Do you keep your M1 laptop plugged in all the time?

[Mike Boreham]

Here you go, @Apple_Robert says trust the software. He isn't wrong.

It is 9am CT so laptop algorithms know I have enough for the day.

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I have never seen that screen. My M1 MBA has had "optimise Battery charging" on from new and is plugged in most of the time. No daily routine to learn. After six weeks it dropped from 100 to 80% for about four hours than back to 100%. It repeated this a week later. These are the only "Optimise Battery Charging" events I have seen.

This doesn't seem to fit with the general notion to hold it at 80%.

 

[Zazoh]

I have never seen that screen. My M1 MBA has had "optimise Battery charging" on from new and is plugged in most of the time. No daily routine to learn. After six weeks it dropped from 100 to 80% for about four hours than back to 100%. It repeated this a week later. These are the only "Optimise Battery Charging" events I have seen.

This doesn't seem to fit with the general notion to hold it at 80%.

This morning was first I've seen. Instead of the lightening bolt over the battery, it shows an electrical plug (US Centric) I don't know x time before the optimized kicks in, but I suppose it is a month, I used mixed, some days charging while using some days battery all day.

Shows Charging on the graph, not on menu bar.

 

[kakaku]

hey, i bought my base model Macbook air 1month 25 days back and the battery health has dropped by 2 % it is now 98 , when i bought it, it was 100% so is that normal i mean isn't that too soon? cycle count-29

 

[Toutou]

it is now 98 , when i bought it, it was 100% so is that normal i mean isn't that too soon?

Don't stress about that number, it's just a rough estimate. Batteries are basically a bunch of chemicals growing on top of different chemicals, "dissolving" and growing again. We can periodically measure the voltage at whatever current we're draining at the moment and make educated guesses about what's happening inside the cells, but they're just that, guesses. (Notice how it's called "health" and not anything specific.)

So unless you see numbers like 75 % on a new machine or get a battery life of 5 hours, the battery is almost certainly in a good shape and its capacity is nominal.

 

[Lord Hamsa]

Or just to charge it up and using it on battery by itself?

I know its not good to just keep it at 100% charged all the time, but as of 10.15.5 or .6 didn't they add battery health improvement measures?

When I'm at my desk (typically during the day), I leave it plugged in. Evenings and weekends I tend to use it unplugged, popping it in to power overnight only when the battery is running below 50% (which happens sometimes if I'm using it heavily, but I can usually get through a weekend without charging).

 

[Quackers]

The only time my M1 MBA has been unplugged is when I've been testing the battery's run time, which is twice.
The second run time test was shorter than the first though. I'll try another now

 

[trevpimp]

I use the laptop off charger, I recharge when at 75% battery or even on 50%. The battery lasts me all day so its pretty easy to maintain a 75% charge up.

 

[spiderman0616]

I've had my M1 Air for quite a while, and have found that it's simply just not necessary to keep it plugged in other than when it gets down below about 20%. And even then, it's only necessary if I know I'll need it a lot on the go the next day. I don't even look at the battery gauge most of the time.

 

[ImaginaryNerve]

I've had my M1 Air for quite a while, and have found that it's simply just not necessary to keep it plugged in other than when it gets down below about 20%. And even then, it's only necessary if I know I'll need it a lot on the go the next day. I don't even look at the battery gauge most of the time.

This. So much this. I charge my M1 MBP on a Monday and leave it be until it gets to about 20% or so (or Monday rolls back around) and then my anxiety kicks in and I keep reaching for a plug even though I've got several hours left of juice.

It is a very hard habit to break. Anytime the thing is below 60% I get antsy and want to charge it.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I have kept most of my Macs plugged in almost 99% of their lives - using them as a glorified desktop. However, this year, I've gotten rid of my iPads and I plan on using my M1 as a mobile laptop more than ever before. Despite this, I have Al Dente keeping the battery at 80% at most to lessen wear on the battery. I used it for 20 minutes on battery and wow, it only went down 1%, while doing a ton of tasks. Crazy. Now that I have a work provided MBP.

According to coconutBattery - a wee bit over factory design capacity. Still blown away how instantaneous everything feels. - And turning down the brightness, how cold the metal feels. Wow.

