Big Sur = Dead MacBook Pro Battery

[kodabear]

FYI I updated my 2014 13” MBP from Catalina and have no battery or BT issues (with my Logitech mouse and UE Boom speaker).

Seems to be a random problem working fine for some and not for others. Just not worth the hassle.

 

[aroom]

2018 15” MacBook Pro here, experiencing the same issue. If I booted the laptop without being plugged in, I can get as far as my desktop then the computer would immediately go to sleep and claim dead battery.

If I plugged the laptop back in, the laptop would start back up like normal and show ~50-60% battery. After this I could unplug it and use it as normal on battery

I was talking to Apple support who walked me through a bunch of troubleshooting steps. The only thing that temporarily fixed the issue was booting into safe mode, but it returned after a few cold boots.

I went ahead and re-installed Big Sur a week ago and so far I have not had the issue happen again. Hoping it’s fixed itself somehow, but not betting on it. I have AppleCare until August so just hoping it either happens again or never happens again prior to August so I know what I need to do.

FWIW, my battery shows normal and diagnostics reported no hardware issues.

Update: Occurred again this morning. Seems to only happen when my battery is around or less than 60%. Battery still shows normal which is strange.

exactly the same issue here on a 2018 mbp and I've no idea how to fix it.

 

[diablo2112]

Add us to the list. My wife upgraded her 2015 12" MacBook, and it immediately reported a battery needs service message, as well as reported "0" capacity available on the system report.

I took it into Apple back in early February, and after 3 weeks, had a message from Apple support that in addition to a battery, it needed a new logic board. Total cost would be around $500. I said forget it, ship it back. It didn't occur to me that this was Big Sur related until a bit of online research.

Unfortunately, as my wife needed a laptop, I found a used 2020 Macbook Air which we purchased locally. At least she has a recent laptop now, which is a bit speedier than her 2015 model. Still, this sucks.

Got the 2015 Macbook back 2 days ago; it works fine plugged into a charger.

 

[Jonas07]

Another reason to never update a broken operating system with another broken operating system breaking the whole think because yes

 

[Gordieman]

What a mess. I also updated my 13" 2016 MBP to Big Sur a few months ago. The machine shuts down at about 60% battery with no warning. Powering back on with the adapter connected shows where battery percentage left off before dying. Tried everything under sun short of replacing the battery. I'm furious!

 

[Ideanj]

What a mess. I also updated my 13" 2016 MBP to Big Sur a few months ago. The machine shuts down at about 60% battery with no warning. Powering back on with the adapter connected shows where battery percentage left off before dying. Tried everything under sun short of replacing the battery. I'm furious!

Really hoping this gains some ground and makes it on to Apple’s radar. Totally unacceptable for such expensive machines.

 

[mike_vr4]

i bought a 2016 Macbook Pro (A1708) a few weeks ago that was at 800+ cycles and the battery was listed as "service recommended", would not charge past 1% and switch off if unplugged. So i bought a new battery and installed it. Little did i know that there was a replacement program for the 2016/2017 MAcbook Pro's that had issues after Big Sur upgrade..doh! So now Apple wont touch me as i replaced the battery but the issue still persists even with a new battery. I have attempted an SMC reset and PRAM/NVRAM resets and it still doesn't work. I have wiped SSD and gone back to Mojave (same issue) then upgraded back to the latest version of Big Sur.

Did this bug with Big Sur brick something on the logicboard/SMC?

Has anyone else had this issue and worked out how to resolve?

 

[mike_vr4]

Yesterday, I was preparing my Mac to sell (MBP 2016, base model no touchbar)

I was on Big Sur since launch and the 11.1 update also. Everything perfectly fine.

Clean install Big Sur ...

Battery at 1%, OS tell me it's not charging. Battery condition : "Need service" MacBook run solely on the charger, if I unplug it, instantly dies. When shutdown, unable to boot the computer with the power button. Only way that made the MacBook boot is literaly unplugging the usb c cable and replugging it. For some reason after like 10 seconds it start. But still, computer completely unusable when not plugged it.

I spent all night yesterday (2 am to 9 am) downloading multiple copies of multiple version of macOS, create multiple install media, clean install so many times. Reboot NVRAM, SMC. Ran Apple Diagnostic tool (result : normal). Nothing.

...

My best guess is that somehow in the installation process, under certain condition, the installer can corrupt the battery firmware (or the whole computer firmware). It's literally like the computer has no way to access the battery.

Read a bit. I saw that Apple doesn't do firmware updates anymore and that they are now included in OS updates.

So, I thought of a strategy : Go back to the macOS version my MBP shipped with : Sierra.

Then just use the updater links here : https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683, to simply update the OS, one "version" at a time : Sierra -> High Sierra -> Mojave -> Catalina -> Big Sur.

The idea : maybe somehow in these update process there will be a moment where it will "update firmware" and reset it to a functionning state.

Result

Clean install Sierra : Exact same battery symptoms, can't run on battery, can't charge, battery need service. BUT one major difference, now the battery show 100% instead of 1% and in System Report it give me a number of mAh instead of simply 0 like before. A small victory but still little hope.

Update to High Sierra : ... EVERYTHING BACK TO NORMAL ! Battery is charging, can run on battery, battery condition : normal. Can shutdown and boot on battery without any issue. Like new !

Now, just not to mess with things, I'm updating one by one. Back to Catalina soon. So far, absolutely no issue.

-

I think it's worth a try for anyone having this issue : go back the earliest macOS version possible, then update OS one at a time.

Also, if it doesn't work, at least it show that this is a Software issue and not Hardware.

