M1 MacBook Air that’s been shut down for a long time won’t charge

[boston04and07]

Hi guys, I’m looking for some help getting a M1 MacBook Air up and running that’s been in storage for a while. My dad was given this laptop when he retired from his company as a gift (he had been using an older Intel laptop when he was working there, and never got one of the new ones until retirement for some reason). This laptop is unused and appears to have been sitting in a storage room for probably a few years.

I was able to get it started and get him signed in, but the laptop won’t run on the battery, and the battery won’t charge at all. The battery icon in the menu bar just has an X in it. The battery health section in Settings says that the battery is fine though. It’s been plugged into a 35w dual USB-C Apple power adapter (with nothing else plugged into the second port) for about 24 hours now but the battery still won’t charge.

I’ve been iPad-only for a while so I’m a bit foggy on troubleshooting Mac battery issues…if anyone has any suggestions my dad and I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[Mike Boreham]

That's a strange one. Complete discharge is not good for batteries but my gut feel is that battery may be OK but something is stopping it charging. Could be a software thing. A few thoughts:

- I would try another charger if you can, even though this one is producing enough to boot, so apparently OK.
- I would leave it connected for a long time. It may be trickle charging initially and might come to life after a certain charge level is reached. I had a phone once that behaved like this.
- A USB-C power meter is great tool for seeing what current and voltage are actually going into the machine. There are a lot around. I have a Satechi but it is discontinued.
- I would try a Safe Boot and also boot to Recovery.
- Apple Diagnostics test may tell you something useful.
- SMC and PRAM reset are no longer options on Silicon Macs but apparently the same settings are reset by shutting down and removing the power lead. It may seem a daft suggestion since it has been like for years but maybe now there is some juice and it has been booted it may do something.
- Phone Apple or take it to a Store.
- Bresink's Battery Monitor app shows individual cell voltages. Maybe one has died. It will also tell you what the charging current is.

Will be interesting to see what happens and whether any other ideas are posted.

 

[boston04and07]

Thanks @Mike Boreham for your reply! Yes, I was wondering about a PRAM reset but couldn’t find anything like that for an M1 Mac. I will give your recommendations a try when I pick up his laptop later, particularly the diagnostics test. I’ll post back with my results!

 

[leifp]

As Mike mentions, ”complete discharge is not good for batteries” and I’ve had several devices that require entirely new batteries after leaving them uncharged for months… hopefully you can get yours operational without such a drastic step.

 

[JPack]

Battery is dead for sure. Will need to be replaced for $159. Once Li-ion goes below a safe discharge voltage, it gets permanently damaged.

Even if the notebook is powered off, the system still consumes some power and the battery discharges.

 

[picpicmac]

I was wondering about a PRAM reset but couldn’t find anything like that for an M1 Mac.

The old way of Macs with PRAM no longer apply to the Apple Silicon era.

After the 24 hour battery charge, did you try to do a complete macOS re-install?

 

[boston04and07]

Battery is dead for sure. Will need to be replaced for $159. Once Li-ion goes below a safe discharge voltage, it gets permanently damaged.

Even if the notebook is powered off, the system still consumes some power and the battery discharges.

Sorry about getting behind on this - @JPack was indeed correct in that the battery was totally dead and damaged. Oops. A $159 replacement from Apple did the trick and my dad is happily using his MacBook Air now. Thanks everyone for your help and ideas!