M1 MBP Battery Health

[amitabhbansal]

Friends
I am using M1 Macbook Pro 8/512 GB from 1 Year, i use it very less as i have iMac and other MBP's, usually i charge to fully to 100% and use it till the battery goes 20% and then again charge to 100%, this is what i was doing until i saw a video on youtube that if using the MBP we should keep it power connected if the power source is available, so from last 5-6 days i am using it always with power connected and checked its battery health regularly and it was 100% till today, its showing me 99% health today. i am worried because not used it on battery and kept it connected with power and health dropped to 99%. is it just coincidence or i am using it wrong? attaching the screenshot of Power.
Please help

 

[Mike Boreham]

There are lots of threads about battery health, battery optimisation etc, but if you have a year old MBP with battery health at 99% you don't have much to worry about.

The main aim of optimisation is to reduce the time spent with the battery at 100% charge. So your recent practice of keeping it plugged in all the time at 100% charge is not a good thing.

 

[amitabhbansal]

There are lots of threads about battery health, battery optimisation etc, but if you have a year old MBP with battery health at 99% you don't have much to worry about.

The main aim of optimisation is to reduce the time spent with the battery at 100% charge. So your recent practice of keeping it plugged in all the time at 100% charge is not a good thing.

Then what is the best way to use it? Optimising Battery is always on.
And i never shut down MBP.
I have discussed with a youtuber Aaron, Attaching the screenshot
Please guide me what to do after 100% charge how to use it?

 

[Mike Boreham]

Yes the Apple Optimised Battery Charging should be enough, as your YouTuber says. But the problem is that it doesn't work for everyone.

There are two modes OBC is supposed to work:

1. If you have a regular daily routine, it learns when you want to take it off charge in the morning. It charges up to 80% and holds to there, and does the final increase to 100% charge shortly before you want to start using it. Thus reducing time it sits at 100% charge to just the last hour or so, instead of most of the night.

2. If you mostly leave your MacBook plugged in 24/7 it recognises this and holds it at 80% all the time. People for whom this works report that it can take a month or so for the behaviour to be recognised and the 80% be applied.

I use my MacBooks mostly plugged in all the time and I have never seen it held at 80% even after two months. Many other people also do not see the 80% hold, but many do. You will have to try it for a month or so to see if you are one of the lucky ones.

Because of this I and many others use the third party app AlDente to control max charge, on both my M1MBAs, and I am very happy with it. I admit I have not tried Apple Optimised Battery charging for over a year now, so it may have improved, but I like the extra control of AlDente so would probably stay with it anyway. My November 2020 Mac is at 99% Apple health, and my early 2021 Mac is at 100% health. (Apple health number is not the same parameter as third party app health values).

Search on AlDente will find many threads like this.

 

[Stefdar]

Guys, the best solution is AlDente Pro. After 80 cycles my battery health is still at a 100%. (MacBook Pro 14" M1Pro).

 

[amitabhbansal]

from where i can download aldente pro? searched but safari giving me warning to open that page

AlDente

AlDente – Charge Limiter The ALL-IN-ONE charge Limiter App for MacBooks. Download Free Get AlDente Pro AlDente gives you the tools you need to extend the life of your MacBook battery. Why do I need this? Li-ion batteries (like the one in your MacBook) last the longest when operated between 20%...

apphousekitchen.com

 

[Paradoxally]

Yeah, you should use AlDente Pro. If you have Setapp, it's included in the subscription.

Love this software, it keeps my battery around 75% when I'm plugged in and tops up back to 75% when it drops below 65% (I have a 10% tolerance so it doesn't constantly top up in the 65-75 range).

It also handles calibration cycles automatically, just press one button and it does it all.

