Since OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the Battery status menu on your menu bar has provided a helpful list of “apps using significant energy.” If your battery seems to be draining faster than usual, a quick click on the battery menu on your Mac’s menu bar will show you a list of the most battery-hungry apps.
Stay charged with Batteries
Check your devices’ battery levels right from your Mac
We buy MacBooks for their portability, for being able to do our work from a desk, couch, conference room, cafe, or plane. MacBook Pro or MacBook Air battery life is a key aspect of such portability — the longer it lasts the longer we can stay on the go.
With time, however, batteries wear out and lose their advertised capacity. If you have an older MacBook, say, from 10 years ago, you’d be lucky to get two hours of battery out of it right now, if any.
The process of servicing batteries is also changing. While you used to be able to just replace MacBook Pro battery yourself, without any special tools, it’s now much more difficult to do. So let’s dive into the issue of Mac battery cycle count, how to find a proper MacBook Air battery replacement, and other ways to prolong your MacBook Pro battery life.
What’s Mac Battery Cycle Count?
If you read anything about Mac batteries online, you might often see the notion of a MacBook Pro battery cycle count. What does this MacBook cycle count mean?
A cycle count simply represents the number of times your MacBook Pro battery has used up its 100% battery charge. Since every time you charge your laptop your battery capacity decreases, a high MacBook cycle count is a good proxy for the overall health of your battery life.
According to Apple, 1,000 cycles should reduce your Mac’s battery capacity to about 80%, after which you’re likely to start seeing notifications about servicing your battery.
It’s worth adding that only using some of your battery and then charging your Mac again counts as a cycle too — so it’s better to let your Mac drain the battery completely before recharging. Similarly, don’t leave your MacBook plugged in all the time, and if you have to put your Mac in storage make sure to leave it semi-charged and shut it down completely rather than just put it to sleep.
So how do you find out the battery cycle count of your Mac right now?
How to test your MacBook’s battery
There are lots of things that can go wrong with your MacBook battery, but most are simply the result of the battery cycle count being too high. To check your battery cycle count:
As mentioned above, a general rule of thumb is to consider everything lower than 1,000 as normal. But often knowing cycle count and battery condition isn’t enough — you need a more detailed solution.
iStat Menus is an advanced system monitor that would give you real-time information about every aspect of your Mac right from the menu bar. On the battery front, iStat Menus meticulously tracks the battery level in your Mac over time, provides you with exact battery capacity in mAh, monitors time spent on charger, and much more.
Besides, iStat Menus is an indispensable tool to track your CPU, GPU, RAM, network, sensors, and any other aspect of your Mac, right at your fingertips.
How to fix Mac battery problems
Once you notice there’s a problem with your Mac’s battery (maybe you’ve already got the service battery MacBook warning), there are a few things you can do.
Generally, if your Mac is relatively new and has under 1,000 battery cycle count, it might still be covered under Apple’s warranty or AppleCare+. In this case, you can just bring your Mac to any Apple Store, and they will fix it at no cost. To check the warranty status of your Mac:
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If your Mac is out of warranty, you could still go to Apple and pay for a MacBook battery replacement, which will cost you anywhere from $130 to $200, depending on your MacBook model.
Before you spend any money on replacing MacBook Pro battery, though, why not take some quick actions that might resolve the problem. First, see what’s actually taking up battery life in your Mac. Just click on iStat Menus and it’ll show all the apps using significant energy. Want more information? Open Activity Monitor:
It’s likely that your worst battery life offender is your browser, especially if you use Google Chrome. Try finding a lighter substitute. Mozilla Firefox or Safari consume much less battery, for example.
Since most of your battery life goes to your screen, try dimming it by just a few bars (use F1 key), and you might get another 30 minutes or more of battery time as a result. Additionally, see how you can adjust your Energy Saver preferences:
More tips would include switching to Dark Mode (in System Preferences ➙ General) as displaying dark pixels takes less energy. Turn off your Bluetooth as well (in System Preferences ➙ Bluetooth) if not needed.
Finally, if your battery won’t charge at all, first, try a different charger (almost always works) or try resetting your SMC:
How to replace MacBook Pro battery yourself
When it comes to Apple MacBook battery replacement, it might be worth paying Apple (or an authorized service center) to do the work and save the risk of seriously damaging your Mac.
