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involuntarheely

macrumors regular
Jul 28, 2019
126
140
On the new 13" I get similar behavior, 2 months, 8 cycles: 95.9% fluctuating a bit but certainly not close to 100%
 

Corncab44

macrumors regular
Jun 22, 2020
233
62
We have a few 16 inch units around. They were purchased last December and almost all of them started showing 93% capacity after just a few cycles. Mine was ok for a few months longer, but now show the same 92-93% number. This was well before the new battery health management feature became available.

I guess what I'm wondering is when it says 95% or 85% or whatever, if the battery is really that depleted or there is some kind of software-related factor.
 
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bdart2

macrumors member
Oct 29, 2014
46
8
Bought a new 16 in MBP in Early June. Now at 94% with 19 cycles. it started with probably 98%.

Should I be concerned?

I assume this is not a reason to contact Apple or take back to Costco right?
 

Steven Hirsch

macrumors newbie
Jul 21, 2020
3
0
I bought my Macbook Pro 16 last Xmas and it is already down to 94%. Good to know I'm not crazy, just another Apple QC victim. Will we ever really be able to trust Apple?

7/24/2020: Battery health now at 93%.
 
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Corncab44

macrumors regular
Jun 22, 2020
233
62
If folks are able, I think apple can run a proprietary diagnostic thing while you're on the phone with them that might give an actual battery health reading. I'm convinced there's more than meets the eye with the numbers we're seeing here.
 

bdart2

macrumors member
Oct 29, 2014
46
8
If folks are able, I think apple can run a proprietary diagnostic thing while you're on the phone with them that might give an actual battery health reading. I'm convinced there's more than meets the eye with the numbers we're seeing here.
more than meets the eye in a good way or bad way?
 

Bustermd

macrumors regular
Apr 21, 2020
167
387
1. How reliable are Coconut Battery readings? Lots of people in this thread are reporting huge variability even day to day in their own machine.

2. How does coconut battery health percentage translate into real world battery performance?

I'm asking because I don't know and you can't interpret the results of these tests without knowing the above.
 

Killbynumbers

macrumors 6502a
May 29, 2019
578
565
I bought my 16" MBP brand new in April. At that time, it had about 6 cycles on the battery out of the box. Now I have 16 and the battery health is 93.3. Every day it seems to get a bit lower.
 
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bdart2

macrumors member
Oct 29, 2014
46
8
I bought my 16" MBP brand new in April. At that time, it had about 6 cycles on the battery out of the box. Now I have 16 and the battery health is 93.3. Every day it seems to get a bit lower.
Yes, this is just bad. I wonder if this is normal or what.

I worry I will have the same issues.
 

jyyz

macrumors regular
Oct 17, 2014
178
80
My personal thoughts on this. The 16" MBP is a lot of compromise. They've tried to make the machine as powerful as possible, but in as thin as possible an enclosure. The way the 16" is built, it's pushing the limits. The power supply is unable to fully power everything, and the battery is used more than previous models to supplement this. This results in extra wear and tear on the battery, and consequently declining health. Whether that will be a long-term issue, or whether things will work out fine time will tell I guess. Running a fairly basic WebEx screen share and video meeting with bunch of windows and apps open, you can see the battery is being used (marginally in Coconut) even though the 16" is plugged in. Running something intense, like playing a game etc, you can see battery use while plugged in is even more pronounced. This increased battery use, combined with heat put out be the processors is the cause of this - at least that's my theory.
 
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golfnut1982

macrumors 6502a
Oct 12, 2014
543
1,383
Chicago, IL
Remember, if you have Battery Health Management enabled, your overall capacity will drop. This is due to the latest Mac OS update. Your capacity should go back up if you disable it. Enable it when you need it. This is for mostly the plugged in all day types.
 

bdart2

macrumors member
Oct 29, 2014
46
8
Remember, if you have Battery Health Management enabled, your overall capacity will drop. This is due to the latest Mac OS update. Your capacity should go back up if you disable it. Enable it when you need it. This is for mostly the plugged in all day types.
You mean 10.15.5 or 10.15.6?
 

