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MBA M1 Battery Health Problem
- Thread starter kubilaydem
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Ever since Apple implemented the optimized battery charging functionality into macOS third party tools such as cocoanut battery do not show the correct values.
The third party apps use the
ioreg value which fluctuates significantly. Apple gives a number which they calculate in some way to prevent people complaining prematurely about their battery health based on ioreg which can go up as well as down. Here is my battery capacity since Feb as reported from the ioreg value by Better Battery 2.My M1 MBA was new last November and has done 51 cycles. Apple is still reporting it as 100% which means it is doing better than the OP's, but I have seen other reports more like the OP's. But note that batteries cannot all be made to the same tight tolerances as machined parts. 4382 mAh is the nominal max (100% capacity), but some will be more and some less. Probably another part of why Apple show a synthesized number. They will take action if their number goes below 80%. Also note that battery deterioration is not necessarily linear.
Because mine is plugged in nearly 24/7 I have used AlDente Pro to keep it below 60% since Feb. I tried using Apple Optimised charging for the first two months but it never did anything for me. I know others see their max charge being held to 80%. AlDente may or not be why mine seems to be doing well. But I would say if Apple Optimised Charging is not keeping your usually plugged in Mac below 80% then AlDente may be a good option, providing more control.
I'm using aidento pro too now. With %70 max charge. No sailing.
Hope drain will getting slower, otherwise it needs to be replaced after 2 years.
Sounds like you have recently started with AlDente. Interested to know if you had Apple Optimised Charging turned on before using AlDente? Did you see your charge being held at 80%?
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Yes it's turned on all time. But not working properly. Maybe %10 of the time it's working or not.
I think it needs phone like charging squence. Night charge, day time use without charger.
My wife ran Optimize Battery Charging on her 2017 MBP - we got AppleCare+ on it and noticed that there was a good 15% difference between coconutBattery and Apple's battery health reporting. We noticed that turning off optimize battery charging resulted in those two getting a lot closer. Eventually her battery took a crap and even the laptop was saying to service the battery within the 3 year timeframe of AppleCare+.
Apple gave her a brand new battery/keyboard for $0 with less than a few months on AppleCare+.
Like y'all - Optimized Charging rarely works. My wife and I both use AlDente now.
Apple gave her a brand new battery/keyboard for $0 with less than a few months on AppleCare+.
Like y'all - Optimized Charging rarely works. My wife and I both use AlDente now.
Similar story here w/ my M1 MBP
M1 MacBook Pro (built 1/18/2021) with 46 cycles
Currently:
Coconut Battery reports 88% Health
Apple (via Battery Preferences) reports Maximum Capacity: 93%
I routinely exercise the battery and now started using Al Dente with a charge limit of 60 - 80% last month.
For the first three months, battery health (according to Coconut Battery) was great:
Month 1: 100%
Month 2: 99%
Month 3: 98%
Month 4: 93%
Month 5: 90%
Month 6: 89%
Month 7: 88%
Very surprised that battery health on my M1 dived so quickly. Never had this issue so soon with my Intel Macs. Funny enough my 31 month old iPhone XR also has 88% health @ 716 cycles.
M1 MacBook Pro (built 1/18/2021) with 46 cycles
Currently:
Coconut Battery reports 88% Health
Apple (via Battery Preferences) reports Maximum Capacity: 93%
I routinely exercise the battery and now started using Al Dente with a charge limit of 60 - 80% last month.
For the first three months, battery health (according to Coconut Battery) was great:
Month 1: 100%
Month 2: 99%
Month 3: 98%
Month 4: 93%
Month 5: 90%
Month 6: 89%
Month 7: 88%
Very surprised that battery health on my M1 dived so quickly. Never had this issue so soon with my Intel Macs. Funny enough my 31 month old iPhone XR also has 88% health @ 716 cycles.
People aren't reading that as they still keep using coconut and writing sad posts about the numbers.
Not necessarily. Look at my graph in post#3. My
ioreg (=coconut) value dropped 3% in a couple of days then recovered 5% over the following weeks. This is why the Apple health number is some algorithm which smooths out fluctuations, to stop people complaining needlessly. When the Apple number has dropped to 80% they may take action depending on cycles.
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Interesting. The 582 day old battery in M1 MacBook Air is still at 100% (ioreg value 96.3%) after 72 cycles. Mine is on 24/7 and mostly plugged in, using AlDente to limit max charge to 60%.
Sounds like you have just been unlucky. How many cycles has yours done?
Let us know what Apple say/do.
Sounds like you have just been unlucky. How many cycles has yours done?
Let us know what Apple say/do.
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You can find the number of battery charge cycles by Option-Click the Apple Menu, choose System Information... and then click on Power in the sidebar. It is under Health Information: Cycle Count.
Ideally the cycle count should be close to 1000 before you reach end-of-life on the battery. If it is much less than that, Apple might replace the battery as defective.
65 Cycles.
I use AlDente to limit the charge between 60%-80% for the past year since I noticed the battery health starting to fall under 95%.
