Has your MacBook’s battery been draining too fast? Well, many factors could be behind this, such as outdated macOS, a rogue or resource-intensive app, and so on. The good news is you can follow several strategies to optimize your MacBook’s battery life and ensure it serves you well throughout the day. Here are some tips you can follow to improve your MacBook’s battery life.
Table of Contents
1. Monitor Battery Health
You need to start by monitoring your MacBook’s battery health and performance. This will help you analyze the current status of your battery and the necessary measures you can take.
Here is how you can do it:
1. Go to the Apple Menu on the top-left of your screen.
2. Click on System Settings.
3. Scroll down and open General from the left sidebar.
4. Then, click on About on the right sidebar.
5. At the bottom, open System Report
6. Under the Hardware section, go to Power on the left sidebar.
Here, on the right, you can check all the info about your battery. Check the Health Information section.
1. Cycle Count: The cycle count indicates how many charge cycles the battery has gone through. A lower cycle count is generally better for battery health.
2. Condition: This will indicate the overall health of your Mac’s battery. It typically says “Normal” if your battery is in good shape. If it says anything other than “Normal,” it might be time to consider replacing your battery.
Here are some other cool tricks you can use to further keep an eye on your MacBook’s battery health and optimize it on the way.
2. Enable Optimized Battery Charging
The “Optimized Battery Charging” feature on macOS is designed to extend the overall lifespan of your MacBook’s battery by reducing wear and tear caused by constant charging to 100%.
Here is how you can enable it:
1. Go to the Apple menu on your desktop.
2. Open System Settings.
3. Scroll down and click on Battery on the left sidebar.
4. Beside Battery Health, click on the (i) icon.
5. Then, enable ​​Optimized Battery Charging.
6. Click on Done to save settings.
Once you enable this, your Mac will charge up to 80% relatively quickly. Then, after studying your charging patterns, it will delay charging to 100% until it predicts you’ll unplug it and start using it again.
3. Update macOS
Ensure that your system is always up-to-date. Apple often releases updates that optimize Mac’s battery efficiency and system performance.
Follow the steps below to update your macOS.
1. Go to Apple Menu on the top and open System Settings.
2. Click on Software Update Available.
3. Wait for the system to look for updates. Then, click on Update Now.
This process might take some time, based on the update’s size.
4. Don’t use Chrome Browser
Google Chrome is quite popular when it comes to browsers. But it is also known to be a resource hogger that can quickly drain your battery.
In such cases, the best alternative is to use the Safari browser, which is better optimized for MacBooks. Then there are other browsers like Edge that work equally well and are platform agnostic. This will eventually put less pressure on your battery and offer a better life span.
5. Opt for Auto Brightness
Auto Brightness is excellent for saving Mac’s battery power and puts less strain on your eyes in the long run. Since the screen is one of the most power-hungry components of your MacBook, lowering its brightness can conserve battery juice.
You can enable auto-brightness from the steps below.
1. Once again, go back to Apple Menu and open System Settings.
2. Click on Display on the left sidebar.
3. Now, on the right, enable Automatically Adjust Brightness.
This will ensure macOS is continuously adjusting the screen’s brightness to an appropriate level, preventing excess power consumption.
6. Disable Keyboard Light
For the same reason we have opted for auto brightness on your display, we can do it for keyboard light as well. You can use multiple options to control how Keyboard lighting behaves to save your Mac’s battery life.
Here are the options you will get.
1. Go to the Apple menu at the top-left and open System Settings.
2. Scroll down and click on Keyboard on the left sidebar.
3. Here, enable Adjust keyboard brightness in low light. Then, you can manually lower or disable the keyboard light entirely.
4. Also, adjust the timing for Turn keyboard backlight off after inactivity. You can select the time from the list.
Wait, there are more ways to help improve battery life. For example, there are battery apps that will further help you optimize MacBook’s battery.
7. Manage Background Apps
Background Apps tend to consume a lot of power without you knowing. You can quit some apps or functions you are not currently working on to conserve battery.
Here’s how to manage background apps on your MacBook:
1. Press Spacebar + Command to open Spotlight Search.
2. Type Activity Monitor and open it.
3. Check the CPU and Energy columns to see which apps are consuming the highest resources.
4. Select apps that you are not using and can quit. Click on the x at the top to close the apps. Don’t mess with system apps or app/process names you are not familiar with.
8. Keep Your MacBook Cool
MacBooks work best at an optimal temperature of 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C) as noted by Apple. If you are exposing your device to extremely hot or cold temperatures, Apple says more than 95° F (35° C), it can severely affect the battery life.
Make sure Mac has proper ventilation. Avoid using it on soft surfaces like beds or couches that can block airflow if your Mac has vents. Some models like Air don’t. You can place it on a table or else, you can buy a cooling pad
9. Disable Startup Apps
When you start your MacBook, all the Startup apps load simultaneously, even when you won’t be using them. This extends the time it takes for your MacBook to boot up. Furthermore, these apps consume system resources (CPU and RAM) during startup, which can slow down the initial performance of your laptop.
Hence, this overall affects the battery health every time your MacBook starts. However, you can choose to disable these startup apps:
1. Go to the Apple menu on the top and open System Settings.
2. Click on General on the left sidebar.
3. Then, open Login Items on the right.
4. Check the list below Open at Login. Select the app you want to exclude from the list and click on the – icon below.
You can also disable certain background items to operate while your system is running and remove them from the list Allow in Background.
10. Remove Peripherals
Unplug any peripherals like external hard drives, USB devices, or accessories when not in use. These devices draw power from your MacBook even when it’s idle, impacting battery life. Some of them have led lights in them and as we learned above, they consume battery.
11. Turn Off Turbo Boost
Turbo Boost makes Mac’s CPU run at higher clock speeds for better performance but temporarily. However, it is not always needed, considering it can consume more power than usual. Even though you cannot control this function directly from the system settings, you can use third-party apps like Turbo Boost Switcher to manage it. Note that this only works for Intel MacBooks. Here’s how to check your MacBook’s specs.
12. Turn Off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection may consume power impacting Mac’s battery life. When MacBook is actively using Wi-Fi to browse the web, stream videos, download files, or perform other network-related tasks, it consumes power. Similarly, Bluetooth can also deplete the MacBook’s battery.
You can turn it off when doing offline tasks like reading ebooks, playing offline games, watching a downloaded movie/show, working on an office doc, and so on.
1. Go to the Control Center at the top-right corner of your screen.
2. Click on the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth icon and turn it off.
13. Plug-in and Power on While Charging Other Devices
While charging your iPhone through your MacBook, ensure your Mac is connected to a power source, too. This prevents your MacBook’s battery from draining while charging external devices.
14. Remove Cases During Charging
Not every case or cover you use fits snugly. These cases may trap excess heat during charging, thus affecting battery health overall. While charging, it is best to remove the case and perfectly attach the cable to the device.
Power Up
There may be other ways to optimize and monitor MacBook’s battery health. Before you can try these methods, ensure that you are aware of the issues you face on your system, such as overheating, faster battery draining, and much more.
You can then check your battery health from the system setting and take the necessary measures. You can also consider buying powerbanks that is capable of charging Macs.
