How Do You Look Up Battery Health And Wear On Mac OS X?
Batteries in MacBooks lose battery capacity over time. Every time you charge and discharge a laptop battery, it wears on it and reduces the maximum capacity.
But how do you know how your MacBook battery is doing? Well, Apple has actually implemented it into Mac OS X so you can easily check.
Let’s get into how you look it up and then I am going to share a few tips and tricks to making your laptop battery last longer.
How To Check Battery Health On A MacBook
Step 1: Open system preferences. You can find the system preferences by clicking on the Apple in the upper left corner and choose it.
Step 2: Choose “Battery” on the bottom row.
Step 3: Choose “Battery” in the list on the list.
Step 4: Choose “Battery Health…” on the bottom.
Step 5: Read the battery condition and maximum capacity.
The maximum capacity is based on the battery capacity when it was new and how much it has depreciated.
If it says 80%, it doesn’t mean that your battery won’t be able to charge to a full 100%. It does, however, mean that a full battery is only going to be charged to 80% compared to when it was new.
As it says in the window, a lower capacity means that you’re going to run out of battery faster. But it also means it’s going to charge faster since there is not as much to fill up.
How To Limit Battery Wear/Tear
One thing you can do to extend the life of the battery in your laptop is to try to never drain it completely to 0%, and if possible only charge it to 80% instead of full.
The worst thing for a battery is to constantly discharge from 100% to 0%, and this is going to relatively quickly decrease the maximum capacity and lead to worse battery life.
You should charge it to 100% and drain it t0 0% about once a month, but not every time you use the laptop.
It’s also not good for batteries to get warm or hot. So if possible, keep your laptop as cool as possible.
I use a MacBook stand by Nulaxy (click to view on Amazon) when I have it connected to an external monitor to make sure it gets enough air to stay cool.
The “Optimized Battery Charging” Feature
Apple recently added a feature that is found where you access the battery health information. It’s called “Optimized Battery Charging”.
What that feature does is it learns over time how you charge and use your laptop daily.
If it knows that you charge the battery overnight but don’t start using it until 8am, it might not do the last 20% (80 to 100%) until an hour or two before 8am.
There is a feature on iOS that does the same thing, to increase the life of your iPhone/iPad batteries.
Is It Bad To Leave A MacBook Plugged In At All Times?
It’s not necessarily good for a lithium battery to sit at a 100% charge at all times. It can be a good habit to do a cycle (100 to 0% and back to 100%) once a month or so. That is going to increase the lifespan.
If you never use your laptop without being plugged in, I recommend downloading an application like Al Dente and set the charging limit to 60%, which is where lithium batteries decrease the least.
Can I Replace The MacBook Battery?
It’s not as easy as it used to be, although the newest 14 and 16 inch MacBooks are a little bit easier to repair.
You can always bring your MacBook to an Apple Store and they will give you a quote for a battery replacement.
Which MacBook Has The Best Battery Life?
I have written an article about this that you can find here.