I will be bringing it in, but may just trade it for something newer.
I would be surprised if Apple doesn't fix this for free for you. You have been unlucky.
Let us know the outcome.
Interesting thing happened to 2 of mine macbook air m1 recently.
I bought used macbook air m1 a couple of days ago (purchased from the store sept 2021), with only 14 cycles on battery. Formatted and start using, mostly on battery. Coconut first stated ca 96.5-97% battery health and mac OS stated 100%. After 3-4 days battery health suddenly dropped to 92.5% according to coconut but still 100% in mac OS.
After few days I bought another used macbook air M1 (purchased from the store febr 2021) with 74 cycles on battery.
Formatted and start using, mostly on battery. Coconut first stated ca 98% battery health and mac OS stated 100%. After 2 days battery health ALSO suddenly dropped to 92.5% according to coconut but still 100% in mac OS.
That got me thinking that this is not only coincidence.
This article, https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT211832 states that:
”Based on the measurements that it collects, battery health management may temporarily reduce your battery's maximum charge. This happens as needed to ensure that your battery charges to a level that's optimized for your usage—reducing wear on the battery, and slowing its chemical aging.”
Does this means that mac OS sets another limitation on battery, besides charging battery to 80% as precaution when optimal charging enabled?
I bought used macbook air m1 a couple of days ago (purchased from the store sept 2021), with only 14 cycles on battery. Formatted and start using, mostly on battery. Coconut first stated ca 96.5-97% battery health and mac OS stated 100%. After 3-4 days battery health suddenly dropped to 92.5% according to coconut but still 100% in mac OS.
After few days I bought another used macbook air M1 (purchased from the store febr 2021) with 74 cycles on battery.
Formatted and start using, mostly on battery. Coconut first stated ca 98% battery health and mac OS stated 100%. After 2 days battery health ALSO suddenly dropped to 92.5% according to coconut but still 100% in mac OS.
That got me thinking that this is not only coincidence.
This article, https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT211832 states that:
”Based on the measurements that it collects, battery health management may temporarily reduce your battery's maximum charge. This happens as needed to ensure that your battery charges to a level that's optimized for your usage—reducing wear on the battery, and slowing its chemical aging.”
Does this means that mac OS sets another limitation on battery, besides charging battery to 80% as precaution when optimal charging enabled?
I have a M1 MBP 13" manufactured October 18, 2021 and am at 92.4% design capacity after only 20 cycles, compare that to my 2015 MBP 15" that had 97% design capacity at 3 years old and 60 cycles.
I don't think we can really know for sure. Batteries are very variable. My wife and I picked up a 2017 MBP 13'. Mine was 92% after almost 3 years, hers was below 80% and requesting a service. Apple replaced it for free (it was within weeks of AppleCare+ expiration). Yeah she used hers a lot more heavily than I did but still... lol.
I always get AppleCare+ - if my batteries hop below 80%, I'll request a replacement. If not, I'll trade them in (usually to Apple) in 3-4 years.
Re your post - My wife and I didn't start using AlDente until the last year of our 13' MBPs - but we noticed the capacity fluctuating quite a bit. If Apple says 100% and coconutBattery says 92.5% I'd like to chalk that up to Apple reducing the capacity internally but who knows for sure.
That statement: "reduced your battery's maximum charge" USUALLY indicates a failing battery so if your Battery Health says 100% I wouldn't think that this happened to you. I think that means Apple reduces the battery's ability to discharge all the way to keep the laptop from shutting off. The 80% top off is different.
Again, my wife and I saw drastic capacity swings in the last year of our 2017 MBP usage (2020). My wife still has hers. Her replacement battery (now a year old) is at 93% despite using AlDente (66%) - but she uses her laptop ALL day EVERY day (PhD student).
Batteries are enough of a variability that imo it's more of a lottery of what you get from the factory vs what you do to keep it in good condition. The best thing you can do is keep it from overheating (hot car, don't use in sun, etc) and apps like AlDente help a little to keep the battery from losing capacity over time.
Only thing I'd say here is that batteries tend to drain differently at different times. Some laptops I've had dropped from 100% to low 90s pretty quickly, then stayed there for years. I don't think it is a consistent drop over time. (At least that's my experience).
Very curious what Apple says. My experience - Apple won't do anything unless it's <80% or requesting service. My wife's 2017 MBP fell under 80% then went back up to 83% but had a "request service" event (that went away) - but Apple could see it happened in the past and replaced her battery for free despite it being >80%.
Got m M1 MBA Jin 2021 with AC+, istatmenu still says 20hrs when I unplug after full charge, I don’t look at anything else, I’m just enjoying the awesome battery life…
92,4% is according to Coconut? What is mac OS battery health percentage? Maybe 2015 mbp has different calculations and different health management?
Look also at my post earlier, 2 macbook air m1 used in same way and both dropping down to 92,5% according to Coconut. It seems that there may be a pattern in limitation of max charging level that kicks in when laptop is used in certain way. Also take a look att Mike Borehams interesting graph where battery capacity is fluctuating over time.