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branchus

macrumors member
May 28, 2011
33
6
BTW I think this only started happening after I re-installed the OS after 12.1 came out. Before 12.1, the system did hold the charge level at 80% after a while. So it's possible it's a new, undocumented behavior. Or it's a bug...
For me I think it happened since the 12.2 upgrade. Mine never hold charge level at 80%, although I connected to A/C all the time.

anyway, 10% everyday to get the battery cell move a little bit, I'm OK with this. even if it is a bug.
 

AdriftAtlas

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 27, 2016
87
72
I'm wary about installing an esoteric app that has suddenly gone closed source (AlDente) to fix a bug in a feature that's supposed to preserve the battery. Apple should really fix this.
 

branchus

macrumors member
May 28, 2011
33
6
I'm wary about installing an esoteric app that has suddenly gone closed source (AlDente) to fix a bug in a feature that's supposed to preserve the battery. Apple should really fix this.
agreed. prefer apple's own tool if it's available.

upgraded to macOS 12.2.1 this morning, now the charge behaviour changed. no longer do frequent top ups, my charge now hold at 87%

Screen Shot 2022-02-11 at 09.28.05.png
 

jdb8167

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2008
4,859
4,599
agreed. prefer apple's own tool if it's available.

upgraded to macOS 12.2.1 this morning, now the charge behaviour changed. no longer do frequent top ups, my charge now hold at 87%

View attachment 1957189
It’s trying to learn your battery usage patterns. If you regularly change when you use your MacBook on battery you will probably see the behavior change. I use my M1 MacBook Air almost exclusively on the charger so I see the “on hold” behavior nearly all the time.
 

JPack

macrumors G5
Mar 27, 2017
13,543
26,166
That 1% of the time it’s unplugged is keeping the computer from holding at 80%. It simply doesn’t know how long your next unplug will last so it plays it safe. Use a third party app if you want to hold at 80% while unplugging.
 

throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
9,199
7,353
Perth, Western Australia
Optimized Battery Charging is checked. Not quite sure how it's extending battery life by needlessly using the battery.

Keeping batteries above 80% for extended time, or below 20% for extended time is bad for them.

If you only occasionally use on battery it will eventually learn to not go to 100% very often at all.
 

Mike Boreham

macrumors 68040
Aug 10, 2006
3,914
1,897
UK
It's not a bug.
I agree. More a case that Apple's normal desire to have a totally automatic and transparent method does not work well with all usage cases.

I believe this is an example where a semi-automatic tool like AlDente is more appropriate.....unless you closely match the usage cases Apple was envisaging.
 
Last edited:

5425642

Cancelled
Jan 19, 2019
983
554
Don't understand the issue? you need to start using your MBP so it start to understand your user behaviour.
I do have it plugged in from 08-17 then on battery to the day after at 08 and for me it works perfect.
 
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Mike Boreham

macrumors 68040
Aug 10, 2006
3,914
1,897
UK
Don't understand the issue? you need to start using your MBP so it start to understand your user behaviour.
I do have it plugged in from 08-17 then on battery to the day after at 08 and for me it works perfect.
Not everyone is like you! Yours is the kind of regular use case for which it works well.
 
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throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
9,199
7,353
Perth, Western Australia
Don't understand the issue? you need to start using your MBP so it start to understand your user behaviour.
I do have it plugged in from 08-17 then on battery to the day after at 08 and for me it works perfect.
Same here. Took a couple of months for it to "learn" my usage, but right now I'm pretty happy with the way it works.
 
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/V\acpower

macrumors 6502a
Jul 31, 2007
631
500
Here is what a week of battery charge percentage looks like for me even though it's plugged in 99% of the time:

View attachment 1959210
Without being a battery engineer, isn't a lithium-ion battery composed of many individual cells, that each "gain" from being partially discharged and recharged from time to time ?

In the sense that it may be a way to "cycle" this discharge between different cells, while making sure the computer is always at least at 80% in case you suddently need it.
 

superprinz

macrumors newbie
Feb 19, 2022
2
5
Long-time user of Aldente here.
Advice: just get it and stop worrying / waiting for Apple to release a proper batter management. It is basic battery physics.
 
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tracker1

macrumors newbie
Jul 17, 2022
1
0
Phoenix, AZ, USA
The battery is *ALWAYS* used, otherwise when you disconnected power, you'd likely use power, or a very large/dangerous capacitor (or bank) would be needed.

The limited charge/discharge is probably a good thing overall... counter is many phones that stay charged 98-99% lose a lot of battery life if plugged in too much. If you have enough charge to get through the night and can do so during the next day, it's often better to leave unplugged. I usually plug in when the offer to "extreme battery saver" is notifying me... similarly, unplugging when I notice it's full or over 95% or so.

By letting it go down to 80%, it's fewer charge cycles, not more, which keeping it "topped off" would be. That said, Looking at the battery tab, it looks like it isn't going from 80-100%, but just staying at 80%. That's a bit more concerning and why I was looking around. My guess is I'm not seeing the top up to 100% because it's probably just a few minutes here and there.

I kind of wish there were an option to let it go down as much as 50%, to reduce wear even further.
 

Menneisyys2

macrumors 603
Jun 7, 2011
6,003
1,106
Thanks, and sorry for my missing it. Installed it; no problems so far with sleep resume etc. Works great on my 16"!
I ended up uninstalling the tool - it

1, being listed in the (cmd-tab) task list and
2, the need NOT to kill it accidentally (which is all too easy as it's in the task list)

drove me crazy.

Now all I do is hope Apple comes up with a way of setting "maximize battery level at 80%" instead of the current, constant dis/recharging madness.
 

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,521
19,677
Now all I do is hope Apple comes up with a way of setting "maximize battery level at 80%" instead of the current, constant dis/recharging madness.

Unlikely. Apple’s focus in these matters is on prolonging battery life while staying out of users way, and not letting users to configure their own arbitrary thresholds.
 
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