How can I maximize M1 MacBook battery health?

[ChrisChaval]

I have to confess, I did not care a lot either, but changed my mind when I went electric (e-bike, electric motorcycle) and started to study li ion technology a bit and how to keep li ion batteries in shape over time

those are some quite hefty investments and the battery being one very costly part of the equation, you want to care at that point

 

[senttoschool]

if increased battery life is one of the major selling points of the new M1 MacBooks and a healthy battery is the main component to ensure that major advantage over time, I would want to care

but I agree with you, many probably just won't

But Apple already does this optimization for you. It learns over time how to charge your Mac.

What that user asked for was a manual way to do this. I simply replied saying that 99% don't care and having it would just confuse users since most users know little to nothing about how to preserve a li-ion battery. I trust that Apple knows how to optimize their own battery better than the average user can.

 

[Natzoo]

then I'll set it to 100% for a day then back to 55-85%

I am going to give AlDente a shot since I want to see how it works but really have no real reason to use it. You say to charge it to 100% every now and then (once a week?) but after should I let it drain to 20% to ensure it stays calibrated? I think I will only use AlDente for a month since I usually get my keyboard replaced every year under the keyboard program. My 2018 got a new battery 2 weeks ago and honestly don't care about cycles since that number doesn't mean much (in terms that low cycles doesn't actually mean a healthy battery).

 

[BigMcGuire]

I am going to give AlDente a shot since I want to see how it works but really have no real reason to use it. You say to charge it to 100% every now and then (once a week?) but after should I let it drain to 20% to ensure it stays calibrated? I think I will only use AlDente for a month since I usually get my keyboard replaced every year under the keyboard program. My 2018 got a new battery 2 weeks ago and honestly don't care about cycles since that number doesn't mean much (in terms that low cycles doesn't actually mean a healthy battery).

I love it! So far it only works on non-M1 Macs tho - but I haven't had any issues with calibration - but I usually leave it at 75-85%. I've just left it at 70% now for weeks and all is well. I use my MBP as a desktop so. <shrug>.

Agreed - cycles aren't all that bad - keeping the cells energized and not keeping it at 100% (or <20%) seems like a good plan.

Interested to hear about your experience - will keep an eye out for it .

 

[Natzoo]

Interested to hear about your experience - will keep an eye out for it .

Will definitely let you know how I like it!

 

[jdb8167]

I am going to give AlDente a shot since I want to see how it works but really have no real reason to use it. You say to charge it to 100% every now and then (once a week?) but after should I let it drain to 20% to ensure it stays calibrated? I think I will only use AlDente for a month since I usually get my keyboard replaced every year under the keyboard program. My 2018 got a new battery 2 weeks ago and honestly don't care about cycles since that number doesn't mean much (in terms that low cycles doesn't actually mean a healthy battery).

It is not calibration. It is battery chemistry. Pushing your battery to 100% all the time or letting it drain under 20-25% puts more degradation on the battery than if you kept it between 25% and 85%.

 

[SvenderCell]

I have been delighted with the battery life of my M1 MacBook but that makes me all the more concerned about preserving battery health. (I have a 12.9-inch iPad Pro that needs a new battery again only a year and a half after the last one was replaced by Apple.)

some recommend routinely charging the battery only to 80% of maximum. However, Al Dente and other utilities for setting an SMC parameter to accomplish this were written for Intel Macs, and they do not work on the M1 MacBook Pro.

Yes, Apple claims it offers its own battery management, but frankly esp. with my iOS experience I would place greater trust in a third-party tool! I do not want my MacBook Pro’s battery to get baked while the laptop is plugged in, whether it is being used or not.

Hey Johnny, I can completely understand you and also almost know the Universitybattery website by heart.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have been in touch with Apple Support today and been chatting with a guy about it. On his recommendations, I filled out a feature feedback form, saying that it'd be great when the user can have the option to set his charge to basically what he wants (50 - 70%) so the battery doesn't sit all the time at a 100% while the Mac is plugged in ... I also referered to the correct link on the university battery website... may they'll think about it. I also mentioned that HP PCs already offer a similar feature (enabling battery management in BIOS stops the battery charge at 80%).

