macOS Catalina 10.15.5 Beta Includes Battery Health Management Feature for Macs

[cigz]

Well, *kinda* finally.
I had to change battery in my Macbook Pro 2016 after 1,5 years since the health was between 70-80% and cycle count around 300.

 

[topmounter]

Why would Apple choose Duh Verge over Macrumors to share this information? Makes no sense.

 

[konqerror]

Exactly, they hardly worked. I've used these in the last 10 years. They always lost the true state of the battery, so I'd unplug at 80% or wherever the app held the battery at and BAM laptop shut off because it was really at 0% but the application thought it was at 80%.

Apple laptops do the exact same thing, that's been my trigger for the last 3 battery replacements.

That has nothing to do with battery life extension software but rather that the battery gauge algorithm can't detect a sudden loss of capacity at the end of battery life.

 

[itsmilo]

I thought the MacBook Pro already did this since forever by not charging again when it’s plugged in between 95% and 100%?

 

[konqerror]

The difference is everyone else had this feature in clunky, ugly, and inefficient third-party utilities, as you show, and not built-in to the native OS.

None require utilities, you can set them up in BIOS setup, letting it work across all operating systems you may use (Linux, Windows).

 

[BigMcGuire]

I thought the MacBook Pro already did this since forever by not charging again when it’s plugged in between 95% and 100%?

I think most of us are hoping it'll allow a 40, or 60, or most likely 80% setting. But it'll probably be like the iPhone - just an "automatic" thing that may stop charging at 80% if plugged in the same way all the time.

 

[jpallarest]

Off topic, but have the popping sound issues on the 16“ been fixed in this version? The last version didn‘t fix the problem and many people are waiting for this.

They don't fix ****. I have sound popping in music making apps, automatic graphics switching related freezing and stuttering, and random kernel panics when sleeping in my new MBP 16 inch.

 

[recoil80]

I had three designers who each used loaded 2015 15” MacBook Pros as their desktop. They wanted them for portability, but never really ever took them home more than a handful of times so they stayed on the chargers all the time. At the end of the lease, one of them ended up with a bloated battery that required a trip to the Apple Store and a $200 repair. The other two seemed to be just fine. I cannot comment about any newer MacBook Pros.

My question is, why buy a MacBook Pro if you are going to leave it plugged in all the time? Just get an iMac or a Mac mini.

I use my MacBookPro in clamshell mode most of the time but I like to be able to use it as a laptop sometimes. I’d say I use it 80% clamshell 20% laptop.
I wish I was able to stop charging it while in clamshell mode to preserve battery.

 

[lexvo]

<removed>

 

[Wyrmdog]

Perhaps I have been lucky or the batteries were made better a few years ago. My early 2013 MBP has been plugged in for 98% of its life and the odd time I use just battery in lasts a few hours.

Mine is a 2015 but my experience is similar. I used it for work where it was plugged in all day every day and I shut it off to take it home where it overnighted at 100% charge. I did that for 3 years solid. It has much stronger battery health than my wife's of identical vintage who charges it only when it needs it and no longer.

My MBP 12,1: 71 cycles on the battery, and it's ~6500 mAh battery shows capacity at 6114. I don't have hers handy to look at but her cycle count was 200-ish more than mine.

So I really don't know what to think.

 

[StevieD100]

Better than mine.
I have a 2018 15in MBP and health is 95% at 70 cycles....

my 2015 15in MBP has 97.89% at 50 cycles. 99% of the time it is plugged in.

 

[827538]

Extremely happy to see this. Would be great to cap my charge at something like 70% and know it's then fine to leave my laptop plugged in constantly. Then when I do take it with me just change to 100% at the click of a button.

I've been hoping Apple would introduce a feature like this.

 

[badatusernames]

Agreed, in the meantime I am using Turbo Boost Switcher Pro mac app to turn off extra cpu I don't need most of the time anyway...

Love that app, I use it on my MacBook Pro

 

[konqerror]

Mine is a 2015 but my experience is similar. I used it for work where it was plugged in all day every day and I shut it off to take it home where it overnighted at 100% charge. I did that for 3 years solid. It has much stronger battery health than my wife's of identical vintage who charges it only when it needs it and no longer.

Did you actually test it? As in apply a heavy load to it until it fully drains? As in all laptops, the battery capacity gauge doesn't update unless you're cycling the battery, and it only updates a small percent each cycle.