However if you still want to do the Apple MacBook Pro battery replacement yourself, check that you have an old enough MacBook first. For battery replacement MacBook Pros and MacBooks from around the 2008–2009 are perfect, as they simply require you to unscrew the bottom and take the battery out. However, it’s nearly impossible to replace MacBook Air battery or any new MacBook models.
How to extend MacBook Air battery life in seconds
It’s worth noting that the most effective service battery MacBook options are not in physical tinkering with the battery at the risk of breaking your Mac but rather using simple apps designed for this purpose.
Endurance is a unique tool designed to seamlessly extend your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro battery life by up to 20%. The app uses just a few simple tricks automatically in the background: slowing down processor, pausing web browsers, shutting down WiFi or Bluetooth, dimming your screen, etc. You can set the battery level at which Endurance will turn on and enjoy extra hours of productivity without pressing a single button.
OneSwitch is the utility you need if you’d like to control what’s happening with your Mac. Using a simple on-and-off toggle, you can turn on Dark Mode, put your display to sleep, connect to Bluetooth devices, clear your Desktop, empty trash, and so much more. OneSwitch not only saves your battery life but also significantly cuts down the time it takes to perform repetitive tasks.
Apple Mac Battery Check
Now you know how to check battery health on MacBook, how to replace MacBook Pro battery, and even a few tricks for prolonging your Mac’s battery life manually. You also know that iStat Menus is probably your best bet when it comes to monitoring what’s going on in your Mac, Endurance is the easiest way to extend your battery life by up to 20%, and OneSwitch gives you complete control over a wealth of repetitive tasks.
Best of all, iStat Menus, Endurance, and OneSwitch are all available to you absolutely free for seven days via Setapp, a platform with more than 170 indispensable Mac apps for making your life easier and more productive — and saving on Mac repair costs too! Try them all at no cost and see for yourself. Why not?
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Apple’s been in the courtroom for several years now, after the company was found to be slowing down older iPhones without the consent of the owners. The company’s reasoning? The health of the batteries inside those iPhones had degraded to a point where running at full speed could trigger shutdowns or other issues.
That series of lawsuits has also led to Apple adding a very useful tool into its products, including the Battery Health feature.
The feature lets you see how well your battery is faring under your usage, and also tells you if you can do things to improve the battery’s health, or if you need to replace it. That same tool is also coming to the Apple Watch, and macOS is getting some new stats pages for a more complete picture of your battery use, as well.
Here’s how to check the battery health of your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and MacBook
It’s pretty simple to check the new inbuilt tools that Apple added, so you can keep an eye on your not-user-replaceable battery.
iPhone or iPad:
This last screen will also tell you if your battery has degraded to the level of needing a replacement. Just know that’ll cost around $80 if so.
Apple Watch:Mac Check Battery Usage
You’ll need to be updated to WatchOS 7 to be able to check the battery health on your Apple Watch. So, until the public beta arrives, you’ll need to be using a developer account to access this currently. If you are, here’s how to check:
Macbook Battery Check
That’s it, you’ll now see a percentage indicating how healthy your battery is, and any advice you may need on how to improve it.
MacBook:
Apple added a Battery Health feature to macOS back in April, but macOS Big Sur (the next major update) brings even more battery tools. You’ll be able to see exactly which apps are draining your battery, both as a daily rundown or over the last ten days.
You’ll now see graphs of your Mac’s energy usage on the Usage History tab, along with a graph of Screen On Time, so you can match the two together. You can also check the battery health of your MacBook by going to System Preferences > Power Saver > Battery Health.
That’ll give you the health status, and an option about disabling Battery Health Management, which automatically adjusts performance and the maximum charge of your MacBook’s battery depending on your usage habits. It’s pretty much the same system that’s in iOS, so it will be interesting to see how well it works when it hits my work laptop in the fall.
Optimized battery charging
While you were checking out your battery health on your iPhone, you probably saw a toggle for Optimized Battery Charging. This handy setting learns your charging routine, then instead of fully charging your device, it’ll charge to 80% until before you usually pick it off the charger, when it will finish charging to 100%. That puts less strain on your battery over time, hopefully resulting in a longer lifespan for your device.
Oh, and while we have you. If you had an iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, or SE, or an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus that experienced slowdowns, go join the class action so you get some cash for your troubles.
Mac app bundles 2016 software. What do you think? Plan on using these features to check on your iPhone’s battery health? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
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