Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Optimized Battery Charging in Clamshell Mode

S

Skyuser

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 26, 2022
20
38
Hi all. So I have an M1 MBA almost entirely running with an AC adapter plugged in. The optimized battery charging feature has been working great in Monterey. When it kicks in, the MacBook will actually drain itself to 80% battery (even with AC plugged in) and hold it there. However, over the past 3 weeks, I switched to a different setup: I found an old external display with a VGA port, bought a stand, and have been using the Air in clamshell mode via a dock since then. Seems like as soon as I switched to this setup, the optimized charging feature completely stopped working even if I have it on AC 24/7. Now my battery has been always at 100% which worries me. I tried Al Dente but have been unable to trust it completely since it taps in some very low levels of the operating system and the disclaimer on its website frightens me. Is the charge on-hold feature simply won't work in clamshell mode or is there may be other changes that may have affected it? Has anyone experienced the same in clamshell mode or with an external monitor connected? Any help or hint is appreciated.

Some details:
Dock from Belkin and external display from Samsung;
The power source is an Anker 65W power adapter (the original Apple power adapter went missing) and the Air is charged via the dock;
I always pursue the latest OS so as soon as a new version of macOS releases I install it instantly, but I don't use beta software. (Just installed 12.2);
Air was bought in December 2020 and currently logged 37 cycles with battery health showing 100%.

Thanks!
 
similar situation like yours. Optimized charging stopped working for some reason. I almost never unplugging macbook lately. Anyone knows how i can force the "charging on hold" ???
 
For me optimized charging never worked except a couple of times since I use MacBook Pro 2020 M1
 
Pskordilis said:
similar situation like yours. Optimized charging stopped working for some reason. I almost never unplugging macbook lately. Anyone knows how i can force the "charging on hold" ?
Click to expand...
If you are not using it in clamshell mode, the following procedure was proved helpful for me previously and maybe you could give it a shot:
  1. Make sure your MacBook has been connected to the AC adapter for a long time and the battery has stayed at 100% for a while;
  2. Make sure no dock or external display has been connected, Wi-Fi is on and the MacBook is not in clamshell mode;
  3. Disconnect the AC adapter, and let the battery drain to somewhere like 98% or 97%;
  4. Connect the AC adapter again;
  5. "Charging on Hold" may kick in at this time.
However, the trick above seems useless in clamshell mode, so...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pskordilis
Skyuser said:
If you are not using it in clamshell mode, the following procedure was proved helpful for me previously and maybe you could give it a shot:
  1. Make sure your MacBook has been connected to the AC adapter for a long time and the battery has stayed at 100% for a while;
  2. Make sure no dock or external display has been connected, Wi-Fi is on and the MacBook is not in clamshell mode;
  3. Disconnect the AC adapter, and let the battery drain to somewhere like 98% or 97%;
  4. Connect the AC adapter again;
  5. "Charging on Hold" may kick in at this time.
However, the trick above seems useless in clamshell mode, so...
Click to expand...
the funny thing is I’m not in clamshell mode. Maybe i install that aldente for second time even if i don’t want to
 
Pskordilis said:
the funny thing is I’m not in clamshell mode. Maybe i install that aldente for second time even if i don’t want to
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that...

I just found a relatively new project on Github which promises to be able to activate Apple's native "Charging on Hold" feature, which is precisely what we want.

Link is here: https://github.com/actuallymentor/battery

However, I met with difficulties trying to install it. Seems related to Terminal, Bash, etc. Does anyone know how to install this little tool? Many thanks!
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Pskordilis
Skyuser said:
Sorry to hear that...

I just found a relatively new project on Github which promises to be able to activate Apple's native "Charging on Hold" feature, which is precisely what we want.

Link is here: https://github.com/actuallymentor/battery

However, I met with difficulties trying to install it. Seems related to Terminal, Bash, etc. Does anyone know how to install this little tool? Many thanks!
Click to expand...
wow what the hell? i will search it, thank you very much indeed
 
  • Love
Reactions: Skyuser
bsmr said:
Same for me... Already broke my M1 2020 battery down to 88% max.
Click to expand...

it never worked in clamshell mode or even with the screen open. My battery after 1 year is already 93% healthy according to Apple and 87% according to CoconutBattery.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pskordilis
Does using Optimized Battery Charging still cause battery charging cycles slowly increasing even if you never unplug charger? I mean does it work so that it constantly use a little battery and then charge back to 80% or is it clever enough to "disconnect" the battery from charging and using completely?

