Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

sixtydashone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2020
255
292
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 it was around 97% and charging, meaning it's somehow losing charge while plugged in. Right now it's at 92% and says "Battery Is Not Charging" as well as "Power Source: Power Adapter". This is the third Macbook I've owned and the fifth that I've used regularly, and never seen one do this until now. Any ideas? Is this intentional to get the battery some cycles, or a software bug or what?

Edit: I let it keep draining (didn't close any apps or anything), and when it reached 90% it went into "Calculating time until full", and it is now charging back up. Kinda seems intentional, but this is not a behavior I'm familiar with.
 
Last edited:

sixtydashone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2020
255
292

ihakim

macrumors regular
Jun 11, 2012
223
172
Stanford, CA
Mine has been doing exactly the same thing and started charging again at 90%. Must be the new battery management system.
 
Last edited:

Mag98

macrumors member
Apr 22, 2015
92
79
SF Bay Area
I just bought the new 2020 13" MacBook Pro two days ago and updated to 10.15.5 and just ran into the same issue and after finding this thread, I disabled the battery health management and it's charging again.
 

StONE_ROdGEr

macrumors member
Nov 23, 2019
89
74
YES! Ive noticed this too, Im at 94% at the moment with it plugged in, will report back with what it does <=90%...

(i7/32gb/512gb)

EDIT: Excellent! This must be why! I was getting worried I'd have to send it back then. It started charging at 90% and were now back at 100% and using Power Source: Power Adapter (Battery is Charged). ?
 
Last edited:

sixtydashone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2020
255
292
It even seems to do it around the same time each day. I work 8-5 and it seems every day around 4:30 or so it lets the battery drain down to 90 before charging it back up. It comes back up to 100 right around the time I am ready to sign off.
 

jr099

macrumors newbie
Jun 5, 2020
5
0
This happens to me!

I contacted apple support and they said this behavior was NOT normal. They said there's a hardware issue and initiated a repair. However, it looks like this is a software issues. Multiple reports of similar issues... Resetting the SMC once daily resolves the issue for the entire day.

However, please note that my computer also says "battery is not charging" while plugged. It also sometimes discharges while plugged in and at 100%.
 

mick2

macrumors 6502
Oct 5, 2017
251
237
UK
This happens to me!

I contacted apple support and they said this behavior was NOT normal. They said there's a hardware issue and initiated a repair. However, it looks like this is a software issues. Multiple reports of similar issues... Resetting the SMC once daily resolves the issue for the entire day.

However, please note that my computer also says "battery is not charging" while plugged. It also sometimes discharges while plugged in and at 100%.
It's the battery management feature. 100%. 1st line Apple support are little more than minimum wage script readers IME.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire

jerryk

macrumors 604
Nov 3, 2011
7,421
4,208
SF Bay Area
This happens to me!

I contacted apple support and they said this behavior was NOT normal. They said there's a hardware issue and initiated a repair. However, it looks like this is a software issues. Multiple reports of similar issues... Resetting the SMC once daily resolves the issue for the entire day.

However, please note that my computer also says "battery is not charging" while plugged. It also sometimes discharges while plugged in and at 100%.
My mac did this also. I assumed they did not want to stay at 100% all the time since that can impact battery life. Mine would drop a percent or 2 and then charge back up. This was a 2020 base 13". I have a 2020 $1700 replacement on order (got it for 1599 at Best Buy) and am curious to see if it has similar behavior.

Just to be sure, are you are charging with the charger that came with the system and the included cable?
 

jr099

macrumors newbie
Jun 5, 2020
5
0
It's the battery management feature. 100%. 1st line Apple support are little more than minimum wage script readers IME.
That's what I guessed. I will not send the Macbook in for repair at this time... I turned off the battery management feature and will see tomorrow if the issue arises again.
 

Dopestar

macrumors 6502
Oct 27, 2012
341
152
CA
I just bought the new 2020 13" MacBook Pro two days ago and updated to 10.15.5 and just ran into the same issue and after finding this thread, I disabled the battery health management and it's charging again.

