drain. If I do nothing on the laptop, it lasts for around 4 hours, which is insanely low.

However, if I have a meeting like today, my battery goes from 100% to 26% within 1 hour 20 minutes. The software is Jitsi Meet in the browser. This also happens with Microsoft Teams and Zoom. See the picture below:

This issue is unacceptable. Apple advertises 10+ hours of battery life.

Edit: I forgot to add the things I've tried:

• PRAM reset
• SMC reset
• Fresh install of Mac OS

 

[bsamcash]

Have you calibrated the battery?

 

[Coldhatez]

No haven't done that. I'll try doing that to see if it works.

 

[Coldhatez]

I've calibrated the macbook. Battery life did seem a bit better this morning, but still only 2 - 2 1/2 hours for a video meeting.

 

[watchmainspring]

I've found that chrome is a hog of essentially all resources, energy included.

 

[ght56]

Does the meeting app you are using activate the dedicated GPU? What does your CPU usage look like? Are you using things such as filters? That seems very fast, even though videoconferencing apps do tend to drain batteries very quickly in some instances. However, I am not familiar with Jitsi, specifically.

Ultimately, if you are only getting 4 hours when the computer is IDLE (i.e., CPU like 1-3% on integrated graphics), the system likely needs to be serviced.

 

[Falcon9]

Have you looked at activity monitor to see what is consuming power, or if anything is using excessive CPU? I'd also suggest installing Coconut Battery or similar to check the current battery health.

Also, you mentioned doing a fresh install. Did you check to see if the battery life was back to normal before reinstalling all your apps?

 

[BoomerJay]

It is really insane that a 3300eu laptop just drains like its nothing. My 16inch is really the most annoying and frustrating MacBook I have owned.

Mine drains in like 1,5/2 hours fully just by watching YouTube videos let alone working with resolve or photoshop.

I really want to wait for the M1X and sell this one! Apple is letting people down like always but cashes all the money in the world.

 

[Orange_]

Hey folks, I think I can help! A complete revelation happened for me today!

Usually my MacBook dies after 2 HOURS use of simple safari browsing.
The fans would be blaring like CRAZY and I've be on to apple support nearly every week trying to fix it.

FINALLY today I discovered AND fixed the issue, thanks to a reddit post; so I thought I'd post on here too in hopes that it will help someone.


Long story short I turned off 'reminders' in iCloud on my mac.


Basically after studying my activity monitor 'remindd' was at the top using 98% of my CPU, which confused the heck out of me!
After looking online it seems there's a huge iCloud bug causing the reminders app (even though it was never even open) to spike my CPU, straining the battery life and spinning the fans like crazy and dying after 2 hours!!!

I couldn't believe the difference after I switched that setting off! I'm now getting up to 8 hours of use on the mac running the same apps. Game changer.

Don't get me wrong when I'm gaming or doing music/video editing and the fans get going it still tanks the battery in 2-3 hours, but the mac would last less than an hour before under a heavy load...

Hope this helps!

 

[Fishrrman]

The MBP is still under warranty.

If the battery performance has deteriorated that much, I'd take it to a brick-n-mortar Apple Store genius bar and let them look at it and perhaps test the battery.

They -might- offer to replace it under warranty...

 

[TheRealAlex]

#1. Go get a Free Battery Diagnostic at the Apple store.
#2. My 16” was getting really poor battery life. And I was out of Warranty and no AppleCare.
#3. Apple Genius tech, ran a diagnostic and determined it failed something. And Authorized a complete battery replacement all packs. Selling it soon for an M1X 14”
#4. Also FYI don’t let them tell you its your Apps like YouTube And Safari. Or your Brightness setting. No MBP should have 1.5 or even 4 hours of battery even under the worst conditions.

Lithium’s cells chemically degrade even under perfect conditions. Maybe your was just a bad pack that passed QC in China.

After the battery cells were Replaced. All Cores Turbo clocked higher, and it felt a lot snappier it was throttling itself to save what little battery it had. Now. I get 10 hours+ all day.