Okay so, not everybody cares about their battery longevity, regularly uses their MacBook as a desktop, and/or tends to keep their computer for 4+ years, but for the niche group of people who do I just thought I'd make a thread about this since I've been looking for this functionality forever.
I google "how to disable macbook charging" like once a year or so to see if there's finally a way to do it, and this year I finally found something. It's called AlDente (and AlDente Pro) and is available from AppHouseKitchen. Nothing about them seems sketchy and the app actually works. I am just using the free version right now, but I'm going to buy Pro when I reinstall macOS later this week. (Not associated with them in any way.)
[Explanation for those confused by this thread]
Basically, there are a few specific things that are very bad for the lifespan of lithium ion batteries (which are used in like... everything). The damage is cumulative and some of the worst things are include high temperature, regularly charging to 100% (or close to it), and "large charges" (like going from 0 to 100). Lithium ion batteries also have a limited number of charge cycles -- but much more if well taken care of. More info is available here and here's some interesting data comparing my family's and my phones after a year.
I basically use my MacBook Pro as a desktop and before now I had 2 options: either A. just leave it plugged in all the time and, as a result, have it regularly charging to and sitting at 100% or B. unplug it whenever it gets above like 80%, mitigating the high state-of-charge damage but needlessly burning through charge cycles (as being tethered to my charger isn't an issue for desktop-like usage). Option B is better so I went with that and set a 75% notification, but manually unplugging it got annoying so I mostly just gave up and didn't worry about it, knowing that I would likely end up having to give Apple my laptop for a week for a $200 battery replacement before I moved on to a new machine (like last time). This app allows me to finally take good care of the battery without having to do anything.
I google "how to disable macbook charging" like once a year or so to see if there's finally a way to do it, and this year I finally found something. It's called AlDente (and AlDente Pro) and is available from AppHouseKitchen. Nothing about them seems sketchy and the app actually works. I am just using the free version right now, but I'm going to buy Pro when I reinstall macOS later this week. (Not associated with them in any way.)
[Explanation for those confused by this thread]
Basically, there are a few specific things that are very bad for the lifespan of lithium ion batteries (which are used in like... everything). The damage is cumulative and some of the worst things are include high temperature, regularly charging to 100% (or close to it), and "large charges" (like going from 0 to 100). Lithium ion batteries also have a limited number of charge cycles -- but much more if well taken care of. More info is available here and here's some interesting data comparing my family's and my phones after a year.
I basically use my MacBook Pro as a desktop and before now I had 2 options: either A. just leave it plugged in all the time and, as a result, have it regularly charging to and sitting at 100% or B. unplug it whenever it gets above like 80%, mitigating the high state-of-charge damage but needlessly burning through charge cycles (as being tethered to my charger isn't an issue for desktop-like usage). Option B is better so I went with that and set a 75% notification, but manually unplugging it got annoying so I mostly just gave up and didn't worry about it, knowing that I would likely end up having to give Apple my laptop for a week for a $200 battery replacement before I moved on to a new machine (like last time). This app allows me to finally take good care of the battery without having to do anything.
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