Am I hurting my MacBook battery if it's always plugged in?

[TrancyGoose]

Pretty much as question in topic, do I? I read this piece in the article:

macos-big-sur-11-3-public-beta

This bit confuses me, as it states preventing the MacBook to be at 100% charge all the time, which is bad for it.

with constant lockdown where I live, it's pretty much plugged in all the time, and most of the time displaying this:

With a new plug type icon in battery, I have never seen before, back in the day, it was only the lightning bolt that showed charging or not charging.

 

[Wando64]

You will get a bunch of different opinions here, including some that will tell you to sing a lullaby to your battery every evening so that it can sleep easy and last a long time.
My personal opinion is that if there was a problem with keeping the charger on all the time, Apple would tell you not to do it.
I have a 2015 MPBr from new since 2016. It has been under charge all of the time and the battery is still doing fine on the occasions when I need to use it unplugged for a length of time.
That is my experience, which might be different for that of others or from yours.

 

[CoMoMacUser]

some that will tell you to sing a lullaby to your battery every evening so that it can sleep easy and last a long time.

Too funny!

 

[TrancyGoose]

You will get a bunch of different opinions here, including some that will tell you to sing a lullaby to your battery every evening so that it can sleep easy and last a long time.
My personal opinion is that if there was a problem with keeping the charger on all the time, Apple would tell you not to do it.
I have a 2015 MPBr from new since 2016. It has been under charge all of the time and the battery is still doing fine on the occasions when I need to use it unplugged for a length of time.
That is my experience, which might be different for that of others or from yours.

That made me laugh! Won't be singing any songs to the battery, that would be weird.
Was just curious how it works, so much info out there, stating that the battery is worse off with 100% plugged in would sort of contradicting the Apple charge cycle stuff, which makes more sense. I'm going to stick with the cycle theory.

 

[Wando64]

That made me laugh! Won't be singing any songs to the battery, that would be weird.
Was just curious how it works, so much info out there, stating that the battery is worse off with 100% plugged in would sort of contradicting the Apple charge cycle stuff, which makes more sense. I'm going to stick with the cycle theory.

I am not saying that people with other opinions are wrong.
Indeed Apple has now introduced a way to keep charge below a certain limit, so maybe there is some truth in it after all.
However, I think life is too short to manually control these factors. If the system can do it for you, great. Otherwise I am personally happy to let things be.
From time to time batteries fail. No matter what.

 

[svanstrom]

If you've been around long enough you've gone through enough battery types that what you optimally could do with one type absolutely would be disastrous to another.

Nowadays, you can just let life happen; and let the batteries handle themselves.

Just for context you might want to consider the setup that I have, and that's becoming more and more common; my laptop (MBP16) is connected with a single cable to my display, which in turn is feeding power to my laptop.

This is per design, and even quite a bit above average techies would struggle to sort of force this display to work without also constantly feeding power to the laptop. So this is the new normal. This is just what these laptops must be designed to handle.

 

[MBAir2010]

here we go again!
mine 2010 early macbook air is alway plugged in and the original battery still holds a good charge (571 lifecycles).
i will eventually purchase a new battery or MacBook this year.

 

[Wizec]

There’s a continuum of battery health between dead and brand new performance.

Testing seems to have shown that keeping a battery charged to 100% limits its lifespan and capacity more quickly than when it is kept charged below 100%. The damage seems to level off quite a bit when batteries spend most of their time only charged to 80%. Because of this, it’s more optimal to only keep a battery charged to around 80%, then top it off just before disconnecting from charging.

Apple’s optimized charging algorithms attempt to do this for many of their devices by learning when you take them off chargers, and waiting to top off until a little bit before that time. This works best if you actually have a pattern to behavior; I personally do not.

Theoretically, Apple is adapting the charge level even when your device is plugged in. Just how much it does this, and how much it limits excessive wear on the battery is difficult to quantify without doing an A/B test. I‘m not aware of anyone having done this. I can only surmise that Apple has done their homework, and that there is a significant advantage to the optimized charging feature, or else it wouldn’t have been added.

