We need a charge limit setting for MacBooks

[neuralengine]

“Optimized Battery Charging” is completely broken. It has not worked for me since Big Sur.

Googling “optimized battery charging doesn’t work” yields dozens of results, with people having all kinds of issues with this feature.

When it does work, it behaves erratically, discharging to 96% then charging to 100%, or bouncing up and down between 80% and 100% randomly throughout the day.

In my case, I’ve used my MacBook Pro plugged into a Studio Display every day since November. It’s still staying at 100%, every day.

iPhones and iPads now have a simple setting to limit charging to 80%.

We need the same thing in macOS.

Yes, I know about AlDente. Yes, I’ve tried it. No, it is not a solution.

 

[russell_314]

“Optimized Battery Charging” is completely broken. It has not worked for me since Big Sur.

In my case, I’ve used my MacBook Pro plugged into a Studio Display every day since November. It’s still staying at 100%, every day.

This is definitely not normal, but I’ve never tried to plug a MacBook into a display. Perhaps somehow that changes it. On my MacBook Air it will reduce charging to 80% after about a week. The downside is if I unplug it then plug it goes back up to 100% then the cycle starts again.

iPhones and iPads now have a simple setting to limit charging to 80%.

We need the same thing in macOS.

I totally agree. I’m sure Apple will make it a setting.

Yes, I know about AlDente. Yes, I’ve tried it. No, it is not a solution.

Why not? I’ve used it and it worked for me, but to be honest, I just don’t care enough about it to bother.

 

[MBAir2010]

“Optimized Battery Charging” is completely broken. It has not worked for me since Big Sur.

Googling “optimized battery charging doesn’t work” yields dozens of results, with people having all kinds of issues with this feature.

When it does work, it behaves erratically, discharging to 96% then charging to 100%, or bouncing up and down between 80% and 100% randomly throughout the day.

In my case, I’ve used my MacBook Pro plugged into a Studio Display every day since November. It’s still staying at 100%, every day.

iPhones and iPads now have a simple setting to limit charging to 80%.

We need the same thing in macOS.

Yes, I know about AlDente. Yes, I’ve tried it. No, it is not a solution.

When i plug my macbook air m1 Monterey into my monitor, that always goes to 100%
while plugged into a charger or power supplier, i sometimes get that 80% rhetoric.

if this helps......

 

[neuralengine]

Why not? I’ve used it and it worked for me, but to be honest, I just don’t care enough about it to bother.

Not comfortable with third-party apps managing something so fundamental / low-level.

But from a functional point of view, being a third-party app, it can’t control what happens when the computer is asleep or shut down.

 

[hovscorpion12]

it can’t control what happens when the computer is asleep or shut down.

Just out of curiosity, were you using the free version or the paid version?

The paid version does offer some assistance when in sleep [Sailing mode]. When in sleep charging is turned off to allow standard battery drain. I can't speak to power down status

 

[neuralengine]

Just out of curiosity, were you using the free version or the paid version?

The paid version does offer some assistance when in sleep [Sailing mode]. When in sleep charging is turned off to allow standard battery drain. I can't speak to power down status

I think sailing mode is a slightly different thing, where it allows the charge to drift a little bit. But yes, AlDente Pro does indeed have settings to disable charging when sleeping and when powered off. That’s still a little different from the device maintaining a specific charge at a user-defined limit though, something Apple themselves could presumably control even when the machine is in sleep mode or powered down.

I used the paid version of AlDente for about half a year with my previous laptop, which was an M1 Air. In practice, I found myself thinking about the battery more with AlDente than without, which is the opposite of what I want. Also, and this may well have been a coincidence, but during the time I was using the app, the battery health dropped by more than it had before or after.

Maybe this is a case of a feature appearing easier to implement than it actually is, but it has been a few years already since Apple has introduced this on other platforms. If it was going to come to the Mac, I would have expected it to have been there in Sequoia.

Anyway, my new MacBook Pro’s “Maximum capacity” is still at 100% in System settings, three months later, so maybe whatever “Optimized battery charging” doing is more sophisticated than just limiting charging.

 

[Raebo]

On some windows laptops you can set a maximum charge limit. I am surprised MacBook Pro doesn’t have a similar feature.

 

[Macbookey]

It is absurd that it is exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro and up. Typical. When it does come to the Mac, if ever with their software divisions feature inconsistency, it will probably limited to the latest chip on the Pro for some arbitrary reason.

 

[Bradenmikael]

“Optimized Battery Charging” is completely broken. It has not worked for me since Big Sur.

Googling “optimized battery charging doesn’t work” yields dozens of results, with people having all kinds of issues with this feature.

When it does work, it behaves erratically, discharging to 96% then charging to 100%, or bouncing up and down between 80% and 100% randomly throughout the day.

In my case, I’ve used my MacBook Pro plugged into a Studio Display every day since November. It’s still staying at 100%, every day.

iPhones and iPads now have a simple setting to limit charging to 80%.

We need the same thing in macOS.

Yes, I know about AlDente. Yes, I’ve tried it. No, it is not a solution.

AlDente works beautifully for me. It holds my battery charge at the setting of 75% for me each and every single day (I rarely use on battery). It will vary slightly (+\- 5%) because I have it set to do that as well via application settings.

Either you’re not setting it up properly, or you’re using it on older hardware that doesn’t fully support the prescribed features of the application \ hardware.

That said, life’s too short to worry about it.

 

[WilliamG]

AlDente works beautifully for me. It holds my battery charge at the setting of 75% for me each and every single day (I rarely use on battery). It will vary slightly (+\- 5%) because I have it set to do that as well via application settings.

Either you’re not setting it up properly, or you’re using it on older hardware that doesn’t fully support the prescribed features of the application \ hardware.

That said, life’s too short to worry about it.

AlDente really is superb, and receives constant updates, which is fantastic.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Still

AlDente works beautifully for me.

Hadn't heard of this -- thx for mentioning

I'm still on an Intel MacBook and continue to use Charge Limiter

 

[gregmac19]

As has been mentioned in other threads, BatFi is a good alternative to AlDente.