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Following the release of macOS Monterey 12.2 last month, some Mac users who installed the software update started to experience excessive battery drain during sleep mode, seemingly due to Bluetooth accessories frequently waking up the machines. The issue appears to affect Macs running the first beta of macOS 12.3 as well.

macOS-Monterey-on-MBP-Feature.jpg

Many affected users found their Mac's battery life dropped from 100% to 0% while in sleep mode overnight. A few users tried to identify a cause in Terminal and found that Bluetooth accessories were frequently causing a "DarkWake from Deep Idle" that resulted in the Mac repeatedly waking from sleep and draining the battery's charge.

Fortunately, it appears that the second beta of macOS 12.3 seeded today may resolve the issue. In a tweet, Mr. Macintosh said his 2018 MacBook Pro that was experiencing the issue on the first beta of macOS 12.3 is no longer affected on the second beta.


macOS 12.3 will likely be publicly released around March or April, providing a fix for all affected users. In the meantime, users can disable Bluetooth on their Mac or disconnect all Bluetooth accessories overnight to prevent battery drain.

Article Link: macOS Monterey 12.3 Beta 2 Appears to Fix Bluetooth-Related Battery Drain Issue During Sleep Mode
 
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They really need to release 12.2.1 and fix this sleep issue NOW. Why do show stopping bug fixes need to wait until 12.3?
I agree. This fix should have been released urgently. Lately, I’ve been turning off the Bluetooth manually without having to rely on Touch Bar and it’s getting annoying.
 
Are there any other known battery drain issues? I've lost around half the battery life on my MacBook Air since upgrading to Monterey. I"m now getting around 8 hours of use, where previously it was 14 plus hours. it's been getting progressively worse with every update.
 
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Windows have had this problem for years...

...but Apple likes things to be perfected before adopting them.
Really? Can you back up that statement with any evidence, because to be honest, I can't seem to recall an issue where Windows laptops everywhere were draining their batteries while asleep because of a BT bug.
 
I just upgraded to 12.2 from Big Sur a few days ago. My chief problem is my Airpods (3rd gen) will no longer connect... it says they're connected in bluetooth, but if I select them as an audio source the circle thing just spins and spins.

my 2ndary complaint is it literally takes me about 25 minutes to reboot.

That being said, my iMac is a late 2015, so I know I shouldn't complain too much.
 
By the way, and just out of curiosity, how do bugs like this get past beta testers?
Modern operating systems are monstrously complicated. Sometimes things slip through the gaps, it's impossible to be perfect every time. Apple employs humans just like the rest of the world.

Not to mention the number of potential variations in configurations.
 
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By the way, and just out of curiosity, how do bugs like this get past beta testers?
QA testing is difficult. Macs and their OSes used to be much more "clean" because of the limited number of setup combinations there were. You had few models, few peripherals... unlike windows where you had multiple chip manufacturers, multiple motherboards, MULTIPLE accessories. Macs have become more mainstream, and can do many more things. This bug could be a combination of Bluetooth + HomePod + Homekit accessories, or some specific combination that slipped past QA.

Personally, I have been using Apple products since the original AppleII, and have RARELY experienced bugs. But this one got me! Not sure if it's because I am now connected to my Magic mouse, homepods, airpods... I have handoff turned on, and who knows what else. I spent 2 weeks trying to figure it out, disabling BT remoteWake, turning off proximityWake... nothing worked. Finally just started turning off bluetooth at night.

I can't wait till they release this fix!
 
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I'm still having this DarkWake drain issue specifically for 'SMC.OutboxNotEmpty smc.70070000 wifibt wlan/' instead of 'EC.Bluetooth/Maintenance' - in comms with apple support but hoping this may fix that also...
 
By the way, and just out of curiosity, how do bugs like this get past beta testers?
Sometimes things slip through the cracks, other times Apple decides the bug isn’t priority and will release an update with out fixing it. I’ve reported bugs in beta software in the past and they are ignored until someone eventually gets around to fixing it. Sometimes they don’t fix it until the next major release.

