Battery life: Does MacBook pro's battery stop charging automatically when it's fully charged?

I know that it is not good to leave batteries on charge after it's being fully charged becasue it reduces it's life span (the chemical reaction stuffs up...)
Anyway, I heard that some people were saying that it is ok to leave the Mac plugged in even after it's being fully charged, because the battery stops consuming power from the adapter automatically. Is this true?
Another question. How ofter you do guys charge your MBP? I have to charge mine once every day pretty much. It's a reletively new computer (i bought it on april). But now it looks like it's not even lasting 5 hours sometimes. I think I asked this before as well. But I'm still stressing about this.

ALL Li-ion batteries stop charging when they are full. They have an internal micro-controller to enforce this.
I run my MBP down to about 20% charge left and then recharge on a daily basis. The run time depends on what you are doing. Heavy usage will reduce the run time. Flash web sites, playing movies, maximum screen intensity, bluetooth on are all examples of things that will reduce run time.
Think of a battery like a bucket of water. If you let the water trickle out it will take a long time to empty the bucket. If you turn the bucket upside down it will be empty in a few seconds.
In other words a battery holds a fixed amount of energy. The rate at which you discharge it will determine the run time. As the battery ages the amount of energy that it can hold will go down. The battery will age whether or not you use it. Regular usage will give the longest overall life for the battery.

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Losing my battery life for macbook pro very fast

I charge my battery for my macbook pro retina and i keep losing battery life very fast ?
Please help

I've done my research and could not find a decent article for my Macbook Pro Retina Mid2014.
Review these link:
Considerations for the long life of your MacBook. Handling and environmental care tips
The tips helped me out the most compared to the other links that can be found. Not sure why your battery life isn't lasting you though. You may need to get it checked by Apple. Try the Apple Support--if you got yours new, you have 90 days free support.
Thankfully, I never had issues with the battery life but I did replace my first Macbook a few days after purchasing. Thankfully, I was still within 14 days so had it replaced by Best Buy, no question asks as long as you brought everything including receipts.
Out of curiosity, can you click on APPLE logo > About this Mac > System Report > Power
Copy & paste the Battery Information.
For some reason, I am having issues copying & pasting my information.
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh): 6062
Fully Charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 8816
Health Information:
Cycle Count: 4
Amperage (mA): 4806
Voltage (mV): 12498
I have my screen dimmed since I don't really like it too bright and I have my keyboards lights off unless it's at night and I need to see the keyboard for whatever reason. There is really no real reason for me to have the keyboard lights on anyway other than to make it looks nice. My laptop had lasted me maybe about 7+ hours (maybe even more) if I get it down really low. I've got it down to 10% the first time I used it just to see and then since then, I've been trying to charge from 30%+ and when I am streaming, I keep it plugged in.
I don't ever plan on leaving it plugged in over night or while on sleep mode for a long period of time. Never do a battery calibration since it's not necessary for the new Macbook Retinas.
Amperage (mA): 4806
Amperage (mA): 4806
Voltage (mV): 12498

Battery Life on MacBook Pro Retina 15" purchased 1 week ago

Hello Dear Community,
About a month ago I purchased a MacBook Pro Retina 15" and after 1 week I noticed the battery was lasting for about 2-3 hours of web-browsing. It turned out the battery was defective and Apple sent me a new one.
4 days ago I received the new laptop and I switched it on, did all the updates and installed Google Chrome.
Here is my problem (or maybe I'm just being a bit paranoid):
The battery was at 80% when I put on a movie. I was with standard out of the box settings, full brightness and volume at max. After the 2-hours movie battery was down do 21% which seemed a bit odd, but I thought it was expected with full brightness and volume.
After that I was web-browsing ordering a pizza, went on facebook and watched 4 movie trailers which all and all took about 25 minutes maybe, but this got the battery down do 10%.
Is this normal, because this is my first purchase of an apple product? Somehow losing 10% in 25 minutes seems a far cry from the promised 8 hours of web-browsing promised in the description.
Very much appreciate any help with this!
P.S: Apple Diagnostics found no issues.
Regards,
Incr3dulous

Incr3dulous wrote:
I have 1 question though: Isn't it harmful for the battery to keep the MBP connected to AC with the charger at full battery?
NO, NO NO!
I keep my MBP connected to the charger most of the time. Monthly I will use it with just the battery and connect the charger again when at the 40%± charge level. That will keep the battery happy.
P.S: How much do you usually get out of your MBP while browsing?
Which one? I have three of them. The 2010 is the most energy efficient and I would expect it to last perhaps 6+ hours with very moderate use. The 2006 has a smaller replaceable battery and I would expect 4.5 maximum at very moderate use.
Watch a video and the times will be cut in half.
Ciao.

