Every device, such as a MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, benefits from a limited number of cycles until a battery is used up and needs replacing. As a Mac battery gets older, the time in between full charges reduces. This means, you aren't getting as many hours of charge that you would have when it was new.
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Once a battery hits its maximum number of charging cycles, it can still be used. But it does mean that you might only get a couple hours at most of use until it needs charging again. In some cases, you might not be able to use a Mac without a power cord. This is clearly a sign of a dead battery.
So to avoid this happening unexpectedly, let’s first look at what a battery cycle means and how to check your currently battery cycle.
Mac battery cycle: What does this mean?
Think about how you normally use your Mac. Do you work from the same desk, plug it in, keep it charging all day, then close it down and not use it until the next day?
In that case, it’s getting fully charged, but not using any of that charge. It could take years for it to reach the maximum number of cycles possible.
However, if you charge the Mac in before going somewhere - until the charge reaches 100% - and then you take your Mac without the plug and it uses 50% of the charge. And then you do the same the following day, this is one full cycle. It would only count as two if on both occasions the charge went down to zero, then it needed fully recharging again.
So every time you use as much of the battery as possible, then recharge it, this is a complete battery cycle.
How to check my Mac battery cycle?
Now that you understand what a Mac battery cycle is, we can have a look on how to check this.
How much charge a Mac currently has is automatically displayed in the top toolbar, shown as a percentage and when clicked on it will give you the option to open Energy Saver Preferences. It also displays what is currently using a large amount of the battery charge.
Now here is where to check how many charging cycles your Mac has remaining.
- Go to the Apple () menu in the top toolbar (you can also search for System Information using Siri or Spotlight Search)
- Click on System Information
- Within this is a Hardware section of System Information
- Click on Power
- Listed under Health Information is the current Cycle Count
- It also provides a Condition status of your battery
The current Cycle Count it displays is how many cycles are remaining until the battery has reached its maximum. It’s helpful to know how many cycles most Mac models have. Apple have documented this information for Mac users.
Does my Mac model make a difference?
Yes, it does. Depending on how old your Mac is, some models have different amount of cycles than other. As a general rule, older Macs are not as energy efficient as modern models, so these usually have much shorter total battery cycles.
Based on information from Apple, here are the various models of MacBooks, MacBooks Air and Pro and their battery cycles:
- MacBook (2009 - 2017 models): 1000 cycles
- MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008): 500 cycles
- MacBook (all earlier models, except the one above): 300 cycles
- MacBook Pro (most models): 1000 cycles
- MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2008): 500 cycles
- MacBook Pro (every other 2008 model): 300 cycles
- MacBook Air (most models): 1000 cycles
- MacBook Air (Mid 2009): 500 cycles
- MacBook Air (original and late 2008 model): 300 cycles
We hope this is useful. Now you know how to check current battery percentages, how many battery cycles your Mac has and where to find that real-time data. Below are a few quick ways to improve the battery health of your Mac.
How to improve Mac battery health?
1. Use Energy Saver mode
- Open System Preferences (via the Apple () menu, Siri or Spotlight) > Click on Energy Saver:
- Switch on Automatic graphic and check the box for Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible;
- Also switch off Wake for network access.
2. Switch off or delete power-draining apps
- Download CleanMyMac X (you can download a free edition here);
- Use the Optimization > Heavy Consumers to identify battery-draining apps;
- Close the ones you don't need, or click on Uninstaller to remove the apps you don't need anymore;
3. Reduce screen brightness
Brighter screens use too much power.
It is always going to be a balancing act between too bright and not bright enough. Other factors, such as light from external sources, what you are doing at the time, and internal lights will also impact how bright or not the screen feels.
To change the brightness, go to System Preferences (either through the top toolbar Apple icon, Spotlight or Siri) and click on Displays. Use the Brightness slider to adjust this. Or you can use the F1 and F2 keys on MacBooks (F14 and F15 on desktop Mac’s).
4. Update your macOS software
When you update to the latest version of macOS software, newer versions often include the latest in battery saving technology. Every time and update happens, Mac’s that upgrade to the newest version experience improved efficiencies and faster processing power.
Before downloading a new macOS, make sure to back everything up first. To update, click on the Apple icon in the top toolbar select Software Update (it will always show you if a new update is needed).