I’ve reported the Mojave mail bug affecting Gmail accounts and they never did fix it in macOS Mojave, but did in Catalina.
 
Are there any other known battery drain issues? I've lost around half the battery life on my MacBook Air since upgrading to Monterey. I"m now getting around 8 hours of use, where previously it was 14 plus hours. it's been getting progressively worse with every update.

I’m pretty new to the M1 computers so you wouldn’t believe the shock I was feeling when seeing my MBA (on Big Sur) go an insanely long time on battery power (somewhere between 14-20 hours). Compared with my 2015 15” MBP, I’d be lucky to get a few hours out of it with continual usage (haven’t tried with my brand new Apple-installed battery yet but even still it will never touch the Air’s abilities).

So to hear your battery life has been cut in half with Monterey certainly makes me not want to upgrade it yet. Come to think of it, my MBP is on Monterey as well… Why is this OS so problematic? Big Sur, for whatever issues it may have, is a dream to use on both my iMac and MBA.
 
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By the way, and just out of curiosity, how do bugs like this get past beta testers?
I think it's time for Apple to start a beta testing group similar to Microsoft's ClubWin back in the late 90's/early 2000's. Anyone remember that? This was a very experienced group of testers that had direct communication links to development leads. Many bugs were identified and fixed quickly. By the way, if you used to use Windows 2000, you can thank me for raising a stink in that group about getting MSFT to remove the popup that would say "Are you sure you want to disconnect?" This was after you Right clicked on the modem icon in the bottom right tray and chose Disconnect on the popup menu. The good ole days... ;)
 
They really need to release 12.2.1 and fix this sleep issue NOW. Why do show stopping bug fixes need to wait until 12.3?

This is why I am waiting a month to do updates on Monterey. I'm still on 12.1 and it's okay (a couple of bugs that I see but I know what they are). I do wish I could downgrade to Big Sur.
 
By the way, and just out of curiosity, how do bugs like this get past beta testers?
As a software dev, the real question I ask is, how do these bugs even make it past the dev team in the first place, let alone the test team?

Beta testing should only be catching any bugs involving combinations of other software or hardware that cause unforeseen complications. These should be rare and unusual, and virtually impossible for the dev/test team to test for. However, I suspect the type of people that use beta testing releases are either nutjob fanb**s who accept anything Apple throws at them and cheers it along; or devs who are merely testing their own products on the upcoming updates. Thus, no one is actually doing any testing with beta releases. Either that, or Apple ignores the feedback.

Who knows. The constant rubbish that comes out of the Apple software divisions is mind blowing to me.
 
I've been a software engineer since the 1980s and have worked part of that time in testing and have seen quite a bit. You have some people that will write hundreds of tests for a new feature to a group that will write thousands of tests. And then you might see a high-level developer write one positive test for a feature. Or a developer that writes a few tests but none of the cross-product, security, edge cases, bad input tests that are required in specifications.

Ideally you have developer tests and then a test spec written by the testing team. Developer tests tend to be positive tests as developers are often more optimists as they are creating new things. Testers tend to be pessimists as they've seen the stuff that developers throw over the wall so to speak. So the testers try to break things, especially if they are measured on how many bugs they find. Developers may be measured on how few bugs are entered against their features.

The rewards are for features written and there's always not enough time. Maintenance is often considered overhead and I have seen people that go to a group for an interesting project and then leave when it ships. That means that the person isn't stuck with maintenance on the feature - something that isn't really rewarded.

In an ideal world, it's just one big happy team writing great software for the world to enjoy. In reality, it's politics, metrics and rewards.
 
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I will definitely not upgrade to Monterey until 12.3 or maybe 12.4 to get the most fixes.
 
Seriously, why does Monterey 12.2 still feel like a beta? This operating system is a joke. So opposite of the hardware masterpiece that is the new MacBook Pro
 
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