 

[MrGunny94]

Guys, the best solution is AlDente Pro. After 80 cycles my battery health is still at a 100%. (MacBook Pro 14" M1Pro).
View attachment 2024497
View attachment 2024498

For sure! Look at mine after a year lol

 

[Mike Boreham]

from where i can download aldente pro? searched but safari giving me warning to open that page

AlDente

AlDente – Charge Limiter The ALL-IN-ONE charge Limiter App for MacBooks. Download Free Get AlDente Pro AlDente gives you the tools you need to extend the life of your MacBook battery. Why do I need this? Li-ion batteries (like the one in your MacBook) last the longest when operated between 20%...

apphousekitchen.com

Yes I saw that too (on my Mac not if viewing on iPad). Puzzling.

Try from their GitHub location

https://github.com/davidwernhart/AlDente

 

[izzy0242mr]

For sure! Look at mine after a year lol

My built in Mac estimate of my battery health says 98% but Coconut battery says 92%. Any idea why such a big discrepancy?

 

[amitabhbansal]

Yes I saw that too (on my Mac not if viewing on iPad). Puzzling.

Try from their GitHub location

https://github.com/davidwernhart/AlDente

its too complicated to download from here, give me the direct link to download please

 

[Mike Boreham]

its too complicated to download from here, give me the direct link to download please

I just tried https://apphousekitchen.com and did not get the warning this time. If you still do, try using Firefox or something

OR

Try https://github.com/davidwernhart/AlDente/releases/tag/1.17.1

Then click on red oval in this:

 

[aevan]

Then what is the best way to use it? Optimising Battery is always on.
And i never shut down MBP.
I have discussed with a youtuber Aaron, Attaching the screenshot
Please guide me what to do after 100% charge how to use it?

Best way would be to just use it and don't worry about it 🙂

But if you really want to extend the battery health, here's what you do. Get the app AlDente. It's free, but there is a one time payment to unlock all features. It limits charging when plugged in at a specific value. If you want to charge your Mac fully, you can just turn it off.

Set AlDente to, say, 80 or 70% and keep your MacBook plugged in. It will stay at this percentage.
On occasion (like once per week) unplug your Mac and use it to around 40% battery, then charge it again to whatever your limit is.

Also, don't keep your Mac under direct sunlight or in extreme cold.

And that's it. This will slow down the reduction of battery capacity quite a bit, even though it will happen in time no matter what you do.

Also, 99% health is great, don't worry about it. Even at 85% health, your battery life should be solid.

Edit: just saw that others have suggested the same.

 

[aevan]

Guys, the best solution is AlDente Pro. After 80 cycles my battery health is still at a 100%. (MacBook Pro 14" M1Pro).

At first I was reluctant to try it on my 16" M1 Pro, but I can say it works great.

Btw, what limit do you keep it at? I keep my charge level at 80% because this still gives me insanely long battery life when I unplug my Mac. I know 70% or 60% would be even better, so I'm thinking about that, too.

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

AlDente is great, indeed, when you leave your MacBook plugged in.
However, depending on what MacBook you have, taking it off charge at 80% (or whatever your limit is) can be less than ideal. For example, I have a 2020 Intel MBP and compared to the an M1 MBA or so, it goes through the battery quite quickly. Taking it off at 80% gives me even less time before I have to charge it again.

 

[Apple fan from Korea]

I’m on 55 cycles with 94% health :/

 

[TylerL]

I'm jealous of 99%...I'm either at 87% or 83% depending on how you ask.

This is dropping much faster than anticipated and I wonder if I'll hit a threshold where it can still be replaced via warranty (AppleCare+) or if I'll juuuuust miss it and be on the hook for the full cost.

 

[OS X Dude]

Then what is the best way to use it? Optimising Battery is always on.
And i never shut down MBP.
I have discussed with a youtuber Aaron, Attaching the screenshot
Please guide me what to do after 100% charge how to use it?

As a former Apple technician, his advice is appalling. Typical YouTuber.

Periodic reboots are helpful. No set timescales, but every now and then.

In terms of battery health, it's always best to charge any battery at around 50% to minimise cycle wear increases (100-0-100 again is one cycle, this is why macOS now often limits charging to 80%), but to be honest there is no real need to be too careful. macOS does a great job of managing battery health and Apple's batteries don't require calibration of their 'memory' (I'm not sure any lithium-polymer battery requires this to be honest).

