Should I be leaving my Macbook plugged in at 100% to ensure battery health? : r/macbookpro
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The thing about trying to save your battery is there arenât a lot of good sources for information. If you follow the tech sites youâll see a âsave your batteryâ article every month, but almost none of them care to explain the chemical principles behind it. And as you have noticed, people say conflicting things.
Hereâs an article written by a PhD researcher: https://airqualitynews.com/fuels/why-do-lithium-ion-batteries-degrade-over-time/
And another:
My takeaways:
- In my experience, having the laptop run overheat is the surest way of killing the battery. This is very noticeable on high-performance laptop.
- If you leave your laptop plugged in all the time, trickle charging will happen no matter what setting you turn on. Microsoft Surface limits the battery at 50%, Apple limits it at 80%, but in the end theyâll always trickle-charge.
What does this mean? Even if you do not turn on your laptop, battery will still get discharged. For example, if you turn off your laptop at 50% and turn it on, say, 1 month later, it will be at 40% or less. So if you leave the laptop plugged in and it stays at 50% or 80% all the time, it means discharge and charging are happening all the time. I donât think thatâs good.
- Finally, the 2nd article I link above explains how a big discharge can harm the battery. So I do think 20% - 80% rule is good to follow. I did follow that with my MacBook Air, which was my 2nd most valuable possession (after the car), and by the time I sold it I was also at 12x cycles and ~97% health. Do note that the max capacity *may* be calculated wrongly, Iâve seen it fluctuates at time from 95% to 97%.
However, in the end, batteries all deteriorate, and thereâs just no way around it. You use your laptop when you have to, and there are times when you just have to use it in ways thatâre harmful to the batteries. The good thing is replacing a MacBookâs battery isnât difficult at all, so donât worry too much about it.
Plug it in or donât plug it in, whateverâs appropriate for you at the time. A laptop is a tool - just use it, and service the battery when it tells you to in a few yearsâ time.
Expend no further mental effort on maintaining an aspect of your laptop that already maintains itself.
this. maybe the gain is say 5% more battery health over a year or two, which IMO is not worth the hassle to always keep in mind how to keep your battery health. just use your laptop, if you want to still use it in a couple of years changing the battery is inevitable.
I use Aldente app (free) to keep my max charge at 80% and when it reaches that point my mac will just get itâs power from cable. I believe the new OS have this feature built in but I have not tried it yet. So yeah, not fully draining it and not fully maxing it. Once in a while itâs okay but not so often.
this is what i did with my macbook! the mac os will kick in, will stop charging the battery and start drawing power straight from plug with some assistance from aldente
So are you using OS feature or 3rd party app? If OS,, could you share the steps?
just turn onâoptimize battery chargingâ on the battery setting. then keep it charged, donât use it unplugged and it will eventually stop charging the battery and start drawing power from the adapter instead.
When you click the battery icon, it should say âPower source: Power adapter. Battery is not chargingâ
Aldente is just there to initially stop the battery from fully charging but once the mac os detects that youâre always plugged in, it will stop charging the battery on its own.
Always plugged in you mean 24/7 or always when you are using the computer?
always plugged. i rarely take it off my table anyways or even shut it down
Can I do this without needing the 3rd party app?
I assist it with aldente. Itâs like i have to manually teach it to stop charging at 80% before it automatically really stops charging at 80%
Iâm pretty sure with what youâre doing thereâs no difference between having the optimized battery charging on or off. Al dente is like a stronger version of the optimized battery charging. It will make sure you never go over 80%, whereas optimized battery charging will charge all the way to 100%, but only right before it thinks you will take it off the charger.
Nah. If you do it right, it should indicate in the battery UI âBattery is not chargingâ like this
Aldente will help force that state if you canât achieve it naturally.
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I own a MacBook Pro 14 2021 since August 2022, keep it mostly on the charger with optimized battery charging enabled. At 67 cycles, the battery health is at 97%.
I also own an iPhone 11 and I replaced the battery at a certified Apple reseller recommended by Apple support on December 2022 and at 270 cycles with optimized battery charging enabled the battery health is at 92%. The battery health dropped the most during the summer, when it was hard to keep the phone cool.
I believe that the major factors here are the number of cycles and the battery temperature.
The major factor, by a landslide, is the batteryâs temperature, then usage. Cycles or no cycles means very little from my experience.