5. Close background apps
Launch Agents are small background applications that are normally hidden. Still, they can be primary battery-drainers on your Mac. It can be equally useful to keep the number of Launch Agents and Login Items to a minimum, which CleanMyMac X can quickly and easily tidy up.
While you are in CleanMyMac, click Optimization > Launch Agents
Disable everything to the bare minimum.
Getting the most out of your Mac battery keeps it going for longer. You can do more with a Mac that has a healthy battery. To keep this healthy for as long as possible, we recommend making sure your Mac is running as efficiently as it can.
CleanMyMac X is a valuable tool for getting your Mac up and running as good as new. It can monitor the health of your Mac, clear out system junk, remove viruses and tidy up long-forgotten folders and files. Everything you do that improves performance will reduce the strain on the battery, keeping it running for longer.
In this article, we'll look at common problems and 5 fixes for these MacBook and MacBook Pro battery problems.
Why is my Mac battery draining so fast?
There can be a number of reasons. For example, different browsers consume different amounts of battery power.
In some cases, a recent upgrade to a new macOS can be the cause and therefore a temporary problem. It either stops doing this in its own time, or a new macOS patch/upgrade is sent through and once downloaded the problem goes away. It is known to happen around the time of new releases and is an issue many Mac owners anticipate.
However, in other cases, the issue is less widespread and more localized. We cover five of the most common problems and fixes for Mac users, in particular MacBook owners who have suffered from a fast draining battery.
5 solutions for Mac battery problems
1. Check and change Battery Settings
In the top menu, where the battery appears, it’s always useful to switch usage to a statistics setting, so that you can clearly see how fast it's draining.
If you click on the battery, it will show which apps are using the most amount of power.
- From here, click on Open Energy Saver Preferences
- Within this you’ve got the option to put the hard disks to sleep and dim the display when a Mac is not connected to power.
2. Switch on Energy Saver
Always useful when trying to conserve battery power on any device, and it could be a lifesaver if you happen to be out without a power cord or plug.
- From the Apple menu;
- Go to System Preferences > Energy Saver
- Now click on the Battery tab
- A slider should be on this screen: Switch Power Nap off, while sliding the scale along to ensure the screen goes dark after a reasonable amount of time when not being used, which should reduce battery drainage.
3. Find out what is using energy
When investigating a fast draining battery, it’s always useful to know what is using energy in the first place. To find out, follow these steps:
- Go to Applications;
- Click on Utilities > Activity Monitor;
- Activity Monitor will show what is taking up CPU and GPU;
- Giving you the ability to close anything that is clearly taking up too much battery power.
4. Identify background apps
Behind the scenes, most Macs can run dozens of apps without us realizing it. Some of these could be running because we forgot about them. Others open during the startup sequence. And others, without us knowing it, could be malware or ransomware, or other viruses, either designed to steal data or steal processing power to mine cryptocurrency or even run remote DDoS attacks.
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Now, clearly that sort of thing isn’t ideal and you won’t want apps running that drain power, steal data, or that use your Mac for something you aren't even aware. To solve these potential battery draining problems, we recommend taking the following steps:
- Download CleanMyMac X (for free, here)
- Click on Uninstaller
- It will run a scan of every app on your system: Either click to rest or safely uninstall everything you don't need or aren't aware of.
Also, click the Optimization tab in CleanMyMac. You’ll find the tool called Launch Agents.
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It displays tiny background applications otherwise non visible to a user. This very often gets exploited by advertising scripts — a sure way to drain your battery power.
As you can see, these items can be easily switched off using the Disable button.
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5. Adjust screen brightness
The brightest lightbulbs consume more energy, same is true for your screen's lighting. In your Preferences, look up Displays settings and do a couple of tune-ups there. Make sure to tick 'Automatically adjust brightness' checkbox.
6. Clean up your Mac
Macs battery benefits from various forms of cleaning. Why? Because the cluttered hard drive uses more CPU resources. The more strain on CPU, the more it affects and eventually wears off your battery. There are dozens of pretty good tools to remove hidden junk from Mac but my personal favorite is CleanMyMac X. It's so enjoyable to use even for such a trivial operation as deleting junk files.
- Download CleanMyMac X — here 's a link to a free edition
- Click on the System Junk tab
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As you can see, I was able to remove 18.9 GB worth of useless files: caches, broken downloads, localizations, etc.
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Sit back and know that with a tidy Mac, with it free from all of the clutter of years of use — and a monitoring system in place to look after it — your battery should be operating at optimum levels again.