Is this recommended? I have the same issue and I am not sure what is recommended - disable health management or disable it?
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
This is the battery management feature. I too had a : "What the heck?" My battery is draining like CRAZY! It went down to 78% and then back up to 100% while plugged in over the course of about half an hour.

Keeping the battery healthy!

I do want to note that my 26 month old 2017 MBP had 94% battery health up until this feature and is now at 97.2% health thanks to this. I'm leaving it on.

As a battery nut (batteries are a hobby of mine) - this is great news for battery health for those of us who have our MBPs plugged in most of the time.
 

sixtydashone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2020
255
292
Is this recommended? I have the same issue and I am not sure what is recommended - disable health management or disable it?

I would say it comes down to preference. If you don't want your battery to discharge at all while plugged in then you should disable it. If you're ok with that, then I think it makes sense to leave it enabled.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dopestar

Jaimbo

macrumors newbie
Jun 13, 2020
9
1
Woo hoo! I finally found some others with the same issue. I rarely post in forums since almost all my answers are found first but this time I've been searching and searching and searching for the past few weeks trying find some kind of answer. I'm running Mojave (10.14.5) on a 2018 15" MBP (purchased 4/2019, it seems to be the upgraded version with the flex cable and keyboard 'fix'). I use the Mac almost every day and keep it plugged it whenever possible.

Here's my scenario:
Ever since the May 2020 update for Mojave (at least that is when I began noticing this) at around 1 PM the battery percentage on the battery icon begins to slowly drop from 100% until it gets to around 89 to 91%. When I click on the icon it says either 'Battery is charged - Power source: Power adapter' or 'Battery is not charged - Power source: Power adapter.' When it reaches the end of its discharge period it first gives 'calculating time until full' but the time it eventually shows is waaay off, like in the range of 4-5 hours and lately 'more than 10 hours' (which it displayed unchanged until full) rather than the actual time of around 25-30 minutes. I tried resetting the SMC twice but no change to the calculated recharge time.

I was thinking, too, that it must be the new power management feature but when I read some of the descriptions it didn't seem to fit what was happening here and it never mentioned any kind of fixed discharge period like this. Also, nowhere did I find that it would be sent to anything but Catalina systems.

Secondly, I don't have the ability to turn it off or on again in System Preferences. Did I get only an incomplete update (or were we (non-Catalina users) not supposed to have received it at all)?

The other thing that I noticed is that my battery health has not improved so far. How long should it take before I might see an increase?

Also while I'm on the subject, wouldn't this regular discharge procedure increase the number of cycles in the battery's life and thereby reduce its lifespan sooner (since they only have around 1000 cycles on avg.) rather than help it last longer?

------------------

6-14-20 Update:
Since it has been quiet around here I thought I'd give an update.

After searching around a little more, I found other Mojave users with the same 'issue.' Over on Reddit there is a thread that describes the same thing that is found here. Of course they have no answer or solution to the inability to turn it off on Mojave either.

I personally don't mind this happening periodically since the battery does need some stimulation, but once every day??

I now found that 1 pm is just the base starting point. If I have the computer sleeping during this time then it will start the discharging routine shortly after waking later in the day.

I checked PMSET with terminal but there was no change or additions as far as the Battery Health Management update goes.

I'm curious if anyone pre-Mojave might have quietly received this update, too.
 
Last edited:

Jaimbo

macrumors newbie
Jun 13, 2020
9
1
It appears that I'm having the last word over here.

Please forgive me if I gave the appearance of hijacking this thread. I was just giving my input on the same problem that everyone else was having here. The difference on my end was that I am running Mojave and not Catalina.

From what I've determined Mojave users got some of the Battery Health Management Update that went to Catalina, too. Since I have the same symptoms as described here. But apparently they gave us no way to turn it off or on again! Ugh!

So far my only recourse is to live with it and hope that a future update will correct this problem, reinstall Mojave, or upgrade to Catalina. (The latter I don't want to do at this time as I still have some 32-bit apps that I'm trying to find a work around or replacement for.)

