Sonoma broke optimized charging

[Böhme417]

Ever since updating to Sonoma (release date), my MBP always charges to 100% now. Previously, it would hold at 80% when on the charger and only charge to full when I would tell it. Anybody know what's up with that?

 

[AeroSatan]

Ever since updating to Sonoma (release date), my MBP always charges to 100% now. Previously, it would hold at 80% when on the charger and only charge to full when I would tell it. Anybody know what's up with that?

Like Jesus, that feature has always worked in mysterious ways for me.

 

[trusso]

Don’t know, but I’ve noticed the same issue. Hoping we get a bug fix in 14.1.

 

[ThatSomeone]

It worked for me the day after updating, it trickled down to <=80% as usual. Yesterday when I plugged in again it wanted to start going down again, but I cancelled it as I usually do over some weeks and let it stay at 100%.

But tonight it hasn't done that at all, never seen that happen before... It's convenient now but a bit alarming.

 

[jdb8167]

Ever since updating to Sonoma (release date), my MBP always charges to 100% now. Previously, it would hold at 80% when on the charger and only charge to full when I would tell it. Anybody know what's up with that?

I think I saw that when upgrading from Big Sur to Monterey. Eventually it kicked in again. I think it forgets the data it was trained on.

 

[ThatSomeone]

It worked for me the day after updating, it trickled down to <=80% as usual. Yesterday when I plugged in again it wanted to start going down again, but I cancelled it as I usually do over some weeks and let it stay at 100%.

But tonight it hasn't done that at all, never seen that happen before... It's convenient now but a bit alarming.

I got home today and I noticed that the optimized charging mode had kicked in while my Mac was asleep? Usually it only tries to kick in after being on and logged in.

I've no clue if they changed how it works or just completely broke it, but I don't like that it kicks in randomly when asleep now.

 

[trusso]

I think I saw that when upgrading from Big Sur to Monterey. Eventually it kicked in again. I think it forgets the data it was trained on.

I just noticed it kicked in today, too. Took a few weeks, apparently. Weird that it had to "re-learn" my usage habits.

 

[scouser75]

I've never managed to get optimised charging to work. My battery dies to 100% all the time

 

[scouser75]

I've just seen the error in my post above. What I meant to say was, I have optimised charging turned on, but my battery still charges all the way to 100%. How can I ensure it only charges to 80%?

 

[neuralengine]

I just upgraded to Sonoma from Ventura two weeks ago. The current version is 14.5.

Before, on Ventura and prior versions, the battery would go down to 80% after a few weeks of being attached to the display, and stay there, until I unplugged it or there was a software update. It would stay there for months at a time.

Now, in Sonoma, the battery will show the “charging on hold” icon and status, and discharge to 80%, but then, a few hours later, it will charge to 100%. This happens several times a day.

Is this how the feature works now or is this a bug?

 

[ThatSomeone]

I just upgraded to Sonoma from Ventura two weeks ago. The current version is 14.5.

Before, on Ventura and prior versions, the battery would go down to 80% after a few weeks of being attached to the display, and stay there, until I unplugged it or there was a software update. It would stay there for months at a time.

Now, in Sonoma, the battery will show the “charging on hold” icon and status, and discharge to 80%, but then, a few hours later, it will charge to 100%. This happens several times a day.

Is this how the feature works now or is this a bug?

Does your screen dim as if you unplugged it before it happens? Happens to mine, I’m thinking the charging brick is the culprit for that. You can check the battery history and see if it jumps on/off charging before going full.

Otherwise it’s probably working as intended, it will charge to 100% right before it thinks you’ll unplug.

 

[scouser75]

Not sure if this is related or helps - I couldn't getmy MBP to charge only up to 80% even when on optimised charging. I then unchecked all the settings and reset then and that worked fine.

Now when the battery is below 80% and I plug it in, it only charges to 80% and the charging light goes from green to red. I can only assume there's no lore power getting to the laptop 🤞

 

[neuralengine]

Does your screen dim as if you unplugged it before it happens? Happens to mine, I’m thinking the charging brick is the culprit for that. You can check the battery history and see if it jumps on/off charging before going full.

Otherwise it’s probably working as intended, it will charge to 100% right before it thinks you’ll unplug.

Screen doesn’t dim. It’s connected to a Studio Display, no disconnections in the battery history.

It actually did end up going down to 80% eventually, a couple of days after I posted this, and staying there, like on previous OS versions.

So it could be that the more rapid-paced discharge/hold/charge that I described is a new phase of battery management introduced in Sonoma that kicks in before it decides to limit the charging to 80% more permanently. Or it could just be buggy behaviour.

I really wish they would just give us a toggle in settings to limit charging to 80%, like they did on the new iPads. No matter how smart the smart battery management gets, there’s no way to make it understand the “I’m at home but will occasionally disconnect the laptop from the display for a few hours” scenario. When I do that, I would rather it keep the 80% limit on. But once you disconnect, for whatever reason, it will start charging to 100% unless you leave it plugged in for several weeks again (in my case, anyway).

Yes, I’ve tried AlDente but there are too many limitations. We need this toggle in the OS.

Update a day later: it started doing the discharge/hold/charge thing again, without my changing anything.