M1 battery life is terrible, Rosetta to blame?

[darkmatter343]

Couldn't say. I am aware that initial indexing can cause battery drain, but even still this is Apple Silicon so it shouldn't be as much of a drain as previous Intel based Macs. Either way it seems to have sorted it self out. I only charge my MacBook about once a week because it only gets used about 2-3 days a week, and within those 2-3 days about 20+ hours total. Watching movies hooked up to an external display on battery, downloading, web viewing, music etc.

 

[lofty248]

My partners m1 air with 8 core graphics has terrible battery drain when connected to an external monitor with a DVI-HDMI cable and an Alogic HDMI to Usb-c adapter.

Its a bog standard 1080p monitor she uses for pdf's no video, brightness is not turned up super high (on the laptop screen), but she can go through %50+ charge in a 3-4 hours.

Will check activity viewer and report back but something is definitely not right.

 

[Apple_Robert]

My partners m1 air with 8 core graphics has terrible battery drain when connected to an external monitor with a DVI-HDMI cable and an Alogic HDMI to Usb-c adapter.

Its a bog standard 1080p monitor she uses for pdf's no video, brightness is not turned up super high (on the laptop screen), but she can go through %50+ charge in a 3-4 hours.

Will check activity viewer and report back but something is definitely not right.

Using an external monitor will use a little more battery. If she has brightness above 50% that will use more battery as well. Check her workflow. Maybe she has a lot of open apps running at once? Battery usage does sound off.

 

[pungor23]

Hey. I am experiencing the same issues as @darkmatter343 . I am running my M1 MacBook Air on the minimum. This means low brightness, no energy-consuming apps running behind and I just cannot get more than 7-8 hours while Apple claims up to 15 hours of wireless internet usage. Of course, I am not expecting 15 but I think that I should get easily 10-12 hours as many people claims. In the case of these numbers given by Apple, I always experienced pretty close numbers so those are more likely appropriate. I also experienced earlier that my Apple devices started charging much faster when my battery was already used and much below original capacity. I see that every time I put my MBA up for charging it shows around 3 hours to 100% which I always reach around 2 hours however my brand new M1 obviously has 100% capacity. But I am wondering if this charging time may show that something is up here and it is connected to the lower screen on time I get.
Please let me know if you know anything regarding that or have any experience. I would also like to know if you know any possibilities to prove if my Mac has some kind of default because apparently, I am far from the ideal battery time just as @darkmatter343 as I claimed
Thanks for everyone in advance

 

[jdb8167]

Hey. I am experiencing the same issues as @darkmatter343 . I am running my M1 MacBook Air on the minimum. This means low brightness, no energy-consuming apps running behind and I just cannot get more than 7-8 hours while Apple claims up to 15 hours of wireless internet usage. Of course, I am not expecting 15 but I think that I should get easily 10-12 hours as many people claims. In the case of these numbers given by Apple, I always experienced pretty close numbers so those are more likely appropriate. I also experienced earlier that my Apple devices started charging much faster when my battery was already used and much below original capacity. I see that every time I put my MBA up for charging it shows around 3 hours to 100% which I always reach around 2 hours however my brand new M1 obviously has 100% capacity. But I am wondering if this charging time may show that something is up here and it is connected to the lower screen on time I get.
Please let me know if you know anything regarding that or have any experience. I would also like to know if you know any possibilities to prove if my Mac has some kind of default because apparently, I am far from the ideal battery time just as @darkmatter343 as I claimed
Thanks for everyone in advance

Have you checked Activity Monitor to see if something is running in the background and using a lot of CPU? Since you've already accounted for screen brightness, this is the most likely thing to reduce battery life. It isn't enough to just check the battery menu extra since not everything the system runs will be accounted for there.

 

[xraydoc]

One thing to keep in mind as y'all check battery life is to see if Time Machine is running during your tests. While the battery life on the M1 machines is very good, I do see my % going down further when Time Machine makes a big image versus just small backups. Mine is set to allow it to run on battery.

 

[pungor23]

Have you checked Activity Monitor to see if something is running in the background and using a lot of CPU? Since you've already accounted for screen brightness, this is the most likely thing to reduce battery life. It isn't enough to just check the battery menu extra since not everything the system runs will be accounted for there.

I did check it, nothing running in the background... So the problem is still viable.

 

[jdb8167]

I did check it, nothing running in the background... So the problem is still viable.

All that looks normal. I’d leave the Activity Monitor CPU window up and visible while using the computer and see if you get spikes in the CPU usage. It might just be that your CPU load is higher than you think. The only other thing I can think of is if you have anything plugged into the TB/USB-C ports.

 

[pungor23]

All that looks normal. I’d leave the Activity Monitor CPU window up and visible while using the computer and see if you get spikes in the CPU usage. It might just be that your CPU load is higher than you think. The only other thing I can think of is if you have anything plugged into the TB/USB-C ports.

I have nothing plugged in ever. In my opinion - as I discussed in my original comment - this is something that shouldn't be happening and it is somehow related to the capacity of my battery. It may be worse than shown by Apple and OS.

 

[drdudj]

started with 100% charge, had messages open and messaging with brother, had email open and reading incoming, sending "e's" out to several friends, had FB open and poker videos playing, and had this loaded on another tab. after 5 hours battery down to 72%. used 28%. at that rate another 10 hours would put usage at 15 hours, using 84%, at 16% left if the drain stayed constant with all of these remaining open and running.

 

[Carlson-online]

I just got almost 20 hours out of the first charge of my pro - brightness about 60%. Usage over two days of work and evening personal use the first day. Chrome and slack open constantly, at least 4 hours of zoom calls, terminal running node apps, vs code for a bit.
Colour me extremely impressed. My old mbp 16 would have needed plugging in at lunchtime in the first day !

 

[pungor23]

I have the most simple MBA M1 with 8GB of ram and a 7-core GPU. @darkmatter343 do you have the same? I am wondering if these little battery issues are coming up only on these?

 

[drdudj]

I have the most simple MBA M1 with 8GB of ram and a 7-core GPU. @darkmatter343 do you have the same? I am wondering if these little battery issues are coming up only on these?

mine's 8gb, 7 core