Battery life on MacBook pro 12 months old?k pr

What is a reasonable time to expect from a fully charged battery on a MacBook pro which is around 12 months old running snow leopard?

Battery run time is a function of the number and types of applications that are in use. The 'time' data that is displayed is a very volitile piece of information. It shows what is occurring at THAT PARTICULAR MOMENT. If you open Activity Monitor, you will see that the various applications are in a constant state of flux. There are moments of high usage and moments of low usage.
Do not expect battery run time to be as long as the advertised 'up to' times posted by Apple. You will note that the criteria they base the run time is very conservative usage.
Ipaduserpol wrote:
Also it shows me that i have charged it for 5 times, while I only did twice!
It is not unusual for a new MBP to have a battery with up to 3 charge cycles on it.
PS right now it shows me 4:18 remaining at 40%..
If you were to extrapolate from the figure, total battery run time would be over 10 hours. Sounds good, but do not believe it. My experience with my MBPs is that 60%-70% of the advertised run time is realistic.
Here is some Apple battery information that you may find useful:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
http://www.apple.com/batteries/
Ciao.

Battery life in MacBook Pro Retina

Hi guys,
I bought last week a MacBook Pro Retina, 13inch, late 2012, and my battery life is nowhere near the 'expected'. Right now I'm at 57% with 3:14 but I know some people have 9hours on a full charge... It just seems weird. I already did a PRAM and SMC reset and my battery life didn't change at all. I read that it could be related to Maverick (which I installed recently) - could that be the cause?
Also, I can't seem to understand what's the correct way to charge a MacBook. Should I charge it when it reaches 20% left (80% of use)? When should I stop charging - when it reaches 100% or less?
Thank you
(sorry if I do something wrong - I'm a newbie here)
(happy new year!)

Currently in some cases Mavericks is not reporting battery life as accurate in "time remaining" its being looked into.
As for the battery:
Keep it plugged in when near a socket so you keep the charging cycles down on your LiPo (lithium polymer) cells / battery, but not plugged in all the time. When not being used for several hours, turn it off.
And best "tip" is if its near a socket,...plug it in as long as you can (especially at home) since cycle count on the battery are the "miles that wear out the tires (battery)", however again, not plugged in all or most of the time.
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
"Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time."
General rule to remember of Lithium batteries is:
Never drain them LOW & dont always/often store them HIGH
While cycle count is commonly seen to be the “miles” on your Lithium Ion pack cell in your Macbook, which they are, this distinction is not a fine line at all, and it is a big misconception to “count charge cycles”
*A person who has, for example, 300 charge cycles on their battery and is recharging at say 50-60% remaining of a 100% charge has better battery usage and care than another person who has 300 charge cycles at say 15% remaining on a 100% charge.
DoD (depth of discharge) is far more important on the wear and tear on your Macbook battery than any mere charge cycle count. *There is no set “mile” or wear from a charge cycle in general OR in specific.    As such, contrary to popular conception, counting cycles is not conclusive whatsoever, rather the amount of deep DoD on an averaged scale of its use and charging conditions.
                          (as a very rough analogy would be 20,000 hard miles put on a car vs. 80,000 good miles being something similar)
*Contrary to some myths out there, there is protection circuitry in your Macbook and therefore you cannot overcharge it when plugged in and already fully charged
*However if you don’t plan on using it for a few hours, turn it OFF (plugged in or otherwise) ..*You don’t want your Macbook both always plugged in AND in sleep mode       (When portable devices are charging and in the on or sleep position, the current that is drawn through the device is called the parasitic load and will alter the dynamics of charge cycle. Battery manufacturers advise against parasitic loading because it induces mini-cycles.)
Keeping batteries connected to a charger ensures that periodic "top-ups" do very minor but continuous damage to individual cells, hence Apples recommendation above:   “Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time”, …this is because “Li-ion degrades fastest at high state-of-charge”.
                    This is also the same reason new Apple notebooks are packaged with 50% charges and not 100%.
LiPo (lithium polymer, same as in your Macbook) batteries do not need conditioning. However...
A lot of battery experts call the use of Lithium cells the "80% Rule" ...meaning use 80% of the charge or so, then recharge them for longer overall life.
Never let your Macbook go into shutdown and safe mode from loss of power, you can corrupt files that way, and the batteries do not like it.
The only quantified abuse seen to Lithium cells are instances when often the cells are repeatedly drained very low…. key word being "often"
Contrary to what some might say, Lithium batteries have an "ideal" break in period. First ten cycles or so, don't discharge down past 40% of the battery's capacity. Same way you don’t take a new car out and speed and rev the engine hard first 100 or so miles.
Proper treatment is still important. Just because LiPo batteries don’t need conditioning in general, does NOT mean they dont have an ideal use / recharge environment. Anything can be abused even if it doesn’t need conditioning.
From Apple on batteries:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446
http://www.apple.com/batteries/
Storing your MacBook
If you are going to store your MacBook away for an extended period of time, keep it in a cool location (room temperature roughly 22° C or about 72° F). Make certain you have at least a 50% charge on the internal battery of your Macbook if you plan on storing it away for a few months; recharge your battery to 50% or so every six months roughly if being stored away. If you live in a humid environment, keep your Macbook stored in its zippered case to prevent infiltration of humidity on the internals of your Macbook which could lead to corrosion.
Considerations:
Your battery is subject to chemical aging even if not in use. A Lithium battery is aging as soon as its made, regardless.
In a perfect (although impractical) situation, your lithium battery is best idealized swinging back and forth between 20 and 85% SOC (state of charge) roughly.
Further still how you discharge the battery is far more important than how it is either charged or stored short term, and more important long term that cycle counts.
Ultimately counting charge cycles is of little importance. Abuse in discharging (foremost), charging, and storing the battery and how it affects battery chemistry is important and not the ‘odometer’ reading, or cycle counts on the battery.
Everything boils down to battery chemistry long term, and not an arbitrary number, or cycle count.
Keep your macbook plugged in when near a socket since in the near end of long-term life, this is beneficial to the battery.
Peace

