MacBook Air will not run on battery power post macOS Catalina installation

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MacBook Air will not run on battery power post macOS Catalina installation

I have a MacBook Air (2012, 13 inch, dual core i7, 8Gb RAM, 512 Gb SSD) which has been faultless until I installed macOS Catalina. At first, when running on battery power, it randomly switched off as if there was an instantaneous loss of power. Since the update to version 10.15.4 the problem is worse and now if I disconnect the power cable even for an instant, the computer instantly switches off.

I've tried SMC and PRAM resets and neither has helped. I have heard that Catalina has introduced such random shutdown behaviour to many Macs, including new models.

This is desperate - I have a perfectly good laptop which I can only use tethered.

Could someone please suggest a fix or could Apple please redeem itself soon with a new macOS release that sorts these issues out?

Thanks

Paul

MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on May 2, 2020 10:53 AM

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Answer 1

Paul_Zonda Author

Level 1

8 points

May 2, 2020 11:05 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Hi Luis,

Thanks for the suggestion, however, the battery was replaced a couple of years ago and was performing well up to the point

I installed Catalina. It is possible that the power issues I am experiencing and the macOS update are entirely separate phenomena but the two did seem to coincide. I also have a friend who bought a new MacBook Pro which also suffered seemingly similar random power related issues.

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Answer 2

May 2, 2020 10:57 AM in response to Paul_Zonda

Check the battery status. Given the age of the battery it is quite possible that it needs to be replaced. I have a mac with a similar behavior and it was not due to Catalina (it is a 2010 model).

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MacBook Air will not run on battery power post macOS Catalina installation

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