Sequoia 15 ruined to my Macbook M2 battery life

How long ago was the Sequoia upGraded performed ?

Keep the computer pulled into the charger for maybe 1 to 2 days

Depending on how much data was on the drive, it can take some time for All the Data on the drive has been re-indexed

Keeping it plugged in, may help reduce the time and battery power used during this process.

I had the same issue, when streaming a church service, the battery would drain even though the Mac is attached to the power adapter, and never had this problem before the upgrade to Sequoia. That was version 15.0 of Sequoia. I updated to the latest/greatest 15.1 and the problem has resolved. The battery stays fully charged while streaming.

Try that first before worrying about battery health, third party power hogs, etc. If things were fine before going to Sequoia they should remain fine, now that we're beyond a dot-zero version.

dorina135 wrote:

I always take care for the macbook charging system and the used programs for optimisation.

I'am really sad because it is a spectacular changes and not the good way.

It sounds like you try to take good care of your computer, which is good. I think Etresoft and PRP have the best perspective on this and possible solutions; downloading and running Etrecheck and posting its report as a reply here will likely reveal some possible causes and fixes.

Here are some things that can consume battery quickly. Sometimes they are "ok" with an older version of the MacOS but then start using inordinate resources after an update or upgrade, for reasons that Etresoft mentioned. I don't know if you have these things running, however:

• Anti-virus or similar "security" tools: these run in the background, even when the Mac is sleeping, not only do they use energy and resources checking every single byte of data that is moving through your Mac, but they run scans overnight and in the background. My employer requires a specific anti-virus tool to be installed in all its Macs and PCs and at times the fans pick up because it is scanning and that can use a lot of energy (battery), especially if it is not well adapted to Sequoia.
• Internet or network security apps -- also running all the time in the background, some even when Mac is sleeping, they inspect every bit of network traffic, sometimes writing logs or whatnot.
• Cleaning or optimizing apps, same problem as above, checking things in the background
• If programs are left open (running) when you put your Mac to sleep, it may wake for network access. Software like Microsoft often check with the home server for updates; especially suspect are browsers, which may have web sites open that are actually running videos, animated ads, etc. These can consume large amounts of energy and Mac resources, especially if many tabs or windows are open. It may be that some of these browsers run differently under the more recent versions of the MacOS.

You might get some clues from Activity Monitor, maybe shut down and restart your Mac right before putting it to sleep, then next day when you wake it up, look to see which processes were using energy, disk activity, memory, cpu time, etc. during the time you thought it was sleeping.

As Etresoft indicated, some software may run differently under Sequoia than they did under earlier MacOS versions. I think that responsibility lies with the vendor of the software, to make sure it is compatible with MacOS.

Once it cools down & charges up, try one of these two..

Are you running any VPN, Anti-Virus, or Cleaning apps?

We need to see what all is running, a report from this will not display any personal info...

Using EtreCheck - Apple Community

EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/

Thanks for Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…

Slow iMac 2017 - Apple Community

Or as a test... Safe Boot...

Start with this of M1 or M2 Mac...

On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > Shut Down.

Wait for your Mac to shut down completely. A Mac is completely shut down when the screen is black and any lights (including in the Touch Bar) are off.

Press and hold the power button on your Mac until “Loading startup options” appears.

Select a volume.

Press and hold the Shift key, then click Continue in Safe Mode.

The computer restarts automatically. When the login window appears, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.

Restart normally.

Start with this if IntelMac...

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes or more.

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...

Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.

Does it work in the new account?

dorina135 wrote:

If I understand correctly what you suggest @ PRP_53, this application: Etrecheck - it shows me which other app is consuming a lot of energy in the background on my mac machine in non-optimized mode?

More or less. But the idea is that you should post your EtreCheck report as a reply here in this question. (Use the Additional Text button in the toolbar:

Then, we (the people most familiar with EtreCheck reports) will look at it and tell you which apps are most likely to be the cause.

You are welcome to read the report yourself, of course. But it's a lot of a text.

After I have found out which app or apps are "badly" working, can I send feedback to the app's developer via Etrecheck?

No, sorry. EtreCheck will not do anything on your behalf. You will have to do that on your own.

