Not entirely clear to what extent 80% charging preserves battery life, but it's a little odd that when this is set (Sequoia 15.6.1) it doesn't actually take effect for a few weeks. The system doesn't need to "learn my habits". It just needs to kill charging when at 100%, and restart when it hits 79%.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: 80% charging?
MacBook Air, macOS 15.6
Dannymac22 wrote:
With all due respect to Apple, if it's telling me that 80% is best for my battery, why is their algorithm waiting a week or more to send it in that direction?
Statistics take time to be acquired. We have the same behavior at work. It takes a user being consistent with their on battery vs on power over a period of time before macOS decides it can safely charge just to 80%.
Again, if you do not like Apple's algorithm, you can get a 3rd party utility that will give you more explicit control over charging.
https://apphousekitchen.com/
And no, I do not have anything to do with this company. I just used it BEFORE Apple provided optimized charging, because I had a swelled battery in my company Mac.
And arguing with the forum volunteers is not going to change anything. You can send your feedback to Apple at
https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html
Maybe you can convince Apple to implement a fixed battery charging percentage. After all they have that in the iPhone.
Dannymac22 wrote:
Except it doesn't. Mine stays charged to 100% for a week. I respect Apple's guidance, but I just don't understand the implementation.
You can certainly ask Apple for an explanation. The Support link is at the bottom left of every page. However, I suspect you'll get a very similar answer to the (accurate, thoughtful)ones already provided.
Dannymac22 wrote:
HWTech wrote:
As both @BobHarris and even myself have noted, the goal is not 80% charge.
The goal is to attempt to maximize battery health which only requires that the battery is exercised once in a while.
Beg to differ, but "With Optimized Battery Charging, iPhone pauses charging at 80%, then finishes charging closer to when you usually unplug your iPhone."
While macOS has been converging towards iOS for many years now, they are not the same even when they may appear to share similar features. The requirements & use of an iPhone are completely different to those of a laptop (generally).
Case in point......iOS used to be for both iPhones & iPads, but Apple separated them a couple of years ago so we now have iOS for iPhones and iPadOS for iPads. You cannot get more similar than iPhone & iPads....they even shared the same OS for over a decade so why do they now run separate but similar operating systems? A laptop is much more different & unique than an iPad is to an iPhone.
Perhaps a Mac is not for you (it really isn't for me, but is required for my job so I suffer through with it & accept it for how it operates.....the good, the bad, and the ugly).
This will be the last post here since there is nothing left to be said. Believe what you will and contact Apple for assistance or provide Apple with product feedback.
Dannymac22 wrote:
Not entirely clear to what extent 80% charging preserves battery life, but it's a little odd that when this is set (Sequoia 15.6.1) it doesn't actually take effect for a few weeks. The system doesn't need to "learn my habits". It just needs to kill charging when at 100%, and restart when it hits 79%.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: 80% charging?
Actually Optimizing Charging should, over time, reduce the number of Full Battery Cycles put to the battery
About battery health management in Mac notebooks
Thanks. I guess what's mysterious to me is what my habits have to do with it. It's pretty simple. If the charge is 100%, stop charging until it gets down to 80%. My habits have nothing to do with that. As it turns out, I mostly have it plugged in.
Even when the computer is plugged into the electrical, the battery on my M4 15" MBA running The Latest and Greatest offer from Apple - Tahoe 26.1
I can see the Battery Indicator in the Menu Bar going down to 80% and Stops discharging
Micromanaging Apple Laptop Computers is an effort in futility
Though, this is up to the Owner of the computer to decided what enough is enough
Yes, but I just continue to wonder why statistics are needed. If the goal is to charge to 80%, that's easy to do without statistics. I could manually just pull the plug every time the charge reaches 80%, and there would be no safety issues. No overheating. No swelling. I just don't understand why intelligence is needed to do "optimized charging". It would be nice to get some explanation. As noted, I have optimized charging turned on on my MBP, and the charge is still sitting at 100% after a week.
Dannymac22 wrote:
Yes, but I just continue to wonder why statistics are needed. If the goal is to charge to 80%,
As both @BobHarris and even myself have noted, the goal is not 80% charge.
The goal is to attempt to maximize battery health which only requires that the battery is exercised once in a while.
I suggest you go to your local Apple Store and ask them about the Optimized Charging on the Macs. Sometimes things make more sense when speaking to a human rather than reading text online. I know that I prefer speaking face to face when trying to deal with some issues over chatting back & forth online.
There has been sufficient advice offered for the User ( you ) by several Contributors, to make an informed and educated choice.
The suggestions have been put forth on a volunteer basis, in good faith and in the best interests of the computer which do not always align with the users’ expectations
There is nothing left to be said because I'm asking for an explanation of the implementation, and you folks simply don't know what it is. What I'm hearing is that, well, Apple knows what it's doing, so just accept it. I'll thank everyone for their efforts, though. This is not a big deal, but just a curiouser and curiouser issue.
With all due respect to Apple, if it's telling me that 80% is best for my battery, why is their algorithm waiting a week or more to send it in that direction?
I'm less worried about the battery, but a little more worried about Apple wasting computing power on this.
Yes, that's certainly true. But Apple spent money on people to come up with such an algorithm that thinks about my habits.
80% charging take weeks to activate on macOS Sequoia