 

[Tagbert]

I don't really understand what Apple's strategy for optimized charing is. my Air is plugged in most of the time. Current usage is pretty light. the battery is always exactly 100%. Is there any time when the system will let it go down and stay there? I would almost never need 100% battery charge. I don't need it to guess when to charge to 100% as there is never a need for that. I would prefer if I could tell it to just never charge above 80%. then if I were to need more charge, I could go in and change it ahead of time.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I don't really understand what Apple's strategy for optimized charing is. my Air is plugged in most of the time. Current usage is pretty light. the battery is always exactly 100%. Is there any time when the system will let it go down and stay there? I would almost never need 100% battery charge. I don't need it to guess when to charge to 100% as there is never a need for that. I would prefer if I could tell it to just never charge above 80%. then if I were to need more charge, I could go in and change it ahead of time.

As soon as I turned on Optimized Charging I started noticing that the battery of my MBP and my wife's MBP would dip to 80, 90, 85, randomly throughout the day, several times a day. Sometimes it sat at 86%, 90% for a bit, then charged back to 100%. I guess it kept the battery charged.

But yeah, that's why I use Al Dente - keep the charge below 80%. No need to utilize that if I don't need it - that seems to me that would do a lot more for battery longevity than the exercising. I wish Apple would do this instead of a 3rd party but whatever. My friend says his Tesla encourages not sitting at full charge for long periods of time if it can be helped. I think he can set it via a cellphone app. While I realize MacBook batteries are a bit cheaper, I'd really appreciate the ability to control my MBP battery via my phone, lol.

Al Dente, meanwhile, works pretty well. https://github.com/davidwernhart/AlDente/releases

 

[jdb8167]

I don't really understand what Apple's strategy for optimized charing is. my Air is plugged in most of the time. Current usage is pretty light. the battery is always exactly 100%. Is there any time when the system will let it go down and stay there? I would almost never need 100% battery charge. I don't need it to guess when to charge to 100% as there is never a need for that. I would prefer if I could tell it to just never charge above 80%. then if I were to need more charge, I could go in and change it ahead of time.

How long have you had the M1 MBA? And how long have you had optimized battery charging enabled?

I noticed that the first time it took about a month before my M1 MBA started to park at 80%. Then after a 11.2.x update it took another week to get back to where it was stopping charging at 80% again. But since then, it has worked pretty consistently.

I just told it to charge back to 100% because I want to see what the behavior is if I tell it to charge but then don't use it on battery for a day or so.

 

[Mike Boreham]

How long have you had the M1 MBA? And how long have you had optimized battery charging enabled?

I noticed that the first time it took about a month before my M1 MBA started to park at 80%. Then after a 11.2.x update it took another week to get back to where it was stopping charging at 80% again. But since then, it has worked pretty consistently.

I just told it to charge back to 100% because I want to see what the behavior is if I tell it to charge but then don't use it on battery for a day or so.

After six weeks on 100%, mine went down to 80% once for about four hours, then back to 100%. By eleven weeks it hadn't happened again, still 100%. At that point Al Dente was released and I have been using it since.

During the period it was 100% I did see very brief dips to 95%, but I never saw the option to "Charge to Full now" or the "On Hold xx%" message.

Of passing interest: I recently bought a used Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, and discovered that there is a UEFI setting which limits maximum battery charge to 50%. Unfortunately the seller didn't know the UEFI Settings password so I had to return it. I am using Al Dente set to 60% on my M1 MBA.

 

[Quackers]

Mine goes down to 80% while still plugged in from time to time.

 

[Tagbert]

How long have you had the M1 MBA? And how long have you had optimized battery charging enabled?

I noticed that the first time it took about a month before my M1 MBA started to park at 80%. Then after a 11.2.x update it took another week to get back to where it was stopping charging at 80% again. But since then, it has worked pretty consistently.

I just told it to charge back to 100% because I want to see what the behavior is if I tell it to charge but then don't use it on battery for a day or so.

I've had it about 6 weeks, now. always set to optimized charging. It's almost always plugged in on my desk and I've never seen it below 100%. Once things open up more I'll probably spend more time away from my desk. maybe that will cause it to go lower or maybe cause it to try to keep it at 100%?

I think that Apple's strategy here makes me feel like I have less control. That is now how you should make your customers feel.

 

[Tagbert]

As soon as I turned on Optimized Charging I started noticing that the battery of my MBP and my wife's MBP would dip to 80, 90, 85, randomly throughout the day, several times a day. Sometimes it sat at 86%, 90% for a bit, then charged back to 100%. I guess it kept the battery charged.