Can anyone confirm if this actually works? I have exactly the same Macbook and same issue

 

[Gordieman]

Interesting. So I eventually made the plunge and replaced my battery with some third party brand from Amazon and things are back to normal. Visually the old battery looked swollen in some areas. Thinking about it now, it was 5+ years old. Prior to the Big Sur upgrade Mojave reported that all was fine as well Coconut battery which probably pull that data from the OS somehow. I could only surmise that the prior OSes aren't properly reporting the battery state? It may be worth popping the cover off to inspect it.
Curious that the new battery didn't work for you..perhaps return it? What's the manufacture date?

 

[mike_vr4]

Interesting. So I eventually made the plunge and replaced my battery with some third party brand from Amazon and things are back to normal. Visually the old battery looked swollen in some areas. Thinking about it now, it was 5+ years old. Prior to the Big Sur upgrade Mojave reported that all was fine as well Coconut battery which probably pull that data from the OS somehow. I could only surmise that the prior OSes aren't properly reporting the battery state? It may be worth popping the cover off to inspect it.
Curious that the new battery didn't work for you..perhaps return it? What's the manufacture date?

Can't return it as I'll get the "no you can't return as you may have damaged when you installed it" rubbish. I'm going to try go back to High Sierra and go through the update process to Mojave, just to see if it makes a difference. Nothing to lose really. I read on another thread about replacing the trackpad as apparently it holds some metadata relating to the battery - not sure though.

 

[mike_vr4]

Reverted back to High Sierra and still have the same issue - does anyone know what the actual issue is which breaks the 2016/2017 macbook pros? Is it SMC firmware, battery firmware etc

 

[Ideanj]

Reverted back to High Sierra and still have the same issue - does anyone know what the actual issue is which breaks the 2016/2017 macbook pros? Is it SMC firmware, battery firmware etc

It happens to my 2018 MacBook Pro as well whenever the battery is below 60%. Only happened after updating to Big Sur so it had to break something with the firmware somewhere.

 

[mcp206]

Has anyone solved this issue yet? I have a MBP 2017 Touchbar. I'm pretty sure this started when I upgraded to Big Sur. My laptop sits at 1% charge and dies instantly when it is unplugged, along with an huge performance dip. I have tried a different charger, SMC and VRAM reset. Nothing changes. Apple wanted over $700 to replace the battery (insane) since the Touchbar model requires the whole top housing to be replaced. I am going to replace the battery myself with one I purchased from eBay. I am hoping this fixes everything.

 

[dotck]

Apple wanted over $700 to replace the battery (insane) since the Touchbar model requires the whole top housing to be replaced.

This not only applies to the Touchbar models. The pricing looks a bit weird since Apple usually charges $199 in US and the pricing is similar in many countries. I've paid 209€ and they also replaced the housing and keyboard. Not cheap but somehow acceptable since substantial parts of the machine are in new condition now.

The actual issue seems to be the firmware. When upgrading (in this case to Big Sur), a newer firmware will be applied to the machine and will stay regardless whether the disk is wiped and an older macOS version is installed. That newer firmware either has a bug that causes the battery management to fail, or they do it on purpose for old batteries to "enforce" some kind of battery service. No evidence for that though.

 

[Ideanj]

After updating to 11.3, I'm now able to boot my 2018 MacBook Pro when it's below 60% without it being plugged in. Is anyone else still experiencing the issue or has Apple quietly fixed this in the update?

 

[Cfishermd]

It’s definitely a big sur update issue - I have windows boot camp so when I switch it to windows as the main OS the battery shows it’s connected to the power adapter and charges normally.

Apple needs to get their S&$! together with as much as we pay extra for these things. They need to quit claiming it’s a hardware issue and take responsibility and fix the problem.

 

[Ideanj]

It’s definitely a big sur update issue - I have windows boot camp so when I switch it to windows as the main OS the battery shows it’s connected to the power adapter and charges normally.

Apple needs to get their S&$! together with as much as we pay extra for these things. They need to quit claiming it’s a hardware issue and take responsibility and fix the problem.

Are you still experiencing it after the latest update? Mine seems to have resolved itself with 11.3.

 

[Cfishermd]

Are you still experiencing it after the latest update? Mine seems to have resolved itself with 11.3.

Yes - am scheduled to bring it in to the apple store where I have no doubt after reading this thread they will replace the battery

 

[travelsheep]

I too am on a 2018 13" Touchbar MacBook Pro. When it was new the battery lasted around 4 hours, best performing MacBook battery I've ever had (this is my 5th MacBook). Over the last two years that went down to 2-3 hours, as expected. Upgraded to Big Sur last week and I see it drains a bit faster than usual, but not seeing battery destruction like you did.

(I'm using my MacBook mainly for Internet browsing, Email, working with text in Apple Notes and Apple Pages, and image editing in Pixelmator Pro)

 

[Yoandj]

What a mess. I also updated my 13" 2016 MBP to Big Sur a few months ago. The machine shuts down at about 60% battery with no warning. Powering back on with the adapter connected shows where battery percentage left off before dying. Tried everything under sun short of replacing the battery. I'm furious!

My 2018 15” MBP does it occasionally, says battery is flat, plug in adapter and boot and there’s plenty of battery. Apple have fitted new motherboard and power button and maybe their resistance to replace the battery is because the issue is software related

 

[kaziupal]

Can anyone confirm if this actually works? I have exactly the same Macbook and same issue

Tried it.After 17 hours of sleepless nights couldn't make it work. Such a waste of time

 

[kaziupal]

Updating to Catalina killed my touchbar and now Big Sur 11.3.1 killed my battery. I could use my touchbar only 8 days! Now a 92% battery health remaining battery died infront of my eyes.In this pandemic lost my job and literally low on cash while staying in a country where there is no mac service centre. I am blessed. Windows 10 on bootcamp is showing 74% battery but not charging while Big Sur shows 1% and not charging.