MacBook Pro strange battery behaviour

If you have the non-Touchbar model, then see if your laptop qualifies for this free Apple battery repair program:

https://support.apple.com/13inch-macbookpro-battery-replacement

Try an SMC Reset and PRAM Reset. I really doubt this will help if your battery condition is "Service Recommended", but it never hurts to try.

If it does not qualify, then try running the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected. Unfortunately with Big Sur (and possibly Catalina) the battery condition has been crippled so that it is no longer possible to determine if you just have a degraded battery (charge doesn't last long) or whether macOS has detected a hardware issue with the battery. Older versions of macOS made it easy to determine this, but now you have a generic "Service Recommended" message which could indicate either condition (very poor change and sure seems like a way for Apple to perform some unnecessary battery replacements). However, with your symptoms it is very likely the battery may be the source of the problem.

I have seen some similar behaviors with some of our organization's USB-C Apple laptops with healthy batteries (condition = Normal). I'm still not certain if there is an actual hardware issue or whether this is some firmware/OS bug. This type of intermittent issue can be very hard to troubleshoot and will require someone to actually see the physical laptop to closely observe even the smallest details of its behavior. The two most recent laptops where this occurred just started working and I could not reproduce the issue again (on one I had to actually disconnect the battery -- I don't recommend users do this because these USB-C Apple laptops are difficult to open safely and it is very easy to damage the battery or the very fragile cables and connectors on these laptops).

If the problem keeps occurring, then you will need to take the laptop to an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider to be examined so they can provide you a repair estimate. Hopefully they will be able to figure it out. These USB-C Apple laptops are extremely difficult to troubleshoot accurately especially with an intermittent issue.

FYI, here is the current list of the publicly acknowledged free repair programs for various Apple products (some products have multiple programs available):

https://support.apple.com/service-programs

Maltesi wrote:

Update of strange behaviour"

this morning the MacBook was on my desk, connected to the power source, battery 100%. I had to go to office so I have simply closed the screen and unplugged the power. Once in the office the MacBook was not starting / resuming, and the symbol of "empty battery" appear. I did plug in the power source and the Mac Book did switch ON, just resuming from sleep, and battery was 100%.

Unfortunately I have seen this behavior a lot with our organization's USB-C Apple laptops. It is extremely annoying, but it appears to be a new standard "feature".

As soon as I can I am will take it to Apple Service but if I have to compare this MacBook to the other one of 2010 this one loses the battle...... I am disappointed.

The quality of Apple laptops began declining with the Retina models in 2012 and really took a nose dive with the USB-C laptops. I hate the USB-C Macs and will never recommend one to anyone. There are way too many hardware design flaws and idiosyncrasies and other weirdness and unpredictability with them plus some very awful default settings (auto on by pressing any key as one example), plus macOS is quickly declining as well. It is also much more expensive and harder to repair the Retina models with the USB-C models being 1,000 times worse. Just wait until you need to pay $600 US to replace a bad speaker, built-in iSight Camera, Trackpad, Keyboard, Bezel, etc. when these items would only cost $200 (parts & labor) on the non-Retina models.