Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Charge limiter app AlDente - now works on M1 Macs
- Thread starter Leon1das
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Depends on if you have an Intel MBP or M1 MBP. But without the paid version - the moment you put the MBP to sleep or turn it off - it'll charge to 100%. The paid version has ways to prevent that from happening.
Sometimes with an update, I have to reinstall the helper if I see it not following the limit.
(The pro version below: )
Check out: https://apphousekitchen.com/feature-explanation-stop-charging-when-powered-off-app-closed/
I have m1 mbp.
I read a lot of praises about aldente.
But I am discovering that it has its issues.
I am thinking of possibly sticking with built-in 'optimized battery charge' from apple.
Reinstall AlDente. I don't know why it doesn't work on yours, on my Air M1 it just works and I have the laptop in sleep mode over night, AlDente charges it to the limit and stops. It only goes over the set percentage except when doing macOS updates.
I just found out AlDente Pro is included with my Setapp subscription, so I decided to try it.
My M1 Max 16" is almost always in clamshell mode connected to 2 monitors at my desk. This means that the Element Hub dock I use it with - providing 60W of power - always charges and keeps the Mac at 100%. I don't push the CPU to the max (it's hard to!) so the 140W charger that came in the box is complete overkill, the Mac does not lose charge with my Xcode workflow.
But, as many have said, keeping it plugged in at 100% for a long time is not a good idea. This is the scenario I'm in, except for grabbing it to work somewhere else or having a work call away from my desk.
So I installed AlDente with the following settings:
- Charge Limit of 75%
- Sailing Mode: 5% (activates at 70%)
- Heat Protection: 35C (on)
- Hardware Battery Percentage is on for more accurate readings
I also hit Discharge and it is currently discharging the battery from 100% to 75% while I work, plugged in. After that, it will keep itself on the power adapter unless the Mac loses 5% charge (e.g., high workload, using it on battery away from my desk, etc). That's the sailing mode.
Battery currently has 14 cycles, 100% health (got it last month).
My M1 Max 16" is almost always in clamshell mode connected to 2 monitors at my desk. This means that the Element Hub dock I use it with - providing 60W of power - always charges and keeps the Mac at 100%. I don't push the CPU to the max (it's hard to!) so the 140W charger that came in the box is complete overkill, the Mac does not lose charge with my Xcode workflow.
But, as many have said, keeping it plugged in at 100% for a long time is not a good idea. This is the scenario I'm in, except for grabbing it to work somewhere else or having a work call away from my desk.
So I installed AlDente with the following settings:
- Charge Limit of 75%
- Sailing Mode: 5% (activates at 70%)
- Heat Protection: 35C (on)
- Hardware Battery Percentage is on for more accurate readings
I also hit Discharge and it is currently discharging the battery from 100% to 75% while I work, plugged in. After that, it will keep itself on the power adapter unless the Mac loses 5% charge (e.g., high workload, using it on battery away from my desk, etc). That's the sailing mode.
Battery currently has 14 cycles, 100% health (got it last month).
Whatever works best for you. The only problem I have with the built in optimized charging is that it can take weeks for it to learn, and the slightest deviation in charging habits can result in weeks more at 100%. But it is built in and if your charging habits are fairly consistent, it can work.
AlDente does have issues but I've used it since the days it was a free GitHub project and it has worked pretty well for me. Yes, after Mac OS updates and what not sometimes I'll have to reinstall the helper - but that's cuz Apple resets everything, not necessarily the app's fault. Also, how Mac OS prevents 3rd party apps from interfering with charging habits when sleeping cause a lot of people to blame AlDente for Mac OS limitations in that arena as well (sleep/off). When the M1 MBP is off and plugged in, nothing can prevent it from charging to 100%.
I like AlDente because I use my laptop as a desktop for most of the day then unplug it as a laptop later in the day. This means I can have my battery at 68% all day running off of the mains, then use 10% of battery at night. And my battery health shows the benefits of this (over the course of my Intel MBP's life vs not using AlDente (using coconut battery to watch health)).
Like other posters here have said, I wish Apple had a built in limiter - but I do realize why it doesn't. It complicates. Most people don't want complication when they're trying to get work done (or enjoy an evening). lol.
