MBP M1 Max battery issue...still

[baruch]

2022 MBP M1 Max...updated to 13.3.1, I always work with the laptop plugged in, never run on battery. Often I find that the battery is at 80% and charging is on hold. I set it to charge but it doesn't. I unplug it for a moment and then plug it back in and it charges to 100%. Then it happens again the next day. I am at 25 battery cycles used, though I never use the battery. Is this a design flaw or a way to get us to use up the batterie$ fa$ter?

I keep hoping that an update will allow us to disable the power on upon opening the laptop. That is a lousy "feature."

Other than that it's a great computer. It's so fast I can't imagine how the M2 could be much faster!

 

[chabig]

Optimized charging will help your battery last longer. You can turn it off in battery settings, but I would recommend leaving it on. Then (and this is important) forget about it.

Charge the MacBook Pro battery

Learn how to charge the battery in your MacBook Pro and conserve battery power.

support.apple.com

 

[russell_314]

2022 MBP M1 Max...updated to 13.3.1, I always work with the laptop plugged in, never run on battery. Often I find that the battery is at 80% and charging is on hold. I set it to charge but it doesn't. I unplug it for a moment and then plug it back in and it charges to 100%. Then it happens again the next day. I am at 25 battery cycles used, though I never use the battery. Is this a design flaw or a way to get us to use up the batterie$ fa$ter?

I keep hoping that an update will allow us to disable the power on upon opening the laptop. That is a lousy "feature."

Other than that it's a great computer. It's so fast I can't imagine how the M2 could be much faster!

This is to extend the life of the battery because it knows you keep it plugged in. If you go to System settings, Battery, Battery Health you can turn it off. Lithium batteries don't like staying at 100% so I would not recommend doing this at all. If you need to use it unplugged for a long period just charge it up before. I don't know about your Pro but on my Air I can go more than a day on the 80% so I never bother.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"2022 MBP M1 Max...updated to 13.3.1, I always work with the laptop plugged in, never run on battery."

That's "your problem", right there.

What follows is my opinion only. Others will disagree.

It's not such a good idea to leave a laptop "plugged into the charger" all the time. The battery needs to be "exercised", and I don't trust the "software solutions" out there (either Apple or alDente) to be good enough to really do it.

My advice for maintaining battery health:
- Three times a week, take it "off charge" and let the battery run down to around 45-40%. Then plug it back in.
- EACH night, unplug the charger from the wall. Do this whether you "sleep" the laptop, or actually shut it down. Plug it back in the next day.

Again. my opinion only.

 

[xraydoc]

Often I find that the battery is at 80% and charging is on hold.

As others have said, this is by design to protect the battery. Leaving it at 100% continuously is not good for the battery. Holding it at 80% for extended periods of time is better If you’re not using it much.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Just to clarify - you can turn this feature off in the settings. It does this to help lessen the damage on your battery at being at 100% state of charge for long periods of time.

Go to Settings --> Battery -- and hit the (i) symbol on the top right next to Normal:

And you'll get this:

Here you can turn off Optimized Battery Charging if you so choose.

 

[spiderman0616]

OP, I keep trying to figure out what you're actually asking here and I think many answers above might be slightly missing the mark. I believe what you're really asking is why have you used up charge cycles when you always use the computer plugged in, as well as why does the computer insist on being at 80%, is that correct? If so, I can attempt my own answers:

1) Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe every time you top off from 80% to 100% that's a portion of a charge cycle. Not that it's exact math or anything, but the way I always understood it is that if you top it off this way 5 times that equals 1 charge cycle. (Charging from 50% to 100% twice would also use up 1 cycle, and so on and so on.....)

2) You don't want your MacBook sitting there plugged in all the time at 100%. What is ok to do is leave it plugged in all the time at 80% so that the battery can't swell up and either wear out early or destroy the inside of your computer. I don't think you need to worry about it other than that. My advice on any Apple Silicon machine that you use at your desk a lot is to let it sit at 80% and only top it off when you need to

PS: I'm not sure why it's not topping off for you right away when you're telling it to, but I suspect it might just require more patience on your end. The charge from 80-100% is slower to avoid damaging the battery.