My question now, if anyone wants to respond, is if the incorrect recharge time is normal or common for this update (Catalina or Mojave)? The battery icon when clicked displays anywhere from 4 hours to 'more than 10 hours' whereas iStat menus shows it as 25 to 30 minutes which is what correctly happens.
 

sixtydashone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2020
255
292
My question now, if anyone wants to respond, is if the incorrect recharge time is normal or common for this update (Catalina or Mojave)? The battery icon when clicked displays anywhere from 4 hours to 'more than 10 hours' whereas iStat menus shows it as 25 to 30 minutes which is what correctly happens.

My 2020 MBP on Catalina seems to overestimate the "Time until full". For example, right now it's at 93% and says 59 minutes until full.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigMcGuire

Jaimbo

macrumors newbie
Jun 13, 2020
9
1
As I am writing this my MBK is displaying 99% with 'more than 10 hours' until full and iStat displaying 94% and 27 minutes remaining. A minute later Mac changed to 'Finishing Charge: 20:00 until full" with iStat saying 95% and 24 minutes remaining. Then after about 2 minutes more Mac displayed 100% 'Battery is charged' and iStat showed 96% and 20 minutes remaining.

Also in the System Information section under Power it, too, says that the battery is still charging even though it displays 100% 'Battery is charged.'

I know that this symptom isn't something major. I was just wondering if Apple might have 'goofed' in how they rolled out their updates, especially for Mojave, or is this also occurring on Catalina and that we (or I) should just live with it.

It just seems weird for it to tell me that it now takes anywhere from 5 hours to 10+ hours to charge a battery that actually is only charging for 30 minutes when prior to the update the calculated time was right on the money.
 
Last edited:

sixtydashone

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2020
255
292
I would suggest you either upgrade to Catalina or submit a bug report and see what they say.
 

Jaimbo

macrumors newbie
Jun 13, 2020
9
1
Thanks for your help.

When I get a moment I may go ahead and file a report. Seeing more and more queries popping up across the web concerning this update I'm sure I won't be the only one submitting one.
 

Sofiaga7

macrumors newbie
Jun 20, 2020
1
0
So happy to hear that I am not the only one that was getting worried about this. My laptop is 2 weeks old! I will monitor and see if it also restarts charging at 90%. I was about to let it drain out completely thinking it was recalibration. Thank you all for your insights!
 

BitBulb

macrumors newbie
Jun 21, 2020
1
0
Hello all,
new guy here who stumbled upon this thread having the same problem.

Do you notice an increase in cycle count caused by the frequent recharge episodes?
It's not entirely clear to me why a system ostensibly designed to protect the battery apparently intensifies its usage and leads to a quicker expiry of its designed lifespan?

I'm still not completely reassured about this behaviour....
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,262
13,349
I know it seems completely unrelated to the topic, but I have a Canon EOS R camera that has USBc charging capabilities with chargers that support the USBc PD standard.

I can charge the camera's battery either "in camera" (by connecting USBc to the battery grip) or by using the camera's battery grip accessory (which holds 2 batteries and also has a USBc port for charging).

HOWEVER...
The documentation for the camera/grip states that USBc charging won't "start" until the existing charge drops below 90% or so.

That means if you...
- plug the charger in while the battery is at 92% of charge -- no charging
but
- plug the charger in while the battery is at 85% of charge -- charging.

I'm wondering if this might be a specification within the USBc PD "standards".

Getting back to Apple...
I reckon this is now part of Apple's new battery health management.
That is to say, if your battery exceeds a given "state of charge", say, 90%, the computer tells the charger to "withhold" charging UNTIL the state of charge drops below that threshold.
Once the charge drops below the threshold, charging starts and it will charge "back up to full".

Looks like the OP has shown that to be the case in his experience in post 1 of the thread...
 

titans1127

macrumors 65816
Mar 10, 2009
1,179
414
My new 2020 that I just bought 4 days ago did this Friday and it really worried me as I never had the battery drain while on AC power before. Did 2 SMC resets and I haven't seen it since. Good to know that this is intentional with the new battery management feature. Only other thing I am noticing with the machine is Coconut Battery and the System Report app battery percentage doesn't match up with the status bar at the top of the window. Doing some googling seems to indicate this a normal function as well.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.