However, just use the thing. It's built to be used and charged for around 800 cycles I believe, which is a good long time with most average use. Even if your workflow dictates that it will die quicker, battery replacements are very reasonably priced - especially on the MacBook Air where they're on pull-tabs like the iPhone. That said, Apple would do a discounted top case replacement where a Mac is pristine and a battery failure is confirmed in diagnostics.

Hope this helps 👍🏼

 

[Tyler O'Bannon]

Do what you were doing before. And if you want to make one change, charge to 80% and take it off instead of 100%. And continue to discharge to 20%.

 

[jav6454]

Friends
I am using M1 Macbook Pro 8/512 GB from 1 Year, i use it very less as i have iMac and other MBP's, usually i charge to fully to 100% and use it till the battery goes 20% and then again charge to 100%, this is what i was doing until i saw a video on youtube that if using the MBP we should keep it power connected if the power source is available, so from last 5-6 days i am using it always with power connected and checked its battery health regularly and it was 100% till today, its showing me 99% health today. i am worried because not used it on battery and kept it connected with power and health dropped to 99%. is it just coincidence or i am using it wrong? attaching the screenshot of Power.
Please help

Don't over think it. I bought my Mac in Feb and has the same cycle counts with 100% battery health. Just trust the algorithm and use it as needed.

 

[amitabhbansal]

I just tried https://apphousekitchen.com and did not get the warning this time. If you still do, try using Firefox or something

OR

Try https://github.com/davidwernhart/AlDente/releases/tag/1.17.1

Then click on red oval in this:

View attachment 2024594

Thanks brother, i have downloaded it and installed, set the charge level to 50%. Is it right?

 

[jezbd1997]

Then what is the best way to use it? Optimising Battery is always on.
And i never shut down MBP.
I have discussed with a youtuber Aaron, Attaching the screenshot
Please guide me what to do after 100% charge how to use it?

Use as you please, but it’s best to keep between 40-80% ideally. Use battery optimiser yeah.
And do not listen to that guy, horrible advice. You shouldn’t keep a battery device plugged. That is what will ruin it. Only when you need it charged.

99% is perfectly fine. My 2015 air is around 80% and still holds well.

And you can shut down your Mac if you need to. Don’t “never” shut it down.
I’ve had my MacBooks sometimes reaching well over 100 days of uptime and only restarting due to updates or a small glitch etc. But you should do it every now and again

 

[Mike Boreham]

Thanks brother, i have downloaded it and installed, set the charge level to 50%. Is it right?

I use 50% because that leaves the M1 MBA with plenty of usage time if I need to use it portably, and 50% is the recommended charge level for storage. But it is exercised up to 100% sometimes, eg if plugged in while booting to an external (which I do sometimes) or shut down. It will go higher than your set % during macOS installs when AlDente is not controlling. mine goes down to 20/30% when I use it portably.
So usually at 50% with occasional excursions 20-100%.

 

[Stefdar]

At first I was reluctant to try it on my 16" M1 Pro, but I can say it works great.

Btw, what limit do you keep it at? I keep my charge level at 80% because this still gives me insanely long battery life when I unplug my Mac. I know 70% or 60% would be even better, so I'm thinking about that, too.

80%, I read a lot about it and that seemed the best percentage, low enough to help the battery but high enough so in case of needing to run on battery you can do it for 8-9 hours at least.

 

[OnawaAfrica]

Friends
I am using M1 Macbook Pro 8/512 GB from 1 Year, i use it very less as i have iMac and other MBP's, usually i charge to fully to 100% and use it till the battery goes 20% and then again charge to 100%, this is what i was doing until i saw a video on youtube that if using the MBP we should keep it power connected if the power source is available, so from last 5-6 days i am using it always with power connected and checked its battery health regularly and it was 100% till today, its showing me 99% health today. i am worried because not used it on battery and kept it connected with power and health dropped to 99%. is it just coincidence or i am using it wrong? attaching the screenshot of Power.
Please help

my A1708 Battery was replaced last year and now its at 92 percent so its normal it will drop