But yeah, that's why I use Al Dente - keep the charge below 80%. No need to utilize that if I don't need it - that seems to me that would do a lot more for battery longevity than the exercising. I wish Apple would do this instead of a 3rd party but whatever. My friend says his Tesla encourages not sitting at full charge for long periods of time if it can be helped. I think he can set it via a cellphone app. While I realize MacBook batteries are a bit cheaper, I'd really appreciate the ability to control my MBP battery via my phone, lol.

Al Dente, meanwhile, works pretty well. https://github.com/davidwernhart/AlDente/releases

thanks, I'll check out Al Dente

 

[jdb8167]

I've had it about 6 weeks, now. always set to optimized charging. It's almost always plugged in on my desk and I've never seen it below 100%. Once things open up more I'll probably spend more time away from my desk. maybe that will cause it to go lower or maybe cause it to try to keep it at 100%?

I think that Apple's strategy here makes me feel like I have less control. That is now how you should make your customers feel.

Right now mine is discharging at just under 2 W and is at 94.9%. This was after telling the battery to charge to 100% using the battery menu yesterday. Of course the battery menu extra still says 100% but that doesn't mean much. We'll see if it drops to 80% again and stays there. It looks like that is what the software is doing but it is still early in the process.

Edit: Interesting it looks like Coconut Battery has a bug. It claims the MacBook Air is charging when it is actually discharging. My command line tools seem more accurate.

 

[jdb8167]

Right now mine is discharging at just under 2 W and is at 94.9%. This was after telling the battery to charge to 100% using the battery menu yesterday. Of course the battery menu extra still says 100% but that doesn't mean much. We'll see if it drops to 80% again and stays there. It looks like that is what the software is doing but it is still early in the process.

Edit: Interesting it looks like Coconut Battery has a bug. It claims the MacBook Air is charging when it is actually discharging. My command line tools seem more accurate.
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Another update. The battery menu extra is now showing 93% and the "not charging" power cord icon. The battery is still discharging at about 2 W and the charge is actually at 88% of capacity. So, optimizing battery charging is definitely working on my M1 MBA as expected.

 

[ksloth]

I use the Aldente app kindly shown to me here on these forums and keep my battery charged to 80%. Maybe once a month, I will turn it off and let it charge to 100% and then run it down to about 25% before turning Aldente back on again. Battery health is at 100% which pleases me!

 

[BigMcGuire]

Another update. The battery menu extra is now showing 93% and the "not charging" power cord icon. The battery is still discharging at about 2 W and the charge is actually at 88% of capacity. So, optimizing battery charging is definitely working on my M1 MBA as expected.

View attachment 1754576 View attachment 1754575

Oooh that looks nice - did you get that .sh file from somewhere or program it yourself? If so, are you willing to share?

 

[jdb8167]

Oooh that looks nice - did you get that .sh file from somewhere or program it yourself? If so, are you willing to share?

It uses a modified version of a command line tool called bitwise. I don't have a binary up on GitHub. If you are comfortable building software then it will work. If I have a chance I will put a binary version of bitwise in a release. The scripts are here: https://github.com/jamesdbailey/m1batterystats. The modified version of bitwise is here: https://github.com/jamesdbailey/bitwise.

What is shown here is a single script called battery.sh.

 

[BigMcGuire]

It uses a modified version of a command line tool called bitwise. I don't have a binary up on GitHub. If you are comfortable building software then it will work. If I have a chance I will put a binary version of bitwise in a release. The scripts are here: https://github.com/jamesdbailey/m1batterystats. The modified version of bitwise is here: https://github.com/jamesdbailey/bitwise.

What is shown here is a single script called battery.sh.

Thank you! Much appreciated! I know how to build code on Windows - time for me to learn on Mac

 

[jdb8167]

Thank you! Much appreciated! I know how to build code on Windows - time for me to learn on Mac

Bitwise is a command line build. It doesn't use Xcode directly. You need brew if you don't already have it installed. https://brew.sh. The README (Edit: the README in my bitwise fork)has the details of what you need to install. After that, run the bootstrap.sh script. Then ./configure then make. Should create the binary.

Edit: I forgot the exports are wrong for brew with an M1. They should now be:

export LDFLAGS="-L/opt/homebrew/opt/readline/lib"
export CPPFLAGS="-I/opt/homebrew/opt/readline/include"

 

[KennyJr]

Why buy a laptop and then keep it plugged in all the time? What sense does this make? ?

My MacBook Pro M1 feeds a 32" LG monitor. The monitor keeps my M1 MB Pro charged. This combination replaced my old 27" iMac. This is like having a 32" iMac, while at the same time being able to take the base computer with me when I travel.