It would be interesting to hear from someone who has used their MacBook constantly plugged in for several hours a day without using it on battery as laptop ever that how many charge cycles computer has after long time (like several months or one year).
 
0906742 said:
Does using Optimized Battery Charging still cause battery charging cycles slowly increasing even if you never unplug charger? I mean does it work so that it constantly use a little battery and then charge back to 80% or is it clever enough to "disconnect" the battery from charging and using completely?

It would be interesting to hear from someone who has used their MacBook constantly plugged in for several hours a day without using it on battery as laptop ever that how many charge cycles computer has after long time (like several months or one year).
Click to expand...
Li-ion batteries drain themselves even if they are completely disconnected from any external circuits, though that process is usually very slow. The behavior of optimized charging algorithm of Monterey, from my observation, is to charge the battery back to 80% immediately when it falls to 75% (or 74%). So yes, it is slowly increasing the cycle count of the battery. However, it usually takes quite a few days or even a few weeks for the battery to drain that 5% (from 80 to 75), and this is only a fraction of the whole battery’s capacity. So I would personally assume there is nothing to worry about.
 
Skyuser said:
Li-ion batteries drain themselves even if they are completely disconnected from any external circuits, though that process is usually very slow. The behavior of optimized charging algorithm of Monterey, from my observation, is to charge the battery back to 80% immediately when it falls to 75% (or 74%). So yes, it is slowly increasing the cycle count of the battery. However, it usually takes quite a few days or even a few weeks for the battery to drain that 5% (from 80 to 75), and this is only a fraction of the whole battery’s capacity. So I would personally assume there is nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...
So it actually bypass the battery in that case completely, so that it is not constantly floating current thru the battery adn simply repeating charge > discharge > charge cycle to keep it around 80%? In other words, it only charge battery back to 80% after it has selfdischarged few percent?
 
0906742 said:
So it actually bypass the battery in that case completely, so that it is not constantly floating current thru the battery adn simply repeating charge > discharge > charge cycle to keep it around 80%? In other words, it only charge battery back to 80% after it has selfdischarged few percent?
Click to expand...
Yes, I think the battery is completely bypassed most of the time. And recharge happens only when a certain amount of self-discharge have taken place.
 
Skyuser said:
Yes, I think the battery is completely bypassed most of the time. And recharge happens only when a certain amount of self-discharge have taken place.
Click to expand...
But how reliable it is in getting optimized battery charging state? There seems to be quiet opposite comments some saying it does not ever go below 100% even keeping it plugged in all the time, then some say it works just as it is supposed keeping battery at 80%, but there are also two different results from these where some say it also returns to 80% charge level very soon after returning it to charger after using it on battery occasionally but some say it again takes weeks of constant plugged in to return there...!?!?! This is so puzzling what gives for a such difference on these cases?

To get better understanding of this, I went to my local store to make my own non scientific research about this function.
There was total 6 different demo MacBook models varying from MBA M1 and M2 to MBP 13", 14" and 16". Only one machine out of these six were in the state where battery charge level was at 80%, all others were at 100%. All had optimized charging enabled. The one that had 80% was MBP 16", but the most odd to me was that the older demo units (MBA M1's) both that were sitting there on display from the release in 2020 were at 100%. Of course there are variables that people testing them might have pulled charging cord off to test them but still I would expect those return fast to 80% state since they are always plugged in. Not sure thou if there are some safety measurements where they maybe cut power feed during nights or such, but still then why this one machine was at 80%.
 
OK, I think finally something is happening with my MBP 14". I've had it for 3 weeks and it has been plugged in all the time but I have used it few times on battery and also unplugged it several times during this. Right now it has been constantly plugged in since last Sunday when I used it on battery a while and I just noticed that it is right now using battery even it is plugged in and has let it already deplete to point where is shows 99% (94% in Coconutbattery) and battery icon has power plug in it. Also in battery menu it stays charging is stopped (rarely used on battery) and has option to force it to charge fully. Before this it would start recharging before battery dropped under 100% in MacOS (or 95% in CoconutBattery).

