Power Issues - Batter Life Drops While Plugged In

[jdag]

I have a very odd problem with my 2019 MacBook Pro. Over the past several weeks, I've noticed that at times the laptop battery percentage decreases even while plugged in.

What is incredibly odd about this: it only happens in the morning! I've watched for it at other times.

Every night I leave my laptop sitting by my chair, plugged in and open/running. In the morning, the laptop is at 100% (as it generally is before I go to bed). Then as I start using it, the battery percentage begins to decrease.

If I look at the menu under the battery meter it shows "Battery is Charged" and "Power Source: Power Adapter". If I hold option, the menu shows "Condition: Normal". Yet the percentage keeps dropping.

If I look at Activity Meter, it shows the battery life at full for the past 12 hours, then the graph begins to drop. This morning, it shows "Time on AC 14:04".

I've tried multiple different chargers and USB-C cables. I've reset SMC and NVRAM. I've unloaded some recently installed software thinking they could be the cause. I am about to clear out the drive and reinstall a fresh OS, but thought I'd post here 1st.

1 other piece of background info. This morning I could not sleep and woke up at 3am. I was up for ~2-1/2 hours and used the MacBook, and this did not happen. I went back to sleep, for a couple of hours, just woke up, and it is happening now (as I've typed this, the percentage has gone from 98-96%).

Hardware? Software? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

 

[supernet33]

Maybe this??

2020 MacBook Pro Battery Draining While Plugged In

Anybody else noticing this? I've been using my new 2020 MacBook Pro 10th gen i7/16/512 to work from home this week and last. The laptop stays plugged into the (factory) power adapter all day when I'm working. The past few days I noticed a couple occasions where I glanced at the power level and...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[jdag]

HOLY COW...thank you! I was about to go to the Apple Store (not even sure if open in my area) or send in the laptop. I am pretty sure that is the "problem". It is exactly what I am noticing.

I forgot to mention that if/when I plug back in it won't start charging until about that 92% mark, then it seems to kick back in.

Again, thanks for pointing this out! VERY helpful!

 

[sixtydashone]

2020 MacBook Pro Battery Draining While Plugged In

Anybody else noticing this? I've been using my new 2020 MacBook Pro 10th gen i7/16/512 to work from home this week and last. The laptop stays plugged into the (factory) power adapter all day when I'm working. The past few days I noticed a couple occasions where I glanced at the power level and...

forums.macrumors.com

Yes, sounds like the battery health management feature.

 

[chrfr]

HOLY COW...thank you! I was about to go to the Apple Store (not even sure if open in my area) or send in the laptop. I am pretty sure that is the "problem". It is exactly what I am noticing.

I forgot to mention that if/when I plug back in it won't start charging until about that 92% mark, then it seems to kick back in.

Again, thanks for pointing this out! VERY helpful!

That is exactly how the new battery management feature works. You’d think Apple would want to note that in their documentation so that people wouldn’t be worried, but Apple won’t do it.

 

[jdag]

That is exactly how the new battery management feature works. You’d think Apple would want to note that in their documentation so that people wouldn’t be worried, but Apple won’t do it.

Part of my concern is that I've had a couple of other recent issues with this machine. I facilitate workshops and do a ton of Zoom and Google Meet sessions now, sometimes for 8 hours.

The other day I had Google Meet audio flake out on me (my webcam and USB mic were plugged into that same USB-C port I normally use for by charger). So added to the power concern I had, I was thinking the USB-C port might be faulty.