AlDente Sailing Mode on M1 Mac - does it work?

[donawalt]

I have tried just about everything, and it does not seem AlDente Sailing Mode works on my M1 MacBook Pro 16". It works fine on a 2019 MacBook Pro (Intel). As you can see in the picture, I *think* this is the way it should look when it's in Sailing mode, I have the limit set to 80%, the sail mode lower limit is 70%. On my Intel Mac, the battery drifts down to 70%, as I think it should. But on the M1 Mac, it stays at 80% or 79% all the time. The only setting I think I have changed is enabling Hardware battery percentage.

I have reinstalled the Helper application, and I unplugged from power and let it go to 60%, as I read that sometimes gets it going for some users. But it went up to 80%, as it should but just stays pegged there, probably doing a bunch a little charges, instead of drifting down to 70% and then charging as Sailing Mode is supposed to.

Any thoughts? Is this working for anyone on an M1?

 

[HDFan]

and it does not seem AlDente Sailing Mode works on my M1 MacBook Pro 16".

The best person to ask this question is the developer as they should know what works and what they plan to fix.

 

[PieceOfCake]

Have you set a "lower limit"? In preferences you can set a lower limit, from wich the battery will be charged up to the charge limit again.

This is how it looks:

You can read the feature explanation from the developer here: https://apphousekitchen.com/feature-explanation-sailing-mode/

 

[donawalt]

Thanks @PieceOfCake, I thought I explained that in my OP. Charge Limit=80%, Sailing Mode Difference is set to 10%, "Will sail to 70%" according to settings.

 

[Ifti]

Hasn't worked for me either. I set my battery to stay at 75% since my MBP is always left on my desk connected to power. Every so often I do a calibration.

Is there any real benefit to sailing mode anyways?

 

[donawalt]

I sent an email to the author, I'll post here if I get a reply.

 

[donawalt]

I heard back, I pasted what he said below. I think my misunderstanding was that I thought the battery powers the Mac once the battery is at 80%; and that the power adapter does not supply power until the battery drops to 70%, at which time AlDente lets the power adapter charge until the battery is back up to 80%. This is wrong. I should have known that was wrong as the LED is "orange" which means "charging" (and connected of course).

I think what he is saying is the MagSafe charger powers the Mac even when the battery is at 80%, and AlDente keeps the battery charge from going above 80%. On an M1 Mac, the battery (at least when it's newer) will hold that 80% charge most/all of the time (as the two reasons he gives for why the percentage would drop won't happen much on a newer M1 Mac), which is why I don't see the percentage drop from 80% to 70%. His two reasons don't apply -- the newer battery in an M1 Mac isn't discharging much because of cell chemistry, and there are few if any times that the M1 Mac has to draw power from both the power adapter and the battery.

Maybe as the battery gets older, I'll start to see the battery percentage drop from 80% - as the older battery won't hold its charge as well any more (which was one of his two reasons for the 80% level dropping, cell chemistry). Makes sense?

What he replied --->

Sailing mode does not actively discharge (eg unplug) your MacBook. Instead, it waits until your battery drops a few percentage points by itself. This can happen because of two reasons: Batteries do discharge themselves slowly over time because of the cell chemistry, even if there is nothing they are powering. Regarding the second reason: Even when your laptop is powered by the power adapter and the battery is not being charged, sometimes the hardware needs more juice than provided by the adapter, in which case it taps into the battery and discharges it a little bit.

For any reason, this can take a long time (mostly dependent on the size of your power brick) and you should not expect to see a quick battery drop beneath your limit while in sailing mode, as this would hurt the battery more than it helps.

When the charge limit is at 80%, your MacBook does not trickle charge. Instead, the computer is completely powered by the power supply and the battery is left alone. Because the older Intel MacBooks consumed way more power, they had to fall back onto the battery reserve more often when the power brick could not supply enough. So all in all, this is the expected behaviour and it is actually good that your MacBook is not loosing some percentage points when the charge limit is held.