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MBA M1 - Battery life

C

Chunky_Monkey

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 21, 2021
8
2
Hi guys,

just read multiple threads on here regarding battery life and am pretty disappointed with mine, as I only get about 8-10 hours of battery life.

- Clean install (MS Office, Chrome)
- Also tested with Safari only - no add ons.
- Light web browsing, YouTube and emails

In the system information it says 7 cycles ( although I had it only plugged in 3 times) and good conditions.

At first I thought it was the Photos app or the indexing, but it is all finished syncing now. Even writing this it drops 2% (edit: 3%)

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot!
 
What version of Office? You need to be on December 2020 release (build 16.44) or higher.

This was mine using Mac silicon versions of Office and Edge browser for Mac Silicon last time I checked.

925f0312-affe-4f68-96f9-3dbbc071338f.jpg
 
Last edited:
Chunky_Monkey said:
Hi guys,

just read multiple threads on here regarding battery life and am pretty disappointed with mine, as I only get about 8-10 hours of battery life.

- Clean install (MS Office, Chrome)
- Also tested with Safari only - no add ons.
- Light web browsing, YouTube and emails

In the system information it says 7 cycles ( although I had it only plugged in 3 times) and good conditions.

At first I thought it was the Photos app or the indexing, but it is all finished syncing now. Even writing this it drops 2% (edit: 3%)

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
Many things can affect battery life but a big one on the new M1 notebooks is screen brightness. If your screen is set to above about 65% you’ll see a relatively rapid battery drain. The lower the better. Apple uses 8 clicks from the bottom in their testing.
 
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Did you use Chrome for browsing? If so, I would try a different browser to see if it makes a difference.
 
kitenski said:
What version of Office? You need to be on December 2020 release (build 16.44)

This was mine using Mac silicon versions of Office and Edge browser for Mac Silicon last time I checked.
Click to expand...
The current version of MS Office is 16.45
 
kitenski said:
What version of Office? You need to be on December 2020 release (build 16.44)

This was mine using Mac silicon versions of Office and Edge browser for Mac Silicon last time I checked.

View attachment 1716947
Click to expand...
It is on version 16.45. So should be alright?
jdb8167 said:
Many things can affect battery life but a big one on the new M1 notebooks is screen brightness. If your screen is set to above about 65% you’ll see a relatively rapid battery drain. The lower the better. Apple uses 8 clicks from the bottom in their testing.
Click to expand...
Thats exactly what I did, 8 clicks from bottom. Never more, sometimes less.
MacBird said:
Did you use Chrome for browsing? If so, I would try a different browser to see if it makes a difference.
Click to expand...
Not with the current try. Chrome is installed, but closed.
 
Basically only things using up CPU are: WindowServer, Activity Monitor, kernel_task, Safari, Outlook

The battery icon alerts me only about Safari.
 
Chunky_Monkey said:
Basically only things using up CPU are: WindowServer, Activity Monitor, kernel_task, Safari, Outlook

The battery icon alerts me only about Safari.
Click to expand...
Since you aren’t using any Safari plugins it might be that the websites you are using are battery hogs. I’ve seen a few of those including my bank’s.

I’m not sure if there is anything to be done about that though. I tend to avoid my bank’s website and use an app on my iPhone. I know that doesn’t help much.

Edit: Chrome’s helper programs have been reported here and elsewhere as battery hogs that don’t show up separately in Activity Monitor.

Edit2: This thread.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/chrome-keystone-slow-mac.2275089/post-29386746
 
Happy to install a Plugin if that helps. Do you mean Adblockers?

Only using Safari as I read that Chrome might be an issue.
On my old MacBook I was using Chrome + uBlock Origin, which was pretty good as far as I can tell.
 
The programs listed in the Energy tab in Activity Monitor should also tell you which programs use the most energy. As mentioned before, if you have many browser tabs open, there is a chance that some websites use a lot of energy.
 
It isn’t just the Chrome app but its helper applications that run in the background even if Chrome isn’t actively in use.

I use 1Blocker in Safari without any battery issues.
 
Chunky_Monkey said:
Happy to install a Plugin if that helps. Do you mean Adblockers?

Only using Safari as I read that Chrome might be an issue.
On my old MacBook I was using Chrome + uBlock Origin, which was pretty good as far as I can tell.
Click to expand...
I use Wipr for Safari, uBlock Origin for Firefox and Chrome, works well for me.
 
Also you can check under Activity Monitor what architecture programs that are running are using, worth checking the Intel ones to see if anything jumps out at you.
 
MacBird said:
I use Wipr for Safari, uBlock Origin for Firefox and Chrome, works well for me.
Click to expand...
Cheers, I just installed Wipr and unistalled Chrome as stated in the above link. Lets see what happens.
kitenski said:
Also you can check under Activity Monitor what architecture programs that are running are using, worth checking the Intel ones to see if anything jumps out at you.
Click to expand...
Did not know what you mean at first, but found the setting. Thanks.
 
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Chrome is likely your issue. Uninstalling it completely is complex-- follow the instructions here:

Note: as pointed out in the link above, chrome can be killing your battery life even if it's not reporting as such in activity monitor.
 
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Obioban said:
Chrome is likely your issue. Uninstalling it completely is complex-- follow the instructions here:

Note: as pointed out in the link above, chrome can be killing your battery life even if it's not reporting as such in activity monitor.
Click to expand...
I did exactly that.
However, it seems the issue persists.

Now with 81% charge left, watching Youtube Videos on 6 clicks brightness the activity monitor says 8 hours remaining and battery is ticking down every 2 or 3 minutes...
 
Chunky_Monkey said:
I did exactly that.
However, it seems the issue persists.

Now with 81% charge left, watching Youtube Videos on 6 clicks brightness the activity monitor says 8 hours remaining and battery is ticking down every 2 or 3 minutes...
Click to expand...

Can you share a screenshot of your activity monitor?

Do you have OneDrive or another cloud service running in the background?

Is your MBA automatically downloading episodes from the Podcasts?
 
Since this topic related to battery health should we game with plugged or unplugged ?
 
There was an app for intel based MacBooks that I used to use. , I kept mine plugged in and set it so that it wouldn’t charge past 70% , the figure was user variable.
 
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