If you are finding that your Mac battery doesn’t last as long as it once did, or it is constantly running out, then there are easy steps that can be taken to prolong the battery life.
You can check your current battery health in the energy saver settings. For a more in depth look at your mac battery life expectancy take a look at Apple’s guide on battery cycles here.
Adjust your ‘Energy Saver’ settings
- You can find the energy saver settings in system preferences
- Adjust your settings for when the Mac is plugged into the power adapter and when the Mac is running off of the battery.
- Switch on Dark Mode which may improve battery life.
Apple suggest there are 4 main settings that can be optimised.
- Energy
- Brightness
- Wi-fi
- Applications and peripherals
Ensure your Mac is running the latest macOS
- If you are using an old version of macOS there might be programs that are not running efficiently and can reduce your battery life.
- Open system preferences and click ‘system update’.
- It is best to tick the box to automatically keep your mac up to date.
Check which programs are using up your battery
There are 2 ways of doing this:
- Click on the battery icon in the top right, it will show you which apps are using significant energy
- Open the activity monitor and click on the energy tab. You can then see the ‘energy impact’ of each application.
Of course, the battery life is expected to slowly decrease over time but this is normal. Luckily you can replace the battery without affecting the rest of the Mac.