So maybe there will be an update at some point in the OS that will enable us to have this amazing feature...

I mean it's nice to have it, then you know you not just throwing battery chemistry away and it all has a better lifecycle. With billions and billions of laptops flying around over planet earth, if we can increase the life time of these batteries by such a simple setting at least by two (I reckon it will be more like 10 times better if you care about your battery a bit) then it already makes a massive different how much less battery waste is generated.

 

[darngooddesign]

Just use normally and replace the battery yourself in a couple of years. Or have Apple replace it for like 30 more than the cost of a battery.

 

[Johnnyangel]

Some of us are frankly not adept enough to do a battery replacement without breaking the laptop. If batteries were still user-replaceable and Apple hadn't pioneered the "seal it inside the machine" designs in the first place, all this would be a lot less of an issue. (Monetarily, at least, though perhaps not in terms of battery waste.)

Regarding asking Apple Support for manual control over battery charging, of course I thank SvenderCell for bothering to ask, but I'm skeptical that they'll ever provide it.* (After all, it isn't as though HP, Lenovo, Huawei, and others, hadn't been doing so for at least a couple of years now.)

I note that several folks in this thread as well as elsewhere report that at some unspecified point, the M1 Macs do start charging the battery to only 80 percent if the machine has noticed that you leave it plugged in all the time. Perhaps that "optimization" is better than nothing, but I don't think it's a really satisfactory solution.

What if you leave your MacBook plugged in 99% of the time, but you also want the battery charged to 100 percent the day before you leave for a transatlantic flight or a few days in a wilderness cabin with no power? Or what if you almost never leave your MacBook plugged in, but you still want it charged only to 80 percent when you do plug it in?

Some sort of operating system algorithm, no matter how clever, has no way of knowing what you want to do with your machine at all times.

*Unfortunately, I don't think Al Dente's author has made much progress in figuring out how to do it on the M1 either.

 

[Apple_Robert]

If you plan to use the M1 several years, get Apple to replace the battery if it gets to the point were it won't hold a charge. That way, you don't have to try and babysit the M1 all the time. Battery replacement doesn't cost a lot.

 

[jdb8167]

What if you leave your MacBook plugged in 99% of the time, but you also want the battery charged to 100 percent the day before you leave for a transatlantic flight or a few days in a wilderness cabin with no power?

You can use the battery menu to tell it to charge immediately. You just have to remember but that is no different than if you control the charger manually.

I agree that more user control would be great though. Apple is all about doing things automatically in software and they only give users control when there are a lot of complaints.

 

[Apple_Robert]

You can use the battery menu to tell it to charge immediately. You just have to remember but that is no different than if you control the charger manually.

I agree that more user control would be great though. Apple is all about doing things automatically in software and they only give users control when there are a lot of complaints.

If Apple integrated AlDente type features into the OS with the same kind of granular controls, it would lead to a lot of complaints and lawsuits, in my opinion. No matter what Apple does in the area of battery, many Mac users will continue to be dismayed and demanding.

 

[Jenexgaming]

I posted this in the Al dente github link referenced earlier in this thread, but I wanted to offer my 'solution' to those here as well.

In the meantime, I will use a 'hardware' work around involving a Gosund branded smart plug accessed/controlled via Amazon Alexa skill and I will simply set a recurring timer and/or activated the plug via voice command. It isn't going to automatically cut off the smart plug when the laptop charge gets to a specific percentage, but I can make sure it only begins charging an hour before I wake up (or earlier if I know the laptop battery was at a very low percentage.

I currently use the same setup for my wireless charging dock where I place my phone, ear buds, & watch each night before bed, because Apple's optimized charging never kicks in for me. My devices only charge when I want them to, and only for the length of time I want them too. Can also turn the smart plug off via the internet when I'm away from home if I forgot to do so before I left.

It's not perfect, but Apple has given us lemons without a recipe for lemonade so I'm making orange juice instead.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I posted this in the Al dente github link referenced earlier in this thread, but I wanted to offer my 'solution' to those here as well.