 

[Unsupported]

View attachment 1733749

With a new plug type icon in battery, I have never seen before, back in the day, it was only the lightning bolt that showed charging or not charging.

I've seen that icon just once recently, until I unplugged it for a few minutes, now it's gone back to the ⚡️ icon.

Note the "On Hold" meaning it isn't charging. I'm on Big Sur 11.2.1 not the beta.

When I noticed it there was also an explanation that it was there because "Charging on Hold (Rarely Used on Battery)"

laptop "charging on hold" and about to le… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/jz9nf6
Don't worry, be. ?

 

[Christopher Kim]

Here's a few things I've noticed over the past few years:
- There seem to be an increased number of battery issues with 2016-and-later models (when they switched to the current MBP design), where keeping laptop plugged in constantly has led to faster degradation in battery health (and potential battery swelling issues)
- Anecdotally, this didn't seem to be the case as much with pre-2016 models (lots of stories of ppl who plugged in 24/7, have 500+ cycles, and still very strong battery health)

I think we've seen more of these issues come up over the past 12months as: 1) more ppl working from home and using laptops plugged in with external display / kb / mouse; 2) coinciding with these laptops getting to be 2-3+yrs old

For me, I have a late-2016 13" MBP which for last 12 months I've been running closed clamshell into an external display. Given the heightened number of battery stories, my workflow is:
- Keep plugged in while working, generally 9 - 6pm M-F
- As soon as I'm done, I put my laptop to sleep, and unplug the laptop
- If I need the computer at all in the evenings, I use "as a laptop" in battery mode
- Leave unplugged overnight until the next morning when I start working and plug in
- Weekends are like evenings - I leave unplugged and if I need to use, I use in "laptop" mode

To me, this is a very small inconvenience to potentially extend the longevity of my laptop battery, so I do it. Yes, it might all be for nothing, but given the number of stories, and the small "cost" to me in my routine, I do it happily. I totally get it if others feel it's not worth it based on how much of an inconvenience / imposition it would be in their routine for an unproven/uncertain benefit.

 

[usr0]

My 2016 MBP was mostly plugged in for four years, running in clamshell mode. I only had to change the battery last year, the bottom part had bent due to battery swelling. If not for that, I would never know there was a problem. Would that happen if it was not plugged in all the time? Who can say. Still, a battery change every 4-5 years is extremely fine in my opinion. Big Sur now puts charging on hold on about 80% charged, so that could help in expanding that time frame.

Nowadays, my MBP charger is on one of those powercube sockets, so when I leave the house or call it a night I just hit the button on the powercube and let the laptop run on its battery. And that's the most I am willing to do to preserve its battery health.

 

[leogical]

I personally dont let my laptop plugged in all the time. I believe that its harming towards the battery. I charge it until its full and then unplug it. I read that if you let it charge all the time then the time that it could run without being plugged in reduces itself.

 

[Unsupported]

I personally dont let my laptop plugged in all the time. I believe that its harming towards the battery. I charge it until its full and then unplug it. I read that if you let it charge all the time then the time that it could run without being plugged in reduces itself.

My MBP is plugged in all the time, and with Optimized charging it is at 100% but not charging.

 

[jeyf]

my iPhone7 battery, not completely dead, was not operating as needed. Took it to an apple store during the pandemic and they installed a new battery for $50 while i waited. Cant get better than that.

not the end of the world if your battery goes south.

 

[Fishrrman]

I WOULD NOT leave a MacBook Pro plugged in all the time, no matter what Apple says.

Every 3rd day, take it "off charge" and let the battery drop down to about 40-45%. Then plug it back in.

Every NIGHT (doesn't matter whether you power down or just let it sleep), UNPLUG the CHARGER from the wall outlet.
In the morning, plug it back in.