If two people have the same usage, it will matter peanuts if someone left it plugged or was running on battery. Thereâs been reports of people on this subreddit with ~50 cycles on 91%, of course keeping it plugged in. Anecdotally, I myself have 150 cycles on 94%, always using the battery.
Perpetual charging has as much risks as using the battery. If the outlet is damaged, the adapter or cable is not the best, it might all produce exceeding heat that will damage the battery much more if itâs plugged in all day long.
If someone plays video games or uses other graphical intensive software every day, making their machine spit fire out of its sides, I will assure you their battery will go down faster than someone whoâs using their macbook as a typewriter replacement.
The one sure-fire way of changing behaviour to preserve battery health is to reduce usage of the laptop itself. And if thatâs something someone is willing to do to have 30-40 more minutes of battery life 2 years down the road, I donât think their eggs are in the right basket.
One final note, I find it extremely idiotic of some other people on this thread and others comparing their numbers after using Aldente or other power management solutions. This type of software is known to decalibrate mac batteries if not used properly, and yet weâre supposed to believe their battery health percentage is accurate?
Well, no the decalibration causes their battery health to appear worse than it is. Since the decalibration occurs from keeping the computer locked at a lower percentage, and since charging is always blocked at that point, the machine recalibrates the current capacity to be the artificially lowered value. Because the battery management system knows what the batteryâs capacity is *supposed* to be, and compares the current max charge to the spec value in memory and calculates the percentage from that
My 2020 m1 air has 88 cycles and is at 99 percent. I feel like u said heat is the worst I charge usually just overnight then itâs with me next day or two and usually plug in back to full charge when around 30 percent đ€·âïž it also depends on type of work etc like video editing etc going to degrade faster due to heat I say just enjoy and replace when needed đ
I own the same one and have 323 cycles and mostly keep it on the charger. Battery is at 88% max cap.
I donât think it necessarily matters outside of if it is âoverheatingâ. I also have worked with Samsung golf cart lithium batteries and they say the same. Keep on charger if you wish, the onboard computer will prevent any damages to the battery. These days it does not matter how you charge it unless you are throttling your laptop and it is over heating./
Iâve babied batteries on devices, and Iâve done everything they say not to do. My overall feel is that there isnât a right or wrong way to go about battery health. If you want to be precautionary, in settings you can have it only charge to 80%. Otherwise keeping it at full battery constantly isnât going to really cause issue
In settings through aldente or mbp itself?
That makes sense, I do sort of feel like I am making a mountain out of a mole hill when I do crazy stuff like not plugging it in overnight Etc. Thanks for the advice, I am very new to owning a laptop and its good to hear that some of this probably doesnât make as much difference as I think. I will probably turn that setting on if I can find it.
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Honestly, unless you absolutely need to, donât bother doing anything in order to prolong battery life.
They have that optimized charging thing (make sure itâs turned on just in case). It takes too long for it to get that, but usually after a week or two itâll lower your battery charge to 80% and itâs gonna let it drift in that area. If you only unplug it occasionally, usually, itâs not going to charge to 100% after that, although, sometimes it may.
Now if you really want to tinker with that. Two main things that kill your battery are cycles and age. I mean, under normal use, not getting it overheated or anything. It is recommended to keep the charge level under 80% and above 20%, but only if youâre gonna keep it like that. If youâre letting it discharge, then youâre getting cycles. So you should install an app thatâll force it to not charge above 80%. The one I hear the most of is called Al Dente.
And donât bother constantly looking at battery health. Itâs a calculated thing and it can be wrong. Like, if you donât deep cycle your laptop, or donât cycle it at all, itâs not going to know whatâs itâs battery health atm.
When you leave it plugged as you use it, it doesnt use the battery, it powers itself directly from the plug. Look into this
Look into it how?
Google spits out nothing.
Wow what an old reply lol. Here
Heat is the biggest enemy to battery health. Iâve noticed that the batteries on my devices deteriorate much slower than those of other people. My iPhone 13 has been at 92% health for months now, and I owned the device for almost 2 years. I donât do anything special to preserve battery health, I just charge my phone overnight in a cool room on top of a cold table. However, Iâm lucky enough to live in a relatively cold climate with pretty short summers, so my phone rarely gets hot. Many other people with iPhones have less luck with battery health, and I can almost guarantee that thatâs due to their phones being exposed to much more heat. The same is true for Macâs, since they use the same type of battery.
