MacOS Big Sur Beta 2 - Battery Health - Bug or Real? RESOLVED

[AxelFoley]

2019 MacBook Air here. Battery could not have gone bad overnight.
Did a clean install of Big Sur Beta 2. Just noticed that the Battery received Service warning. Battery Capacity is showing 0. The MacBook Air works fine on battery. Was wondering whether anyone else on Big Sur Beta 2 is experiencing this and if there is a known fix. Yes, I can wait until Beta 3 and this is reported however just wanted to know others' comments. Thanks.

Axel F.

 

[dmccloud]

I've seen a few people report the same issue - have you tried performing an SMC reset yet?

 

[AxelFoley]

I've seen a few people report the same issue - have you tried performing an SMC reset yet?

Thanks for the response. I had difficulty finding people in the same boat as me. Yes, I have performed the usual SMC and NVRAM/PRAM reset. Didn't resolve the issue. Thanks.

Axel F.

 

[nortonandreev]

I wouldn’t worry about that.

 

[Stefdar]

Make sure you really perform an SMC reset and that System Integrity Protection is enabled.

 

[AxelFoley]

Make sure you really perform an SMC reset and that System Integrity Protection is enabled.

I have to inform you that I am a SMC and NVRAM/PRAM champion so I know and understand how to perform those tasks. I considered (past tense) myself as a better than average user of Apple products. The issue in my original post had baffled me. You put an end to the mystery. You also set me straight and I have calibrated myself where I belong in the Mac world of things.
YES, your directive of checking and enabling the System Integrity Protection fixed the battery health issue. I, of course, had no clue that it affected the battery health feature. I took your direction and entered Recovery Mode. Opened Terminal and entered the command "csrutil enable". Rebooted and things are back to normal. Battery capacity is showing back to 100%.
I Thank You for your recommendation and the eventual solution.

Axel F.

 

[Stefdar]

Thank you Axel, although the truth is much less in my favor/your re-calibration. Big Sur is a weird beast of an OS. I had both SIP and SSV disabled trying to figure out how I can... customize the dock and system icons like I always do, with no luck and a lot of weird things happening along the way. When update 2 finished I had the same problem with the battery that went away only after I enabled them. Weirdest thing is that with SIP disabled apps are still asking for all sorts of security approvals. I think that especially on ARM Macs, Big Sur will be completely locked down like iOS.

 

[AxelFoley]

I completely agree with you on the advent of ARM Macs and iOS like security.
I also noticed something weird with Big Sur Beta 2 and resetting the NVRAM. As you know, I had enabled SIP and the battery health issue was resolved. The thing is that when reset NVRAM then the battery health issue reappeared. I checked the SIP status in terminal by using the command "csrutil status" and it showed as enabled. I used the Recovery Mode and Terminal again and checked the status there and it still showed as enabled. I elected to ENABLE SIP anyway while I was there. The battery health issue was resolved again. I will now refrain from resetting NVRAM at least until after Beta 3. I wonder whether just entering Recovery Mode suffices and fixes the issue especially since SIP Status shows as enabled to begin with. Beta is a fun ride for these reasons. Ha!

Axel F.

 

[randomgeeza]

I had both SIP and SSV disabled trying to figure out how I can... customize the dock and system icons like I always do, with no luck and a lot of weird things happening along the way.

How do you disable SSV, I know how to adjust SIP, but have had no luck in turning off SSV...?

 

[Stefdar]

Why do you want to disable it? In order to do so you have to disable Filevault, you won't be able to ever enable it again unless you re-enable SSV, and the moment you enable SSV you are going to lose all the changes you made. Plus you won't be able to update to the next beta with SSV disabled.

 

[randomgeeza]

I don't like the idea of lockdown... And there are (were) one or two tweaks I like to do...