Battery charging issues since 10.15.4 on 16" MBP

[badsimian]

Not had a single issue with this 16" MBP until I updated to 10.15.4

Now I get to a situation where I notice it goes all sluggish and high CPU and the battery has depleted to about 5%. I need to do some more observations. I am not doing anything strenuous, just browing, connecting to a Citrix session for work. I do have a 4K monitor connected.

Normally i am plugged in via a thunderbolt dock which supplies 60W. This is more than enough to keep it charged up given my activity but something happened with the last update where it's no longer working.

 

[badsimian]

Looks like 10.15.4 broke Docks of various types for all sorts of people according to the Apple discusions site. I am going to roll back to a time machine backup

 

[TheVarsek91]

Posting here as well, already replied on https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/two-crashes-since-upgrade-to-macos-10-15-4.2228132/page-3

I've been having issues with 10.15.4 too, a couple of crashes but most importantly the Macbook Pro 16" not recognising it's connected to power.

After Apple Support sent a new charger (that didn't fix it), I found out that the macbook can only charge when I swap the ends of the USB-C cable: the end that was in the charger to go into the macbook and vice-versa. This is replicable with all 4 ports, it's a really odd behaviour.

I had a similar issue on 10.15.1 but it resolved itself after a software update (unsure if back then the swapping of the cable would have helped). Now, every time I disconnect it from the outlet, I need to flip the USB-C cable when I want to charge it again. As it happens on all 4 ports it's very unlikely for it to be a hardware issue: the ports have different chips managing each pair, so both should have gotten fried at the same time. Not impossible, but definitely unlikely...

 

[Voksuuhm]

After Apple Support sent a new charger (that didn't fix it), I found out that the macbook can only charge when I swap the ends of the USB-C cable: the end that was in the charger to go into the macbook and vice-versa. This is replicable with all 4 ports, it's a really odd behaviour.

Having the same issue, although eventually realised swapping the USB-C ends isn't necessary (in my case). It's just a matter of unplugging both ends, and then plugging the power block end in before the macbook end. Then charging will happen until either end is detached, and the ritual must be repeated.
Haven't got a new charger yet, and surprised/disappointed yours didn't help, because it really does kinda seem like a "smart" charger negotiation issue, i.e. the charger refusing to deliver power until it's fully forgotten the MBP.

 

[TheVarsek91]

Having the same issue, although eventually realised swapping the USB-C ends isn't necessary (in my case). It's just a matter of unplugging both ends, and then plugging the power block end in before the macbook end. Then charging will happen until either end is detached, and the ritual must be repeated.
Haven't got a new charger yet, and surprised/disappointed yours didn't help, because it really does kinda seem like a "smart" charger negotiation issue, i.e. the charger refusing to deliver power until it's fully forgotten the MBP.

What fixed it for me in the end was using a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cable from the brick to the computer. I've gone back and forth with Apple Support a couple of times: first time they sent just the brick and the problem was still present. The second time they sent over a 1m Thunderbolt 3 cable by mistake instead of the normal 2m USB-C cable. The last time it was escalated because they had already sent me parts and I was still complaining, and they finally sent a new charger in the box with all the accessories.

After the Thunderbolt cable I was still complaining to them because they hadn't swapped my UK plug adapter and the Thunderbolt 3 cable is only 1m long. In the end, once I figured out that the Thunderbolt 3 cable works like a charm, I ended up using my old 13" UK Plug "long" cable attachment to the brick and the 1m cable. Should it ever fail in the future, I have a brand new charger brick+2m USB-C cable to use.

All this was a long way to say that most likely the issue is with the USB-C cable. My guess is that it doesn't support the 96W charger or that it's up there to its limit and sometimes it just fries it. As the Thunderbolt 3 has a bit more tech inside which is rated for 100W I'm feeling a bit more confident using that one instead. So far so good