In the meantime, I will use a 'hardware' work around involving a Gosund branded smart plug accessed/controlled via Amazon Alexa skill and I will simply set a recurring timer and/or activated the plug via voice command. It isn't going to automatically cut off the smart plug when the laptop charge gets to a specific percentage, but I can make sure it only begins charging an hour before I wake up (or earlier if I know the laptop battery was at a very low percentage.

I currently use the same setup for my wireless charging dock where I place my phone, ear buds, & watch each night before bed, because Apple's optimized charging never kicks in for me. My devices only charge when I want them to, and only for the length of time I want them too. Can also turn the smart plug off via the internet when I'm away from home if I forgot to do so before I left.

It's not perfect, but Apple has given us lemons without a recipe for lemonade so I'm making orange juice instead.

Those with a HomePod and a HomeKit enabled plug (like Meross) could have power turn off at whatever percentage they wanted and cut back on at x percentage.

 

[Fred Zed]

I found a workaround and hopefully y'all can help me test. You can stay in your desired zone of operation longer if you use a weaker charger. I'm testing the 12W iPad charger and getting a slight drain. Anyone able to test an 18w or 20w iPhone charger to see if it will provide some some power headroom and not charge the battery. I'm using an Air and driving a monitor through the an Apple adapter. Thanks.

View attachment 1682263

Get the same thing with a Samung Qualcom 2 charger. However Coconut battery shows discharging approx 1.7W

 

[stanleydesu]

charging the MacBook Air M1 with the 10W iPad charger seems to maintain the battery for my use case (mid screen brightness, just browsing)

there even seems to be a very slow charge while the MacBook Air is in use

keeping the battery around 56% right now

I have a 12W iPad charger with a USB-A port. What cable are you using? I tried using a third-party USB-A to USB-C cable but it didn't charge the M1.

 

[Mistborn15]

I have a 12W iPad charger with a USB-A port. What cable are you using? I tried using a third-party USB-A to USB-C cable but it didn't charge the M1.

you'll need PD charger

 

[ChrisChaval]

I have a 12W iPad charger with a USB-A port. What cable are you using? I tried using a third-party USB-A to USB-C cable but it didn't charge the M1.

one of these:

Jufd Cavo USB C, [4 Pezzi,0.5M+1M+2M+3M] Nylon Cavo USB Type-C Ricarica Rapida e Trasferimento USB Tipo C Cable per Samsung S8 S9 Note 8,Huawei P10/Mate20,Mi A1,G6,Honor 10

JUFD è più di un semplice marchio, è un team creativo con idee costruite in fabbrica. Specifiche tecniche: Uscita corrente: 5V/ 3A (configurabile con resistenza da 56 Kohm),Trasferimento di data: USB 2.0 480 MB / s Connettore reversibile: con il connettore reversibile, seguire l'ultima tendenza d...

www.amazon.it

it charges just fine (slowly but surely)

 

[stanleydesu]

just for the fun of it I tried the 5W iPhone charger, too

this seems to be the sweet spot for maintaining the M1 MBA battery under light/normal load

obviously, the 5W charger is not able to charge the battery while the MBA is in use, while coconut battery reports a very low discharge fluctuating between 0-2 watts

this seems to make sense since the average draw of the MBA should be around 3-6 watts, roughly about what the iPhone charger is able to deliver

just as the iPad charger, the iPhone charger gets quite warm after some time

Nice, I'm using the 5W iPhone charger now
My personal use shows charging with 0.4-2W in CoconutBattery
My load must be lighter (Safari 5-10 tabs, VSCode (non-native), Discord). CoconutBattery shows 3-4W discharge when not charging.
Have been charging for 90 minutes, adapter hot
Battery stable at 80%. I plan to drop and maintain it at 60%
Will try 10W and 12W charger later

 

[theSeb]

It depends on what you mean by maximising the battery life and how long you intend to maximise it for.

My 2012 rMBP is now nearly 9 years old. I have simply used it without ever caring about how I use it, or how I charge it. Over the years it has spent multiple months connected to power and it has spent over 6 months sitting dead in cupboard because I stopped travelling for work. Just this week it has finally dropped to 79% of original capacity and the "battery service recommended" alert has appeared.