Yep. AlDente can automate a lot of the work once you've configured the values you want, but it still requires manual intervention.
A lot of users do not want to baby their battery, they just want to use the laptop and have it work as intended. Optimized Battery Charging helps here because it's hands-off, but I find it works much better for me on an iPhone than a Mac. My iPhone doesn't get put on the charger until I go to sleep, but my Mac is constantly on the charger except for some exceptions.
I get to do an interesting experiment. I’ve had my M1 MacBook Air since launch day and I turned on optimized battery charging early on. For the last 15 months the MBA has been mostly in clamshell mode and the optimized charging has kept the battery at 80%. I was on exactly 50 charge cycles and 98.9% health by the ioregistry or coconut battery (100% by the battery health system preferences control panel.) For the last week I’m working onsite for the first time in a few years. I’m not bringing a charger since it isn’t needed (I get home after an 8-hour day with ~65% battery remaining.)
On Sunday night I told the Mac to charge to 100%. Monday morning it was fully charged. On Monday night I plugged it back in and the battery panel said it would be fully charged by 8 PM. On Tuesday morning the charge was at 96% and the battery was discharging back down to presumably 80%. I disabled optimized charging for 1 day and it charged back to 99% by the time I left for work. The rest of the week it charged to 100% with no interaction. Today on Saturday it is still charged to 100%.
It will be interesting to see if and how long it takes for the training to learn my new schedule.
Well I can say that optimized battery charging doesn't understand about weekends. So the battery charged to 100% on Friday night and stayed there on Saturday. I didn't use the computer on Sunday but this morning (Monday) the battery was at 80% again. I didn't have time to charge it this morning so I had to bring the charger to work. I've now charged it back to 100%. So the experiment continues. One week with a new schedule wasn't enough to change the optimized battery charging behavior.
We do not really know how 'optimized battery charging' really works.
Try reinstalling the helper. Also after updates, you'll have to reset the % for it to "take" again. That usually does it for me. Also if you're setting it lower than current charge, gotta hit discharge.
Tryin to help - hope it helps lol.
Tried the helper reinstall, didn't work. Reset my laptop, nothing. Uninstalled aldente pro and attempted to reinstall and cannot even open the app now. Keep getting error when trying to install helper app. I have a feeling this is due to the last mac os update (12.5).
Oh dang, that's not good. I'm using an M1 Max.
AlDente Pro 1.17.1
Mac OS 12.5 as well.
After the update I noticed my charge at 100% so I had to drop it back to 70% and it has stuck there since.
I have no idea why it wouldn't be working :/ Maybe an M2 thing?
Yeah, could be. It worked fine on my intel MBP with OS 12.5. I emailed the devs, will update once I hear back.
Last edited:
Different motherboard, things change. I have a program that tracks the temperature on my M1 MacBook Air. It doesn't work at all on the M2 MacBook Air. They changed the names of all the sensors apparently. It's not commercial but I was pretty surprised at the change.
It works on the M2. I had it working on mine for 12 days without any problems before returning it for a larger SSD (which is on order).
Weird, not sure what to make of my issue then.
Aldente will install but will not hold a charge at whatever % I set it to. I also can't seem to turn on any charge settings besides "Hardware Battery Percentage". Everything else is disabled by default and grayed out.
Aldente pro on the other hand will install but won't open and keeps asking me to install the helper. After installing it just asks again. No amount of resets or reinstalls seem to help.
I would try to “fully uninstall” AlDente - for example using AppCleaner - then reboot the Mac and install it again.
Don't need an app to fully uninstall: https://apphousekitchen.com/how-to-uninstall-aldente-pro/
But yes I will try that next. Thank you everyone for the advice and support!
Okay, I was able to fully uninstall and reinstall, and now the app opens as normal. However, the charge limit I set is ignored still, and all options besides "Hardware battery %" are still grayed out.
Yeah if reinstalling the helper doesn't do anything I'd start thinking that Apple is doing something with that (probably unintentionally) in the latest update. I'd do the above and save debug file and (if you haven't already) send that off to apphousekitchen.
Thanks for keeping us updated!