My opinion only.
Others may disagree.
Some may disagree vehemently.

 

[TrancyGoose]

I WOULD NOT leave a MacBook Pro plugged in all the time, no matter what Apple says.

Every 3rd day, take it "off charge" and let the battery drop down to about 40-45%. Then plug it back in.

Every NIGHT (doesn't matter whether you power down or just let it sleep), UNPLUG the CHARGER from the wall outlet.
In the morning, plug it back in.

My opinion only.
Others may disagree.
Some may disagree vehemently.

Thank you, does that not go against the cycle theory? I mean, I only have 2 cycles on a brand new M1 MB pro. Or am I overthinking it, with too much love for this machine?

 

[rovostrov]

I leave mine connected to magsafe all the time and just recently replaced the battery in my 2012 macbook pro. The health was still at 87% I have not had any problems leaving it connected

 

[Christopher Kim]

Thank you, does that not go against the cycle theory? I mean, I only have 2 cycles on a brand new M1 MB pro. Or am I overthinking it, with too much love for this machine?

Yes, it does a little bit. But if you look through some threads in the MBP forum, you'll see there are quite a few (granted anecdotal) cases where cycle count is still very low (<100), but Battery Health is in the 80s%-wise.

So these are precisely the situations we're talking about - MBP largely plugged in the majority of the time. So cycle count remains low, but there's battery health degradation (or swelling).

Everyone's situation differs, but in my opinion, if you *can* unplug your laptop when not using it fairly easily in your routine / work-flow, it can't hurt, and it could help.

 

[Toutou]

Or am I overthinking it

Yes, kinda. Li-ion batteries degrade with time, cycles, temperature, high charge state, low charge state, high charge rate and many other factors, it's just the way it is.
I've outright abused my 2013's rMBP battery since day one (100 % ->5 % cycling at school, long hours at 100 % at work) and it still lasts a solid few hours. So don't worry, it'll likely outlive your love for the machine.

 

[jeyf]

especially if you havnt goten into SystemPreferences i bet there is a small but consistant drain on the battery.
its not like the computer completely turns off, never ever.

 

[Fred Zed]

bouncing between 90 to 100% whilst its always plugged in will deteriorate your cells faster. Ask yourself how long do you intend on keeping the MacBook? Personally I like to baby my batteries and sing them lullaby's even though I don't keep my devices long, which is odd really.

 

[moldy lunchbox]

Just use it how you see fit and don't worry about it. An Apple battery replacement is only 13% of the cost of the my MacBook Pro, I'll fix it when it doesn't hold a charge and move on.

 

[TrancyGoose]

Just use it how you see fit and don't worry about it. An Apple battery replacement is only 13% of the cost of the my MacBook Pro, I'll fix it when it doesn't hold a charge and move on.

Thank you! Just I am curious how things work. That's all. Many would not care, rightfully so. But I love my tech, these days it's one of the few joys that there is. I take care of it

 

[TrancyGoose]

Hey, all! Just bumping this one.
Noticed strange behavior, up until maybe 3 days My M1 Pro, kept battery charge at about 92-88%.
I had one single day, then had to run him on battery, it did very well, by the way, active use dusk till dawn, had 23% left at the end.

Now, it seems to always charge it to full. I am very picky about small details, is it worth Mac OS reinstall? I don't see the charging on hold for the last 3 days. Granted, maybe the 1 day on the battery was something that threw Big Suroff, since we were in lockdown for the last 14 months, and I barely left the house?

 

[iHorseHead]

I am not saying that people with other opinions are wrong.
Indeed Apple has now introduced a way to keep charge below a certain limit, so maybe there is some truth in it after all.
However, I think life is too short to manually control these factors. If the system can do it for you, great. Otherwise I am personally happy to let things be.
From time to time batteries fail. No matter what.

But I don't understand why you couldn't choose it by yourself like with MSI? I'd gladly have my MacBook at 80% all the time.