How to set 80% battery MBP M1

[Snuupy]

Hi guys,

Mac OS is not very smart about battery optimisation. I am using my MBP M1 mostly stationary connected to an external monitor. What the software is doing is limit the battery charge to 80%, but on the next start up, it’s charging the battery to 100%, and this goes in circles. I do not want to charge to 100%. When I shut down the laptop, I am unplugging the charger for this purpose, but again when I start the laptop/plug the charger it charges again to 100%. I also tried AlDante, but I have the same issue. On the first start up it charged it to 81, then 82, now I am on 88%.

Is there any option to limit the charge to 80% and stay there?

 

[Mike Boreham]

AlDente or Energiza are two I have used, but prefer AlDente. Lots of threads if you search AlDente.

There are far more options than than Apples Optimised Battery Charging, which has never worked for me.

I keep mine below 60% normally.

 

[xraydoc]

I use AlDente Pro. Works like a charm. Locked at 80% battery. This is very useful for me as my machine spends the vast majority of its time pretending to be a desktop machine, so it's constantly plugged in to multiple desktop displays and thus always connected to power.

Edit: OP, if you're seeing your machine charge up beyond 80% (or whatever you have set), just be aware that the machine needs to be booted and running (sleep is ok) for the charging to stop at 80%. If its powered off, or not booted to macOS (like if the machine is doing a software update), it'll charge past your chosen level.

 

[Jim Lahey]

I roll AlDente Pro with an 80% ceiling and a 40% sail. Thus always keeping the charge between 40-80. Stays in effect after unplugging and reconnecting. Including sleep.

 

[Sgaar]

Hands down, Energiza is the better of the two.

 

[mysticmanix]

Anyone know of a free program that can discharge? I tried AlDente but my Macbook is docked in clamshell and the free version doesn't let you discharge

 

[yadmonkey]

AlDente or Energiza are two I have used

I had never heard of AlDente, but what a great name to go with its function!

 

[StoneJack]

Dont use aldente and etc. mac os has built in battery optimization

 

[chrfr]

Hands down, Energiza is the better of the two.

Can you expand on why you think that?

 

[Sgaar]

Not to be snippy, but the fact that it works is a major plus. I initially bought Energiza simply because it was the first app I found that offered the needed functionality, namely limiting by battery charging to a percentage I set as opposed to what Macos offers. I then found a discussion around this type of SW and several mentioned Aldente. I bought it as it looked interesting, but it simply does not work. When I uninstalled Energiza and put on Aldente, my battery was charged to 80% per my setting in Entergiza. I set Aldente to 70 I think, but instead of letting the battery discharge to the set limit, Aldente allowed the full charging of the battery. OK, maybe it needed to calibrate so I left it. It never started to adhere to the charge settings even after several days. Took it off, and reinstalled Energiza and haven't looked back since. My regret is that I spent money on it and there is no refund. Lesson learned is that one should not mess with stuff that already is working.

Now you might say that this is caused due to operator error, and maybe it is. But even if that is the case, shouldn't this type of SW be simple enough where there is not a possibility of operator induced errors?

 

[donawalt]

+1 AlDente fan here as well. I use it on 2 MacBook Pros, it works perfectly. I keep mine at 65%, sail to 60%. I use the paid version.

 

[Ybersetzer]

I recently switched from M1 Air to one with M3. And I notice that Optimised Battery Charging seems to have changed: with the M1 Air, once it had charged to 100 percent (for whatever reason) and it was plugged in, it would stay at 100 percent, and only if I unplugged it and used it would the percentage then drop. With this Air with M3, it will reduce the charge to 80 slowly from 100 even when plugged in. An improvement, I guess, because my machine thus spends less time at 100 percent than before (but even then: after 3 years of mostly plugged in use the battery was still very good), but I do wish Apple would just give users a choice to cap charging. Make it an optional setting for us nerds at least!

Update: after once again seeing that my M3 Air reduced the battery level from fully charged to 80 percent while plugged in, for then to charge to 100 percent ago a bit later the day (while plugged in, and not having been disconnected in the meantime), I decided to install Batfi, and am happy so far. battery level sits where I want it and the algorithm is not trying to secondguess my use pattern.

 

[junoreactor]

command-line tool bclm