Terrible Battery Life - New MacBook Pro

OK, 4 weeks into my New MacBook Pro. MacBook Pro 15", 8GB Ram, 512GB SSD (Lion O/S as shipped). I know there are other threads but here's the full summary from my perspective.
Prior machine was MacBook Pro 17", 4GB Ram and 256 GB Hard Drive (Upgraded to Lion O/S). This older machine and the battery is 30 months old. It's awesome but I really needed more RAM and better battery life. Stumped over over $4000 for it.
I migrated virtually everything (Using Migration Assistant). Machine came up perfectly, works like a charm.
Except, the new machine gets only about an hour more at best than the old machine. The old machine was getting about 2.5 hours to 3 hours. I could get some work done on a plane and watch a 2 hour movie.
However, the new machine will only get me about 3 1/2 hours. I only get 2 1/2 hours if I watch a movie.
This is terrible. I have taken to Genius store and they agree the battery is fine and something is wrong but didn't have a fix. They and I since have tried all sorts of things at boot time to clean up errors, disk stuff, aplplied updates and all that. Basically, everything suggested in every forum. Some of these things actually have an effect on the "Time available" on the status bar, showing 7-8 hours for a while leading me into a false sense of security that a "fix" has worked. However, then after an hour or so of of use or booting from sleep, it's really averaging just 3 1/2 hours in real life, and sometimes just 3 hours.
I had a spare bettery for my old MacBook so could get 6-7 hours on a long haul flight. Now, I am dead at 3 hours in.
SInce Genius bar have confirmed machine is fine, and others have reported similar findings when going to Lion *AND* I have exactly the same apps on both machines... what the heck can it be?
Does anyone want to guess? Does someone from Apple want to "see" my machine in use?
HELP HELP HELP. PLEASE. This $4k machine is leaving me with a very sour taste.

Suppose you elaborate on what you are doing with the MBP that makes the battery life terrible.

Battery life on Macbook Pro (3 hours?)

I just got this laptop. It's a 15.4" MBP. I installed Snow Leopard on it from the upgrade DVD (from Leopard). All is well, but the estimated battery life is around 2:30 - 3:30. I've had the battery on charge for days and the button on the left of the mpb indicates a full charge.
Is it some services that are running? Is the estimate just way off (I know they usually are)?
My brightness is 3 blocks from full. I have iTunes (playing), Terminal (no activity), Adium, MacVim, iCal, Firefox running. Does this sound accurate?

i have a unibody late 2008 w/c lasts about 2Hrs+ or 3Hrs max. is your macbook pro the built in battery?early 2009 and mid 2009 model?if so that doesn't sound right since the built in battery have 7hrs battery life "ideally" but reality its just 4-5hours. I've tested 3 of them already and all have same behaviors.(2mid 2009 macbook pro and 1 early 2009 macbook)
Airport: off
Bluetooth: off
Brightness: 2 bars
only running: safari and quicksilver
no external device plugged in
no CD inserted
have the latest battery update and firmware update
so yeah not a bug not an issue with battery but that's just how it is. Macworld already did some lab bench test on their own and so did the other mac fanatics. I just don't get why sometimes Apple says it will last 5hours if it won't.