This approach also means that the problem is not in Sequoia 15, instead the cause of the problem is that some 3rd party apps are not uptodate?

Not necessarily. Every computer is different. Everyone has a different set of software they are running. Sometimes this gets very complicated. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Maybe there is an easy answer.

Thus, if Sequoia 15 is updated to 15.1 or 15.2, this situation will not be resolved until the 3rd party updates ?

Again, no way to tell.

It can be very difficult to diagnose these things over a web forum like this. It could be as simple as Sequoia re-indexing your photos or something. That might resolve itself on its own once the indexing tasks complete.

Sequoia 15 also ruined the battery of my 2018 MacBook pro. The problem IS NOT SMC. The fix is to turn off as many background process as possible in "allow in the background".

Search "MacBook Overheating While Sleeping on macOS Sequoia 15 0" in youtube, and Michael Moy explained in more detail.

i also have the same problem my macbook pro 13 is almost new i hardly use it since i updated the sequoia 15.0.1

within a 2 hour battery life drop to 50% but before this software its drop only 15 to 17% in 2 hour i talk to the apple they told take to the repair center but there not a hardware problem they gave me another option go back to the same software erase this software i notice that problem next day of the update

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share the steps I followed after contacting support to address the rapid battery drain issue, which worked well for me.

1. Restart your MacBook in Safe Mode.
2. Create a new user account on your MacBook.

• • Skip any non-essential setup steps and let the system load to the standard desktop.
  • Do not connect Apple ID

1. Restart the system and log in to the newly created account.
2. Shut down the MacBook again.
3. Connect the charger and charge to 100%.
4. Start up the MacBook and check the battery life in the Activity Monitor to see if the issue is resolved.

Cheers!

This helped my M1 MacBook Pro. It was getting 8 hours of battery life after the update to MacOS 15 and after turning off Apple Intelligence I'm getting closer to 10 hours without charging.

dorina135 wrote:

I did what you suggested, I also applied some tips before the problem, but point 5 was new to me, SMC reset is an option for M2 Max chips as well?

No, it isn't.

The most likely explanation for your problem is some incompatible 3rd party system modification software. Such apps are extremely popular. Their developers paint the internet in ads. As much as people complain about advertising, it is extremely effective.

However, these developers always put more money into advertising than they do quality control, operating system compatibility, or user support. One of your apps is spinning out of control and consuming too much energy and cpu power. That is what is draining your battery.

Start with this...

Delete this file & restart...

/Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.OneDriveStandaloneUpdater.plist

n8levy wrote:

SAME ! Please say an update is on the way.

Ask and Ye shall receive

Sequoia 15.1 Latest Update released Monday Oct 28, 2024

About the security content of macOS Sequoia 15.1

Disable Apple Intelligence & Siri

Hello, I am very sorry for what is happening to you... I have a MacBook Pro M2 Pro that I upgraded to macOS Sequoia 15, and I recognize it is a disaster in terms of consumption. I would advise you to set your Mac to consume as little as possible. This is possible by going through the settings a little, for example stopping hard drives from running as soon as the Mac can. You can also reprogram the automatic shutdown of it. It’s not a solution, but it could already give you autonomy while waiting for a fix from Apple.

Some other tips to improve autonomy while waiting for updates include:

1. Enable the power saving mode in the System Preferences.

2. Reduce animations and visual effects (reduce transparency and animations via Accessibility).

3. Monitor and close power-hungry applications using the activity monitor.

4. Update macOS and applications regularly as patches can improve power management.

5. Reset the SMC (System Management Controller) if necessary to resolve some battery issues.

By applying these adjustments, you could improve the battery life of your MacBook while waiting for a formal fix. I hope I have answered your question correctly.

I would potential agree 👍 with @ etresoft assessment on this computer issue

Download the Application Etrecheck  ( External Link ) directly from the Developer.

The Application is Not a " Silver Bullet "  and is  only a tool to examine the Hardware / Software used on this computer 

This is a Diagnostic Tool that makes no changes to the computer Hardware / Software used on this computer 

The application is free or paid from added features. 

The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information. 

Post back the Full Report - copy and paste - >>>> using the Additional Text Icon ( 3rd Icon to last ) <<<<