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kecinzer

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 19, 2015
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Czech republic
I'm on MB Air M1 and on Big Sur optimized battery charging worked great. When I was on AC for long time, battery was at 80%.
Now on Monterey battery is still at 100% even if I'm few days on AC.
I spoke with friend that have same problem.

Anyone else mentioned this?
 
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See this Apple document about optimized charging. It says, "When the feature is enabled, your Mac will delay charging past 80% in certain situations. Your Mac learns your charging routine and aims to ensure that your Mac is fully charged when unplugged."

 
Maybe it didn't work better. Maybe it just matched your expectation better. Also, since it's based on machine learning, it's likely to change behavior over time.
 
I use AlDente, that is way better in not fully charging my battery when not needed than Apple unfortunately.
I tried AlDente, but I don't like way how it works. Apple solution is more native. I was completely satisfied on Big Sur. I hope it will star work on Monterey as well.
 
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It is good that apple finally included an important feature like this,
in mac os.

I would like to hear opinions and experiences for macbook users with this feature enabled.
 
My experience with the native optimized version is that it would just keep my laptop pegged at 100%, even with this most recent stint where I had it docked all the time for a month. I got tired of having to remember to disconnect the charger occasionally so I downloaded al dente to try that out.
 
My experience with the native optimized version is that it would just keep my laptop pegged at 100%, even with this most recent stint where I had it docked all the time for a month. I got tired of having to remember to disconnect the charger occasionally so I downloaded al dente to try that out.
The Apple Optimised Charging never worked for me either on my M1 MBA. People say it takes a while to recognise that the machine is nearly always plugged in and hold it to 80%. I used mine between Nov2020 and Feb2021 without the 80% hold working. Been using AlDente since Feb and very happy. Much more control.

Note when I was trying the Apple Optimised Charging the machine was on 11.0.1 and 11.1, so maybe there have been improvements since then, but think I would stick with AlDente anyway now.
 
The Apple Optimised Charging never worked for me either on my M1 MBA. People say it takes a while to recognise that the machine is nearly always plugged in and hold it to 80%. I used mine between Nov2020 and Feb2021 without the 80% hold working. Been using AlDente since Feb and very happy. Much more control.

Note when I was trying the Apple Optimised Charging the machine was on 11.0.1 and 11.1, so maybe there have been improvements since then, but think I would stick with AlDente anyway now.
As far as I understand, Battery Optimized Charging and Battery Health Management work in conjuction.

For example:
I have both options enabled, and when I plug in, battery stands at 80% for a 6-8 hours and then fully charges.
But when it is fully charged (100% indicator in menubar), battery max capacity shows only 85% of the original capacity.
If I disable Battery Health Management option, then my battery max capacity reaches 98% after a few cycles.
If I'm plugged for a week or more, then battery drains to 80% and stays there (plus max capacity is still limited).
 
I have both options enabled............If I disable Battery Health Management option...
Where are you seeing a control for "enabling/disabling Battery Health Management" ?

I only see a control to enable/disable "Optimised Battery Charging", which of course is done to maximise battery health.

I don't see two separate controls.
 
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My 2020 MBP would definitely just sit at 100% with Monterey; so I ended up installing AlDente and now just keep the battery at 70%. It's kind of lame that this feature does not seem to be working right in Monterey. It is also kind of lame that MacOS does not let you set a hard limit natively; like I can do on my Surface devices (or Lenovo laptop).

But AlDente works properly so... ?‍♂️
 
Where are you seeing a control for "enabling/disabling Battery Health Management" ?

I only see a control to enable/disable "Optimised Battery Charging", which of course is done to maximise battery health.

I don't see two separate controls.
 
Thanks, mystery solved. That article is only for Intel Macs, and that option doesn't appear for Silicon macs.

So do Intel Macs also have the "Optimised battery Charging" slider as well, explaining Navvier's comment about having both options enabled?
 
I did clean install of macOS 12.1 on 15. December and now after 15 days almost on AC, optimized battery charging start to working and battery goes to 80%. Great!
 
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I did clean install of macOS 12.1 on 15. December and now after 15 days almost on AC, optimized battery charging start to working and battery goes to 80%. Great!

That is good to know. I usually prefer Apple's native tools but this is one where I will probably stick with AlDente.
 
ADVICE NEEDED - SUGGESTIONS

Just a few days ago, I got my new mbp 16' 2021 with monterey.
I will keep this mbp for many years.
So I want to preserve battery life.

I will use the mbp, almost all of the time, at home, so the usual situation it is that it is plugged in.
But...this is not good as far as I know.

I want to use this new feature to me, optimized battery charging, to help doing things better, for the future.
I have this feature enabled.

So, what is your suggestion for me, depending of what I described above?
A reminder to manually unplug mbp every now and then?
Something else?

My previous eight years old mbp 15' late 2013, always plugged, ended (possibly) with inflated batteries and the mbp slightly deformated.
I do not want to have such incident again. I want to preserve my 'investment' in this new mbp.
 
As I have a 2017 Intel MBA, Apple's Optimized Charging is not even an option when running Monterey 12.1.


Screen Shot 2022-01-26 at 8.46.46 AM.jpg

It seems it wasn't introduced until 2018 with the change from MagSafe charging and / or the intro of the T2 chip?

In lieu of that, I too have gone to Al Dente on this 'old' MacBook - and it seems the GitHub site for it is much clearer as to its availability and use on such vintage devices...
 
I'm on MB Air M1 and on Big Sur optimized battery charging worked great. When I was on AC for long time, battery was at 80%.
Now on Monterey battery is still at 100% even if I'm few days on AC.
I spoke with friend that have same problem.

Anyone else mentioned this?
Had same problem. Tried Al Dente, not sure if good idea, but it didn't auto discharge even after a day, stayed at 100% with all the options turned on (note: they say it's not supposed to, you have to turn on the discharge feature). When I installed AD, I turned off native optimization for about a day.

I turned off AD, and re-enabled Mac's optimize, and now it works - at 80% now! Not sure if it's the day off that did it, or just the "machine learning" kicking in. Or jealous of AD.
 
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