Benchmarking Battery life of MacBook Pro 17"

Hey guys,
I tried to calculate the battery life of my 3/4 months old 17" book. This is how i conducted my test:
1) caliberated my battery, followed all 6 steps
2) turn off all the programs, including the ones in the task bar.
3) set the sleep timers to "never"
4) set brightness to full
5) turned off screen saver
6) turn on itunes and played on mp3 files.
7) note book speakers with volume set to 75% of the max
8) Didnt run anyother application at all during this time.
Using this setup , my fully charged calliberated battery lasted for 3 hours. Do you think it is good ? I would love to see your benchmarks and experimental setups.
Thanks
Mac OS X (10.4.7)

from appldefects
<<<Short battery life in a laptop is mainly cause by heat rather than charge / discharge patterns.
This information comes from award winning author, Isidor Buchmann of Cadex Electronics and is particularly true when it comes to Li-On batteries used in many of today’s current electronic appliances, including Apple’s MacBook, and MacBook Pro notebook computers.
Isidor is no discharge when it comes to batteries. Buchmann has a background in radio communications and has studied the behavior of rechargeable batteries in practical, everyday applications for two decades. He is also an award winning author of many articles and books on batteries.
If you own a MacBook Pro, or a MacBook you owe it to yourself to hit the books over at The Battery University. According to Buchmann’s school of thought, MacBook and MacBook Pro owners will be in for quite a shock when their batteries fail at an unprecedented rate. Buchmann’s research suggests that if a Li-On battery is stored at 60C for three months, it will lose 60% of its charge level. Startling, to say the least, considering the fact that my MacBook Pro operates at a firey 70-80C under average load. Excessive heat is one of the many problems currently plaguing Apple’s portable product line.
Read the full article at How to prolong lithium-based batteries (BU34)
A cliff notes version for the impatient includes:
Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.) Short battery life in a laptop is mainly cause by heat rather than charge / discharge patterns.
Consider removing the battery from a laptop (as to avoid operational heat) when running on fixed power. (Some laptop manufacturers are concerned about dust and moisture accumulating inside the battery casing.)>>>
hmmm

Battery LIfe in Macbook Pro 2012- complete joke

Hi All, just got a new macbook pro for xmas. It was a refurbushed one from July 2012 which comes with warranty etc etc.
Firstly am pretty annoyed as think Appple is really going downhill fast (iphone 5 have seem issues with battery but service in hk ***). The battery on this new computer has a complete life span on 2.42hours. This is with only this webpage open so thus my concern. It is just crap. That cant be right i am guessing as the website says up to 7hrs.
I timed it to take 16% of the full charged battery within 20mins using nothing but very light web browser.
I used to have a macbook pro 2010 which was great but this just seems rubbish. I live in hong kong though and find any issue you have is not recieved with the neccessary service that i am used to in my home country in Australia. They will just tell me to take it to the repair centre. Personally think this is unacceptable as why should i have to do all the leg work on there new computer which is faulty.
Is this a common problem re battery? Also am i in my rights to the peopleat the store that it simply isnt god enough and they should do the legwork rather then me having to take it to the service centre.(i brought it off the apple online store)

Yes the 2010 MBPs were the most efficient MBPs made in terms of battery life (and the 10.6 OS). I have one. The subsequent quad core/10.7 OS changed that some what with a lesser battery life span. I also have a 2011 MBP.
I would say that 2,42 hrs would be disappointing to me as well for light duty CPU loads. Now understand that Apples battery life claims are based on Ebenezer Scrooge setting. My rule of thumb that for my 'normal' use will be about 2/3s of Apples advertised times.
I do note your general satisfaction, but as a fellow user there is nothing that I can do to assist you in that area All I can do is point you to these two articles that may give some strategies where you may be able to increase the battery life:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446
Ciao.

