Make Your MacBook Battery Last Longer With This Setting

[rubberfish]

pretty sure my m3 MacBook Pro does this automatically as it's always plugged in and the battery tends to sit at around 80%

 

[chucker23n1]

pretty sure my m3 MacBook Pro does this automatically as it's always plugged in and the battery tends to sit at around 80%

That's Optimized Battery Charging, which is related but not the same.

 

[numberfive]

Having many prior iPhone models and charging to 100%, after a year the battery capacity/health would have dropped to around 96-98%. My experience with my present and limiting to 80% charge has me still at 100% battery health after 18 months.

One could say it could be attributed to battery chemistry changes or software optimization but there is no way for me to test it out on prior phones as I don’t have them anymore and battery chemistry may have differed. On the other hand Apple may have changed how battery health is reported as well.

In my situation it has not limited my usage.

that’s the point, it was tested and there was no significant difference found

 

[SpanishAppleNerd]

Wasn‘t there a real life experiment on MR with this setting on iPhone that concluded the trade off is not worth it at all? You lose 20% of your battery capacity but gain battery anxiety just to be almost exactly at the same point in the longterm like someone who conveniently used the complete battery capacity to its full extent. Battery degradation is completely natural even without charging so you can’t avoid it over the years by simply limiting yourself and your usage by 20%. Live your life to the fullest, use your devices to the fullest.

FWIW, my M4 iPad Pro only lost 2% health since buying it at launch limiting the charge to 80%

 

[code-m]

that’s the point, it was tested and there was no significant difference found

Tests can be flawed. Do what you feel suits your needs.

 

[a.borque]

It's normal behavior for AS MacBooks when charge-limited by AlDente "due to hardware restrictions".

I'm not running 26.4, but your experience suggests the same restrictions apply.

I used AlDente before 26.4 came out and offered that setting.
I uninstalled it, because I thought there is no need for specialized software if the OS can do the same thing, and furthermore I expected MacOS to have better possibilities to configure the hardware and thus overcome AlDentes problem and keep the 80% limit even when the machine is powered off.
Well, until this turns out to be a bug I was wrong…

 

[steve62388]

Wasn‘t there a real life experiment on MR with this setting on iPhone that concluded the trade off is not worth it at all? You lose 20% of your battery capacity but gain battery anxiety just to be almost exactly at the same point in the longterm like someone who conveniently used the complete battery capacity to its full extent. Battery degradation is completely natural even without charging so you can’t avoid it over the years by simply limiting yourself and your usage by 20%. Live your life to the fullest, use your devices to the fullest.

It was for iPhones.

It comes into play if you keep your devices a long time. People often keep their MacBooks longer than iPhones.

The test showed that your iPhone battery capacity would fall below 80% health, the level Apple recommends you replace your battery, half way through year three of ownership if you charged to full and discharged to empty. Compared to dipping below 80% health at the end of year four if you sailed your battery between 30% and 80%.

 

[dwsolberg]

This is great for people who leave their MacBooks plugged in for days or weeks at a time. However if you use the battery regularly, doing this has MUCH less benefit. I know people who have fried their battery by leaving it plugged in almost continuously, but I regularly charge to

I've had my 16" MBP M1 since October 2021 and I have used this setting since it was available - I have it set to 80%. My laptop is plugged in 100% of the time as it serves as my desktop. Battery health is still 100%.

View attachment 2621388

It actually might not know the battery health because it never uses the battery. One full discharge cycle might surprise you with a much lower capacity.

 

[GumaRodak]

This makes sense. Optimized charging is for when you set charging to 100% and it "learns" your charging habits and keeps the charge at 80% overnight, then right before you need it, it will charge to 100%.

So, yes, this is very confusing, but that's how Apple does this. Optimized is meant for 100% (it'll try to not charge your device to 100% until it thinks you need it (if you have consistent charging habits)).

One would think Optimized Charging would mean ... what it says, lol.

Well, on my mbp it was someho bugged. Had it on 100% very rarely unplugged from grid and still all the time charging to 100%

 

[BigMcGuire]

Well, on my mbp it was someho bugged. Had it on 100% very rarely unplugged from grid and still all the time charging to 100%

Mine did the same thing. It almost never worked. I believe you had to have perfect charging habits for it to learn and do it. So I just used AlDente.

 

[UltimaKilo]

these batteries ideally want to be kept at around 50%. While the difference in longevity between 80% and 50% is minimal, you should still have that option. Many people keep their laptops docked 90% of the time.

 

[CATiNTHESTORE]

I've never had a problem with batteries being charged to 100%, after a year my iPhones were always around 99% to 100% health. I paid for that battery capacity and I definitely using it. Charging caps are the first thing I disable.

It’s like you own TOYOTA SUPRA but drives it like TOYOTA PRIUS

 

[BP9906]

I tried this with my iPhone 15 pro max. I don’t think I gained a thing. I’m at 87% capacity and got my phone at launch. Why would I do this on my MacBook?

 

[Sami13496]

All this micromanaging of battery life and consumption isn’t normal. Just use your devices normally and replace the battery or the device when it’s time.

 

[chrisly]

I have never had any issues with charging to 100% my phones and macbooks for decades, not sure how much of a difference this would make.

Not denying this "Lithium-ion batteries generally degrade fastest when held at a high state of charge", but just that maybe the difference is not noticeable for most users? I'd like to see some stats/tests about how much more batteries degrade when fully charged vs 80% etc (any info/links are appreciated)

Apparently it makes a huge difference! The makers of the Android app AccuBattery did lots of investigation and explain all their research in detail here:

https://accubattery.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/210224725-Charging-research-and-methodology