Resolved New MBA 2020 - had to reset SMC already

[slooksterPSV]

Hi all,

I've had my new MBA for about a week now (i3, 8GB, 256GB, etc.). And this morning I noticed (guess it was yesterday morning its past midnight here) that my battery was discharging yet my Mac was plugged in. I removed my USB-C Hub (has 3 USB-A ports and an Ethernet port) and tried a different port. Nothing. The battery was still discharging and it said plugged in.

I restarted the computer, no change.

I shutdown, held down the power button for 10 seconds, waited about 5 seconds then powered it back on. Everything is back to normal.

I find it odd I've already had to reset the SMC. Is this normal on a new machine like this? I wonder if it could be Trend Micro causing some glitchy behavior. I actually don't know what AV solution would be best to use on Mac. Typically, I wouldn't have installed it, but I do have a lot of Windows files I transfer back and forth from different cloud services (word documents mainly).

Anyways, let me know if I need to watch for anything else.

Thanks!

EDIT: SEE POST #8 FOR SETTINGS SCREENSHOT. POST 6 IDENTIFIED IT.

 

[lambertjohn]

It's supposed to slightly discharge while plugged in. That's the battery health management feature built into Catalina 15.5. I think you can turn it off, however. Go to: System Preferences | Energy Saver | Battery | Battery Health.

 

[Jack Neill]

Ive had some weird quirks now and then with my 9,1 i5/8/512. Not a big deal but had to force restart after a few freezes. .5 seemed to fix a lot of it.

 

[slooksterPSV]

It's supposed to slightly discharge while plugged in. That's the battery health management feature built into Catalina 15.5. I think you can turn it off, however. Go to: System Preferences | Energy Saver | Battery | Battery Health.

That makes sense. Thank you.

 

[slooksterPSV]

Ive had some weird quirks now and then with my 9,1 i5/8/512. Not a big deal but had to force restart after a few freezes. .5 seemed to fix a lot of it.

I had mine freeze when waking up but it was working on an iMovie I quickly threw together of photos of my nephew. I couldn’t close iMovie. Probably was the tweens and well... it only chose slide up and slide down on the photos :-/. Was hoping it would do more fades and that. Beside the point. 210 pictures and movies growing up too quick and yeah froze for like 30 seconds from wake.

 

[sammjordan]

Hi all,

I've had my new MBA for about a week now (i3, 8GB, 256GB, etc.). And this morning I noticed (guess it was yesterday morning its past midnight here) that my battery was discharging yet my Mac was plugged in. I removed my USB-C Hub (has 3 USB-A ports and an Ethernet port) and tried a different port. Nothing. The battery was still discharging and it said plugged in.

I restarted the computer, no change.

I shutdown, held down the power button for 10 seconds, waited about 5 seconds then powered it back on. Everything is back to normal.

I find it odd I've already had to reset the SMC. Is this normal on a new machine like this? I wonder if it could be Trend Micro causing some glitchy behavior. I actually don't know what AV solution would be best to use on Mac. Typically, I wouldn't have installed it, but I do have a lot of Windows files I transfer back and forth from different cloud services (word documents mainly).

Anyways, let me know if I need to watch for anything else.

Thanks!

I wonder if that was the battery health feature Apple introduced in the last macOS update? I've noticed a similar issue with mine, and if I go into settings and turn it off it starts charging again

 

[scooterspud]

I think there is a bug in Catalina related to 3rd party hardware items used while charging. I bought a MagSafe-type add-on, and after using it for a while, I noticed a weird thing happening - when the power cord was unplugged, it would not draw power if plugged back in again to the same outlet. If I plug into another outlet, it works fine!

I've tried resetting the SMC, zapping NPRAM, it's still the same. And the strangest thing is, the problem persists even AFTER I stopped using the MagSafe-type adapter!

I'm hoping/assuming this is another bug in Catalina - .5 made things better, but there are still many bugs to squash, at least when it comes to the MBA. In fact, Catalina is the buggiest Mac OS I can remember. Can't wait to give Big Sur a shot.

 

[slooksterPSV]

Just in case anyone is wondering what is being referenced, its this:

That is the resolution. So yes it does discharge to ensure that the battery doesn't sit and become stale.