Also, i donât think charging to 100% is bad for battery health. Iâve tried keeping my iPhone 13 between 20-80% for a year until I gave up and started charging it to 100. Battery didnât degrade any faster than it did before. However, I do believe that keeping your device at 100% for long periods of time is bad. So if you charge your device to 100%, donât keep it at 100 for too long, since ideally the battery likes to sit around 50%. (If you want to know why, just watch some videos that explain how lithium ion batteries work)
There are three things you can do as the consumer to increase the longevity of your MacBook battery (although it doesnât really matter much for these machines because you can now replace the batteries in even the 16â M1 Pro MBP for $110, and also the fact that these batteries last between like 8-22 hours per day depending on how you use them, so losing 20% battery capacity is basically nothing compared to the total of ANY of these new MacBooks.)
Those three things are: 1. Minimize discharging the battery and cycling. When you discharge the battery, try to keep the Depth of Discharge as low as possible. Donât go from 80% to 20%. Go from 80% to 60%. Or better yet, keep it at 65% all the time, which is â 2. Keep the battery at a low percent for as much of its life as possible, but not too low. You donât want the battery to be in any extreme State of Charge (SOC) for any lengthy period of time. (Unclear exactly where the best voltage range for these guys is, but the consensus I have seen in academic research is that, for these types of batteries in this use case, then keeping it capped at like 3.89-3.92v (so like 55%-65%), and 3. Donât do anything that would push the battery to any extreme temperature or depth of discharge. Donât charge the laptop while youâre maxing out the CPU on your lap or on a blanket. Donât run the computer at full speed nonstop for several hours on battery (i.e. donât fkin game on your MacBookâs battery if you are at home next to an outlet lol). So yeah donât make the battery work really hard for a really long time in really hot temerpatures. The three Râs: really hard, really long, really hot. lol
Get something like coconut battery so you can have more accurate stats about your battery. MacOS lies to you for your own protection. But coconut also has other cool and useful features, like a battery history tracker, battery information, truth health, cycles, bunch of other cool stuff.
So basically, donât use the battery when you donât need to, keep the percentage low either using optimized battery charging or third party software (I use the most popular Github repo for macOS battery control because optimized charging is cycling my battery unnecessarily. I dunno if Iâm allowed to promote it here, but look up ActuallyMentor.), and donât push the battery.
In the Battery settings, at least for newer MacBooks, if you set to optimized charging then Apple keeps it at 80%-ish.
I believe the optimal charge is 50%, so as to evenly distribute the charge load among all the battery cells.
That being said, I use Al Dente to keep my charge at 50%. At 50% the MacBook Pro 14-inch is set to use the charger as the main power source. I havenât bothered to check my battery cycles, but thatâs what Iâve been doing so far and, when I do fully charge my MacBook and take it portable at 100%, it usually lasts me the full day.
If youâre not always taking your MacBook with you, I recommend keeping it at 50% and only charging it to full when you think you will take it portable. If you take it often, then maybe 80% is better for you.
Also, keep in mind that charging it to 100% sometimes is a good thing. Some batteries can lose calibration and begin displaying incorrect percentages. You can remedy that by charging it all the way and leaving it there for several minutes. I do that once in a while.
well then you should actually check your cycles and battery health and see what itâs doing and then report back to us lol. All that stuff is available in the system settings and System Information menus. Also, if you want the more accurate battery info, you can enter in the terminal
brew install --cask coconutbattery
to get a simple battery utility with more in depth battery info. Otherwise, Iâm curious to know what your macOS says your battery info is
Do not leave anything with a lithium ion battery plugged in once it reaches 100%. The longer you leave it plugged in, the more you shorten the life of the battery.
On all modern technology, this is untrue. The BMS stops charging the battery when itâs full. Itâs just as capable of internally âunpluggingâ as you are, so why make the user unplug manually.
But it is true that keeping the SoC at 100% is unhealthy, regardless of if the battery is being used or not. Right?