So I guess it is now letting it deplete slowly down to 80% and keep it there?
I was just wondering if I can now use it occasionally on battery and it would get back to this 80% charge state quickly without needing to wait for many days to weeks? I suppose it should since it has been plugged in just 4 days from the last time...
 
0906742 said:
OK, I think finally something is happening with my MBP 14". I've had it for 3 weeks and it has been plugged in all the time but I have used it few times on battery and also unplugged it several times during this. Right now it has been constantly plugged in since last Sunday when I used it on battery a while and I just noticed that it is right now using battery even it is plugged in and has let it already deplete to point where is shows 99% (94% in Coconutbattery) and battery icon has power plug in it. Also in battery menu it stays charging is stopped (rarely used on battery) and has option to force it to charge fully. Before this it would start recharging before battery dropped under 100% in MacOS (or 95% in CoconutBattery).

So I guess it is now letting it deplete slowly down to 80% and keep it there?
I was just wondering if I can now use it occasionally on battery and it would get back to this 80% charge state quickly without needing to wait for many days to weeks? I suppose it should since it has been plugged in just 4 days from the last time...
Click to expand...
The problem is even if the battery stays at 80% for some hours, when you unplug it for even 40 minutes or something and plugged in again the battery goes 100%. Mac os optimize battery charging is a joke and does NOTHING better than Aldente. Trust me on this. I try to avoid Aldente in the past but i install it after i see the joke option "optimize battery charging" does nothing and screw my battery maximum capacity already to 90% for a new macbook 5 months old.
 
Pskordilis said:
The problem is even if the battery stays at 80% for some hours, when you unplug it for even 40 minutes or something and plugged in again the battery goes 100%. Mac os optimize battery charging is a joke and does NOTHING better than Aldente. Trust me on this. I try to avoid Aldente in the past but i install it after i see the joke option "optimize battery charging" does nothing and screw my battery maximum capacity already to 90% for a new macbook 5 months old.
Click to expand...
But shouldn't it return to 80% optimized state after charging it full 100% after you use it on battery occasionally? I mean it should not take days to return that state, or does it?

I try to avoid Aldente because I understood it require you to run battery calibration cycles periodically (meaning run it to 0%/empty and let charge fully)? Those deep discharge cycles are something I never want to do. I don't feel comfortable letting battery go much lower than 25%. I don't think Apple build in Optimized Charging require you to do such calibrations?
 
0906742 said:
But shouldn't it return to 80% optimized state after charging it full 100% after you use it on battery occasionally? I mean it should not take days to return that state, or does it?

I try to avoid Aldente because I understood it require you to run battery calibration cycles periodically (meaning run it to 0%/empty and let charge fully)? Those deep discharge cycles are something I never want to do. I don't feel comfortable letting battery go much lower than 25%. I don't think Apple build in Optimized Charging require you to do such calibrations?
Click to expand...
It takes days AGAIN to return to 80% which is something useless. Aldente pro has many options for trickle charge etc etc. Check it out.
 
I know but paid version is the only one that support sailing mode. I don't think free version is wise to use since it constantly charge and discharge to keep battery at 80% (drop 1% to 79% then charge back to 80%, not very wise IMHO for the long term). Sailing mode allows certain range where it keeps, like Apple build in OC function.

Anyway, my point, with Aldente you need to do this periodical calibration cycle, right?
 
0906742 said:
I know but paid version is the only one that support sailing mode. I don't think free version is wise to use since it constantly charge and discharge to keep battery at 80% (drop 1% to 79% then charge back to 80%, not very wise IMHO for the long term). Sailing mode allows certain range where it keeps, like Apple build in OC function.

Anyway, my point, with Aldente you need to do this periodical calibration cycle, right?
Click to expand...
as i told you, in my case Apple build in optimizing charging is a trash. Even if that function triggers the 80% option after some days goes to 100% and stays there almost forever.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back