Corncab44

macrumors regular
Jun 22, 2020
233
62
Would be interested if folks limiting the wattage to the processor so it doesn't (combined with the rest, screen, GPU etc) exceed the charge limit would have better results. It seems like the 16 almost never needs all the power it will draw when left unchecked. Now, the problem there is often the GPU when plugged into a monitor, but the overall point still stands
 

happyhippo1337

macrumors 6502
Jul 3, 2013
260
143
My 16'' from November is at around 45 cycles now and Coconut puts it at 93,5%
On the current Big Sur Beta, I just got a service message that tells me the battery is significantly degraded and I should seek help. It's rating mine at 90%

Update: that seems to be a false positive on Beta 3 as reported by others on reddit.
 
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Pro85

macrumors newbie
Jul 16, 2020
5
0
sorry is that normal?
macbookpro16 2019 i9
Do you know a safari mac translation extension? free?
thanks
 

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mikethebigo

macrumors 68020
May 25, 2009
2,389
1,481
Has anyone tried a full calibration to see if it helps? I'm at 54 cycles, also 93%. Thinking of doing a full charge cycle but with these machines that's almost a full day procedure to drain from 100 to 0!
 

Marc-André Voyer

macrumors newbie
Mar 7, 2020
4
1
Hi guys, I figured out something very, very interesting that is relevant to this thread.

Coconut Battery and System Information are mere estimations, which get thrown off if you're using Bootcamp. After using Windows, if you discharge/recharge in MacOS it should reflect the correct capacity. I have noticed the same behaviour on my 13 inch MacBook Pro 2019 and my 16 inch MacBook Pro 2019 (with 5600m graphics).

I hope this image allows you to see how inaccurate the battery estimates can be:

Screen Shot 2020-07-26 at 7.31.19 AM.png


So your batteries are fine, really. Just enjoy your Macs.
 

Broko Fankone

macrumors regular
Jun 14, 2020
231
225
Hi guys, I figured out something very, very interesting that is relevant to this thread.

Coconut Battery and System Information are mere estimations, which get thrown off if you're using Bootcamp. After using Windows, if you discharge/recharge in MacOS it should reflect the correct capacity. I have noticed the same behaviour on my 13 inch MacBook Pro 2019 and my 16 inch MacBook Pro 2019 (with 5600m graphics).

Are you sure it's not the other way around? The actual estimations may get wiped out and then you might see a default value. That would be even worse since you'd rely on incorrect information after every time you use bootcamp.
 

Marc-André Voyer

macrumors newbie
Mar 7, 2020
4
1
Are you sure it's not the other way around? The actual estimations may get wiped out and then you might see a default value. That would be even worse since you'd rely on incorrect information after every time you use bootcamp.

Sorry, I'm no expert. I may not have been very clear above.

What I do know though is that both my new laptops (from March and July) behave the same way. As in, they have proper battery health under Coconut Battery (100%) when they've been running MacOS only for a while. Shortly after Bootcamp use, though, they are both reporting much lower battery health (low 90s) until MacOS goes through at least another charge cycle, which -- I assume, recalibrate the battery.

So either I have two defective laptops (different models, mind you), or they're both running perfectly fine and this is occurring on everyone's machines after running Bootcamp. I'm taking an educated guess that the truth is the latter.

I just paid a ton of money for the 16 inch (almost completely maxed out with the 5600m) and if that was cause for concern I'd return it. But I'm confident it's fine.
 

mikethebigo

macrumors 68020
May 25, 2009
2,389
1,481
Sorry, I'm no expert. I may not have been very clear above.

What I do know though is that both my new laptops (from March and July) behave the same way. As in, they have proper battery health under Coconut Battery (100%) when they've been running MacOS only for a while. Shortly after Bootcamp use, though, they are both reporting much lower battery health (low 90s) until MacOS goes through at least another charge cycle, which -- I assume, recalibrate the battery.

So either I have two defective laptops (different models, mind you), or they're both running perfectly fine and this is occurring on everyone's machines after running Bootcamp. I'm taking an educated guess that the truth is the latter.

I just paid a ton of money for the 16 inch (almost completely maxed out with the 5600m) and if that was cause for concern I'd return it. But I'm confident it's fine.
Only pushback I would give is, just because multiple models do it, doesn't necessarily mean it's fine behavior.

Only time will tell if they continue to degrade.

Hopefully if you spent that much on the machine you got AC+, in which case, worse case scenario is a free replacement.
 
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