Itâs not ideal, though the device is still quite capable of managing that. It does learn your routine and charge the last 20% or so slowly if e.g. itâs always plugged in at your desk
So in practice I donât think itâs really worth thinking about - even if you do manage to wear down your battery meaningfully, itâs a part that Apple will happily replace at a fairly reasonable price
sure but the original post was asking from a thrifty consumer asking how to maximize battery lifespan. If they didnât care about squeezing extra value out of their devices then they wouldnât have posted this. I donât get why everyone needs to act all superior like âApple knows bestâ. Uh, no they donât. Or at least they know whatâs best for the consumer, but they choose not to implement it. Time and time again Apple has implemented features that in the best case limit pro users to ensure a seamless user experience, and in the worst case (namely batteries and repairing) worsen the longevity of their products to increase sales. Turns out you canât always listen to advice on how to increase the lifespan of a product from the company thatâs trying to sell you it.
On the iphone 15 models they added an 80% limit feature to the battery. They donât tell you that itâs always better than their âoptimized battery chargingâ but it is. They couldâve easily added this limit to their entire range of products but I guess itâs too âpro userâ to enable a compromise between daily battery life and battery longevity.
And to further my point, the increase in lifespan you get from staying below 80% is actually very significant. I need to do more research but I think over years of use it will result in a noticeable difference in day-to-day battery life.
I think itâs important to keep in mind that we buy these devices to use them. Staying under 80% is an option, but Iâd have thought a lot of consumers will benefit from using more of their battery
Batteries are consumable parts that are expected to need replacements over time, just a balance of day to day benefit vs how often a replacement is needed
Even with super aggressive use, a battery will work great for 3-4 years no problem. Given that, for me personally, the right approach is pretty hard in the direction of just using the thing and not thinking about it. Iâd think thatâs true for most. Perhaps itâs not for the OP, but I do get the impression they might be overthinking it
(And of course this thread is almost a year old and so itâs long since irrelevant anyway)
Fair point. But taking care of batteries is more and more relevant/important as the world becomes more and more electrified. While replacing your laptop battery might only be $100, replacing your car battery is a lot more, so itâs worth keeping in mind whatâs the best way to take care of it, even if you donât stick to the 80% rule all the time. Also, if not for the money, then take care of your batteries for the environment (which I hope you care about). So I think even though the post is a year old, itâs very relevant.
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Ok Iâve been having the same issue ! The best solution is found is a paid app thatâs worth it for me atm
After researching I found out that Batteries should be between 40-80% And have them discharge regularly
So thatâs what I did for 2 years Open the lid Work on battery Get to 30-40 Plug charger Close lid and continue in clamshell mode
This was horrible
I kept looking for solutions and answers Cause I knew thatâs having the battery drained to 40 and topped to 80 is a good healthy thing
But appleâs battery ml didnât do the job, regardless of how many times people told me that apple can manage this for me
So eventually this week I bought AlDente pro
And thatâs what I needed
It keeps my battery at 80% (or w/e I decide) And auto discharges the battery for me and has a few more features
Thereâs a free version that requires a bit more work on your end but in the end thatâs the best solution I came up with to finally be in clamshell mode 100% of the time Plugged in And not have my battery life destroyed
No. The best with Li-on batteriesis to let it charge fully, then let it deplete fully. Leaving it plugged in all the time, especially not when in use, will degrade the battery over time.
Of course that isnât 100% practical to let it get to 0, just use it like normal and charge when you need to.
i use al dente to keep my laptop at 69%
Yes. At 100% it powers the mac from cable and not battery
I started working on computer hardware 40 years ago and have worked for computer manufacturers like SUN Microsystems and IBM. The last 10 years I have been issued Mac Laptops, I leave them on 24/7 and havenât had an issue. I have to periodically reboot the laptops as I do a ton of copy and paste, I just executed uptime and my MacBook Pro 21.6.0 Darwin Kernel has been up 57 days. I mostly ssh to large servers running MySQL databases that are 35TB to 70TB, that I deal with 24/7, as a DBA I canât wait for my laptop to boot up if a database crashes. I havenât had an issue with any of the MacBook Pro assigned to me. I have mostly worked from home the last 25 years, I used a SunRay when I worked for Sun for 10 years that was only turned of when I lost electricity to my house. I really like the MacBook Pro, itâs the best laptop I have ever used, putty sucks.
Putty is a free telnet and ssh client for Microsoft Windows used to connect to Linux servers. You can google it.
hi, can I ask this, should I charge my Macbook even when itâs 100%? because when I plug in the charger, the Power source is Power Adapter, does it mean that my laptop is completely using the charger, not the battery?