Service Battery came up when I hit 175 Cycles - But still has 3 Hours battery - Why? False Alert?

[Cide]

Hello again,

I am just wondering if anyone could give me insight into a battery issue that's come up with my MacBook Pro Retina Mid-2012,
According to the Apple Serial Number Lookup for 15" MacBook Pro's and other models affected with recalled batteries, this unit was already serviced. It just hit 175 Cycles, and Battery Capacity is 6700 mA H.

Battery capacity earlier today was 6550. The Laptop was left powered off with a empty battery for about 6 months, and I just replaced a dead SSD in the unit with a 1TB SSD from OWC.

Could I have caused damage replacing the SSD, or the battery fluctuating between 6550 and 6700 ma H might be indicative that its working itself back up to capacity?

The Notebook running Catalina, lasts for about 3 hours with 150 browsing tabs open in Safari - And no other major applications running. So I don't see why its giving me this alert.

Is this message forever or does it go away if the battery detects normal conditions again? Am I at risk of a swollen battery and broken trackpad?

Here is what CoconutBattery says:

Is it simply a matter of Design Capacity being at less than 80% that's triggered this alert? I thought these batteries were good for 1000 Cycles?

Its probably failing yea?
Should I get a new one, They want $130 Canadian for a battery kit from iFixIt or OWC. The Laptop still goes for 3+ hours like I said, The unit is only worth $500.00 on the used market, these days...
Do you think Apple would still service this unit with a new battery - we have 2 Nearby Apple Stores in my city here in Canada.

The "Design Capacity" or MA H capacity rating seems to be slowly creeping up, in one direction now that Ive been cycling the battery... Is this just going to get worse or what?

Is there any chance I am okay or is this going to get worse and worse, Imagining there have been a few users out there who have had false notices. Although Apple would say the battery needs to be replaced, I feel it is very premature.

 

[Cide]

Hello again,

I am just wondering if anyone could give me insight into a battery issue that's come up with my MacBook Pro Retina Mid-2012,
According to the Apple Serial Number Lookup for 15" MacBook Pro's and other models affected with recalled batteries, this unit was already serviced. It just hit 175 Cycles, and Battery Capacity is 6700 mA H.

Battery capacity earlier today was 6550. The Laptop was left powered off with a empty battery for about 6 months, and I just replaced a dead SSD in the unit with a 1TB SSD from OWC.

Could I have caused damage replacing the SSD, or the battery fluctuating between 6550 and 6700 ma H might be indicative that its working itself back up to capacity?

The Notebook running Catalina, lasts for about 3 hours with 150 browsing tabs open in Safari - And no other major applications running. So I don't see why its giving me this alert.

Is this message forever or does it go away if the battery detects normal conditions again? Am I at risk of a swollen battery and broken trackpad?

Here is what CoconutBattery says:
View attachment 2036888
Is it simply a matter of Design Capacity being at less than 80% that's triggered this alert? I thought these batteries were good for 1000 Cycles?

Its probably failing yea?
Should I get a new one, They want $130 Canadian for a battery kit from iFixIt or OWC. The Laptop still goes for 3+ hours like I said, The unit is only worth $500.00 on the used market, these days...

Here is the information from "Battery Info". I have another MacBook of the same model, which had its battery serviced in 2017, I'm curious to see the battery information on that, age and capacity wise. I will post back here with comparison.

 

[Cide]

5 Minutes later after unplugging MagSafe since I posted this thread.... You can see the Full Charge Capacity has inched up slightly.

 

[Cide]

It keeps inclining, Inching up, while running on battery power. Would love to hear if anyone has seen this behaviour before, and the conclusion. Edit: It appears to be slightly reversing in capacity as well, its now 80.1% - The highest its been was 81.9% (Above).

 

[rm5]

That's really strange, I've never seen anything like this (but then again, I'm inexperienced compared to others on this forum).

Have you tried reinstalling macOS since you discovered this issue? It seems like the battery needs to be "recalibrated," but there is no way that I know of where the user can do that.

Also, the fact that it "lasts 3 hours" is concerning. So you REPLACED the battery in the MBP? If so it should not last 3 hours, it should last MUCH longer. I'd take it to an Apple store / authorized servicer and see what the heck is going on

 

[Isamilis]

The alert is simply based on 80% health. The battery now in the threshold borderline You may get alert on and off for a while until it stable below 80%. Just ignore it, it’s just indicating it’s time to replace your battery.
Also, there is no direct cause between battery health and cycle. I suspect the cycle is still low due to most of the time it was docked in charge station, which is not good for battery.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Depending on where in the world you are, if there's a brick-n-mortar Apple Store anywhere near, take it to them.

It's old, but it MIGHT qualify for the $199 battery replacement Apple has for some retina models.
For $199 you get:
- a new, APPLE-LABELED battery
- installation
- a short warranty.

Actually, a pretty good deal.
Again, IF you are anywhere close to an Apple Store.

 

[f54da]

It's service battery message because you're below 80% at health at far fewer than 1000 cycles. Both conditions need to be satisfied for service warning to appear. This is likely because you've used it connected to power so you have calendar aging but not cycle aging. Seems fine to me otherwise, likely safe to ignore however note that because you've likely kept it connected to the charger you have a risk of battery swelling.

Also be aware that 2012 rmbp is old enough that I'd hesitate to send it in for service. Even if they do have the battery in stock, I wouldn't trust the people at flextronics to have been trained on this model of rmbp (since it's so long ago). Even worse if it's in-store... Course there is a warranty on repairs so if they break it you'll probably get a new laptop, but you may not want that