I suspect that you will see the state of charge drop suddenly or shutdown early under heavy loads, since the capacity gauge is wrong, or, if you're lucky you will see continuous drops in capacity as you actually give it full cycles as it actually is able to measure your worn battery.

Almost everybody on here treats the battery health status as 100% accurate when it never is, on any laptop.

 

[badatusernames]

Optimised battery charging says “learns from your daily charging routine so it can wait to finish charging past 80% until you need to use it”, so it takes the charging habits.

Correct, while optimized charging on iOS requires significant locations to be turned on.

 

[simonmet]

I found “Optimised charging” on the iPhone to be completely useless in that it would always charge to 100%, but it has just started working (again?) and my phone is now sitting at 80% plugged in.

So whether the algorithm was initially poor or it had bugs I’m not sure, but it appears to have patched in last update.

 

[konqerror]

I found “Optimised charging” on the iPhone to be completely useless in that it would always charge to 100%, but it has just started working (again?) and my phone is now sitting at 80% plugged in.

So whether the algorithm was initially poor or it had bugs I’m not sure, but it appears to have patched in last update.

Are you wireless charging? For me, it never worked under wireless charging, but wired worked fine, until the last update which allows it to work under both.

 

[jerryk]

Starting to sound like EVs. With EVs want to keep you battery between 85% and 15%. Charging all the way up and holding it there can lead to premature wear. And also does draining it all the way down. Now, an EV and laptop are different, but Li Ion chemistry and associated dendrite formation will kill batteries in either.

 

[Wyrmdog]

Did you actually test it? As in apply a heavy load to it until it fully drains? As in all laptops, the battery capacity gauge doesn't update unless you're cycling the battery, and it only updates a small percent each cycle.

I suspect that you will see the state of charge drop suddenly or shutdown early under heavy loads, since the capacity gauge is wrong, or, if you're lucky you will see continuous drops in capacity as you actually give it full cycles as it actually is able to measure your worn battery.

Almost everybody on here treats the battery health status as 100% accurate when it never is, on any laptop.

Fair, and now that I no longer use it for work, I do that a little, but not in a rigorous way. Anecdotally it seems almost as long-lasting as it once was, but under heavy load it does drop faster than I like, this is true. hmmm... I have been looking into figuring out how to replace the battery myself if it comes to it, because I have wondered if it's as good as it pretends to be.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

introducing the functionality on Macs that have Thunderbolt 3 ports.

So I'm out of luck with my 2012 MBP? Dammit, just when I was getting excited to see this.

 

[shaun3000]

Yeah, same. WTF?

 

[Cristim74]

I have a 2017 MBP manufactured in 02.2018 and bought by me in 03.2018, before the 2018 MBP was released.
My battery health is at 82% with 287 charge cycles after 2 years and 1 month. Should I be worried?

View attachment 906534View attachment 906534

 

[Steve686]

I commented in an earlier post about people with battery capacities that seemed to dwindle too quickly from design capacity to about 97 and 96%.

Is this lower charge capacity out of the box possibly software controlled by Apple to keep these newer machines from charging to complete full while preserving the battery?

And would it help alleviate swollen battery syndrome by not letting the batteries sit at an actual completely full charge?
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This doesn’t work quite like optimized charging on iOS. Rather than using significant locations this takes into account just your charging habits, battery temperature and the like.

Not sure how iOS uses locations for battery charging.

Per iPhone "Optimized Battery Charging X/O"

"To reduce battery aging, iPhone learns from your daily charging routine so it can aid to finish charging past 80% until you need to use it."

Isn't it just based on "when" you plug in and unplug? It wouldn't matter where you plug/unplug? Nothing about location there.

Since Apple did share the details of the Mac OS battery health feature, it is safe to cautiously assume that battery health for the most part is going to either limit charging to 100% when the laptop is plugged in for moderate durations, or possibly reduce processing power on machines with limited charge capacity like the iPhone does.

 

[konqerror]

Isn't it just based on "when" you plug in and unplug? It wouldn't matter where you plug/unplug? Nothing about location there.

Apple explains in their article (bottom): https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210512

Optimized charging is designed to engage only in locations where you spend the most time, such as your home and place of work. The feature doesn't engage when your usage habits are more variable, such as when you travel. Because of this, some location settings must be enabled for Optimized Battery Charging to activate. None of the location information used for this feature is sent to Apple.

 

[LovingTeddy]

And your point is ?

Can't innovate my ass... says a lot about Apple lately. Average hardware with hyper inflated price point...