Short battery life on Macbook Pro

My friend recently bought a Macbook Pro (15") and he's having problems with the battery life.
He's only getting anywhere from 2:20 to 4:30 of battery life out of the optimal 7 after a full recharge...which to me is incredibly low. He's not running any demanding applications; the most processor-consuming app is Firefox, and even then, it's not that much.
We ran the coconut battery application, and it said the original battery capacity was 6500 mAh, but that the current capacity is 6567 mAh, which is indeed larger than the original. This is quite strange, and I am not sure what to make of it. He's in Austria, so I thought maybe the power adapter might be an issue, even though I'm in Germany, and my Macbook (early 2007) works fine (we're on 230 V in Europe).
So we don't know what to do. The next step we were considering was to reset the System Management Controller, but we wanted to see what other users think. Please help! Thanks. =D

Try and see what happens running Safari (or any other browser, really). I've found Firefox to be far more demanding in terms of RAM and CPU than Safari. Also, if these internet activities involve video or audio streaming, anything Flash-related, or downloads, there's going to be a much more significant load on the battery. My battery estimate dips about a third once I open a browser.
He may also want to try an SMC reset:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411
If this Macbook is a Mid-2009 model, run the battery down at least ten-ish percent, then plug back in to the adapter. Once you get the amber indicator on the adapter, you can shut down and proceed as stated. Don't let go of the keys until the indicator turns green and then back to amber--it takes more than five seconds for the SMC to reset on the new models, and the amber-to-green change is the only thing I've seen that indicates the reset occurred.

Real World Battery Life of Macbook Pro (Feb 2012)?

I keep seeing that the Macbook Pro (Feb 2012) has up to 7hrs of battery life. I can't find any real world ACTUAL use results. What have those who bought this model been getting in real world use?

I meant a June 2012 Macbook Pro.

BATTERY LIFE WITH MACBOOK PRO/LOGIC

wondering who is using a Macbook Pro while running Logic?
i posted in an Apple Forum a few days ago, and some people have said that they can get up to 4 hours of life from their battery. i just bought my machine in January, so i find it hard to believe that my battery could need replacing already?
if im using this computer strictly for Logic and audio production, can anyone recommend which battery setting in my preferences i should select?

With battery life, you either optimise for time (low performance), or high performance (less time).
Logic is a performance based app, and so if you are using plugins and so on, you are working your CPU hard and therefore going to run the battery down quicker.
Really, for Logic, I really recommend running on the power supply for the most part.

The battery life in MacBook Pro is not 7 hours

Hi, everyone
In the website it says that the battery life is 7 hours, however, my battery dies after 4:30 hours!!
though my Mac is new
HELP!
Thank you all in advance
Message was edited by: AMHRHA

Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
It is a good idea to run the new MBP through several calibration cycles, instructions here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490
The calibration helps your computer know when the battery really is low, otherwise it will keep more charge available than it needs to when it shuts down so that it doesn't have to shut off after going to sleep.
Here's another article about helping the MBP last longer when running on battery:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3557
Apple says this about their battery life claims:
About Apple battery life claims
Published battery life is based on a light duty test that involves wirelessly browsing various websites and editing text in a word processing document with display brightness set to the middle setting.
The more intensive the usage of a computer, the faster the battery will drain. For example, while a MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) used as described above can get up to 9 Hours of battery life, the same MacBook Pro computer continuously playing DVD movies with the display set to full brightness will drain the battery more quickly.
Hopefully this will help you get more enjoyment out of your computer.
Best wishes. Joel.
Message was edited by: Joel Hall

Battery life in Macbook PRO MD102A/E

Good afternoon.
I have a question:
My laptop is a macbook pro model MD102E / A, in the catalog said it was 7 hours of battery life, but to use it, I always mark two hours 30 minutes, not many programs use, just open the safari and nothing more and download lot.
I do not understand what the problem is, and calibrate the battery and I find that having more autonomy for the battery, I hope I can help, thanks.

Not 100% sure why come people seem to have a battery issue and others do not. I think I had one on ML and went back to Lion and have been happy with the move. You can look at this 198 page thread and see if this applies. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4135250?start=2955&tstart=0 .
In either case, since your machine is newer, you might want to take it back to Apple and have them take a look and/or see what they can do. Also, I suggest some tests on pages 195 and 196 of the thread. Perhaps you'd be willing to help out and post your results into that thread.
Good luck.

Not getting the advertised battery life on Macbook Pro Retina Late 2013

Hello world, This is my first time on the forum and I finally have a question to post lol.
So I just got Macbook Pro Retina and its only like 1 month old and Ive been getting really crappy battery life.
Im only getting about 4 hours and 35 mins on a full charge not the advertised 9 hours like Apple says.
What should I do to bring it to that?

Depends on what you are using.
Read here:
Mac notebooks: All about batteries

Battery life: Does MacBook pro's battery stop charging automatically when it's fully charged?

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