I really don't have the time to sit there and make sure it does not charge to a certain level, or discharge to a certain level. I have no time for worrying about it being on a cable for too long. I do not trust 3rd party applications to set that for me for various reasons and I do not see the need to waste my time with such applications, especially now that Apple has built in managed charging. Even without it my battery life on my various Macs has always exceeded my expectations.

Best thing to do is not to become obsessive and not install applications like Coconut Battery. I have been on this forum now for over a decade and I have seen people going down this rabbit hole of obsession too many times, instead of just enjoying and using the device.

 

[Tagbert]

Just use normally and replace the battery yourself in a couple of years. Or have Apple replace it for like 30 more than the cost of a battery.

I have a 2014 MBP that I wish had battery optimization protection. It mostly sits on the desk hooked up to power 24/7. I’ve twice had to replace the battery on it. the first time Apple covered it. the second time, I had to pay $375. This is made worse because Apple combines the battery and the top case into one part. This increases the replacement cost. the next time this happens, Apple will probably no longer stock the parts.

 

[darngooddesign]

I have a 2014 MBP that I wish had battery optimization protection. It mostly sits on the desk hooked up to power 24/7. I’ve twice had to replace the battery on it. the first time Apple covered it. the second time, I had to pay $375. This is made worse because Apple combines the battery and the top case into one part. This increases the replacement cost. the next time this happens, Apple will probably no longer stock the parts.

You can buy the battery replacement kit for like $110 from iFixit. I'm sure you can find an independent tech shop who will replace the battery as well. You dont have to replace the top case because the kit comes with adhesive softener which lets you free the battery. I recently had to replace my trackpad and I just used a few drops of acetone to accomplish the same thing.

My 2014's battery is still strong enough for my needs so I haven't had to replace it yet.

PS. The MacBook Airs have pull tabs on their battery adhesive to make removal super easy.

 

[stanleydesu]

Somone managed to run it on a M1 MBP with Big Sur? · Issue #52 · AppHouseKitchen/AlDente-Charge-Limiter

Somone managed to run it on a M1 MBP with Big Sur?

github.com

Charge limiting possible on M1 now.

Coming to AlDente soon.

 

[xxSky]

Aldente updated with M1 Support, for me works fine so far

Release AlDente Classic 2.0 · AppHouseKitchen/AlDente-Charge-Limiter

AlDente for Apple Silicon (M1 MacBooks) is finally out. We thank everyone who helped us here in the forum and hope you like it. David & Matthias

github.com

 

[henoire]

Here is my question regarding this topic. Since receiving my MBA M1 in December, I've been babying the battery by charging the battery when it hit's around 30-35% and unplugging it once it hits 80%. I'm new to laptop batteries; I haven't owned a laptop in like 12 years. The last one I owned was a Toshiba and I left it plugged in 95% of the time. doing that killed the battery prematurely and I vowed that if I ever owned a laptop again I would take the battery out if I had the laptop plugged in (You could easily eject the battery on the Toshiba and it would run on AC power). Obviously not possible with the new MBA M1.

I'm no power user and the only apps I actually run on it are Adobe Cloud/Lightroom/Photoshop, Davinci Resolve 17, Screen Sharing (to connect to my desktop MacMini) and Safari. Very basic stuff. I've only recently learned of Coconut Battery and basically it's telling me that I have:

- 40 cycles
- 96% capacity (Apples own battery health says that I have 99% capacity)

Like I've said, I'm not a power user and I keep the screen at 50% brightness. Everything is optimized for the battery. I'm not sure how I've already reached 40 cycles; with the way I use the computer I'm sure that I've only ever charged the battery every two maybe three days.

Anyways, my question is, will charging to 80% and letting the battery run down to 30% before charging again do more harm to the battery in terms of how many cycles it creates compared to leaving it plugged in and disconnecting from power say, twice a week and let it run down to 50% just to keep the electrons moving? How does that contribute to battery swelling that I've read some have experienced leaving plugged in?