Battery Life on MacBook Pro 16.

[vkmd]

Is anyone returning his Macbook? Or do you suggest to keep it? I'm a little bit confused to be honest. I love the laptop but this battery duration.. Here in Italy I have 14 days for the returning and I want to be sure that the problem will be fixed

I am in the same boat. Unfortunately I am travelling right now and will not be back in UK till early January (I would miss the 30 day window). I am loving the laptop but thoroughly disappointed in the battery life. It is nowhere near the 10 hour mark. Plus it seems to be draining battery when in sleep.

Another interesting thing that I have noted is that my battery health/capacity has gone from 100% to 98% in ten days (according to Coconut and Battery Health 3). I know that battery capacity is hardly ever around 100% but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.

 

[obargy]

I am in the same boat. Unfortunately I am travelling right now and will not be back in UK till early January (I would miss the 30 day window). I am loving the laptop but thoroughly disappointed in the battery life. It is nowhere near the 10 hour mark. Plus it seems to be draining battery when in sleep.

Another interesting thing that I have noted is that my battery health/capacity has gone from 100% to 98% in ten days (according to Coconut and Battery Health 3). I know that battery capacity is hardly ever around 100% but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.

if you really plan to return, you could initiate the return request on the last day of your return window, and you'll still have 14 days to ship out the package to Apple.

So basically the holiday return period (till Jan 08 2020) + 14 days shipping delay makes it returnable by Jan 22

 

[vkmd]

Oh I didn't realise that that was a thing. Believe it or not, I have never had to return any electronic item, let alone an Apple product. I am hoping that streak will continue. But it's good to know that I have that option.

I have also found Activity Monitor to be a proper battery hog...according to Activity Monitor!

 

[icloudUser]

Chrome is the bane of battery life. No idea why it's still the case when mobile devices are supposedly all the rage.

Anyone knows if Brave is as bad? It's chromium based so I'm not getting my hopes up.

I use Brave on the MB Air. Havent noticed it draining the battery.

 

[THE dAY]

Run them one after the other. Each command sets a different system flag. They're persistent once set. However, if you go into power options in Preferences and set the flag to autoswitch, it appears that these are reset to defaults.

Here are the flag options for pmset
-a - global (same behavior for charging and battery states)
-c - charging
-b - battery

Here are the possible options for gpuswitch
0 - integrated GPU only
1 - discrete GPU only
2 - autoswitch GPU


If you want to revert to default, run:
sudo pmset -a gpuswitch 2
which sets the global flag to autoswitch no matter which power source you're running on, replacing any individual power options set earlier.

Thanks for this.
Should be receiving my 16” soon and will try this out.
Once it set to use igpu only will it revert back to normal if the computer is restarted? Any actions that would revert it besides another terminal command?

 

[Psyclism]

Thanks for this.
Should be receiving my 16” soon and will try this out.
Once it set to use igpu only will it revert back to normal if the computer is restarted? Any actions that would revert it besides another terminal command?

Not that I've found. I set mine with these settings about 2 weeks ago, and they're still where I put them. Reboots don't revert to defaults either.

 

[LizzyDenmark]

Hello. I just tested for couple of hours my 16inch MacBook Pro. It was full charged at 10:10 and now at 14:10 I have only 40%. I didn't do any performance task just slightly web browsing and watching video. Brightness was about 75%. Is that normal?

I experience same extremely low batteri life. I am thinking about returning the machine. Really sad but it cannot be true it should go from 90 % from 9:00 to 50% 10:00. and that is without any heavy work.

 

[Ma2k5]

I experience same extremely low batteri life. I am thinking about returning the machine. Really sad but it cannot be true it should go from 90 % from 9:00 to 50% 10:00. and that is without any heavy work.

It is strange that this machine should have low battery life giving its battery size - is this using Safari or other browser? What does the Activity monitor show as draining battery?

 

[LizzyDenmark]

Yes. I am using safari. and I have checked the Activity monitor - the apple support also went on screenviewing and could see that there is nothing heavy program or background tasks draining the battery. I just talked with them on the phone and they will send a new one.

Its a 2,3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9, 32 GB memory and graphic is : AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

Im afraid it will be the same issue with the new one as so many write about this issue. It also drains battery when on powersave and not used.

 

[MichaelChicago]

I posted a similar experience on the Apple Discussion forums. I was contemplating returning, but past the return and doing some traveling the next 6 weeks, so hopefully this is resolved in a software update. I too am getting 3-4 hours with really not doing anything but browsing, keynote, etc.

I also thought it was photos updating and spotlight, but that stopped weeks ago.

2.4GHZ, i9, 32GB, UHD 630 1536MB running 10.15.2 with all updates.

BTW, long time Apple user (since Apple II days), also a stockholder. This year, I returned my first product ever because the battery life of the Apple Watch Series 5 was way lower than my Series 4. Now, I am disappointed with this new Mac's battery.

 

[am2am]

If you have multiple users/accounts on your MBP log them out leaving just one. It will help with battery life.

I've described it here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/battery-life-on-macbook-pro-16.2212813/post-28057625

Single user light work consumes ~7-15W, with multiple users logged it - the same light work takes 5-7W more. It is ~25-30% more power consumption on average.

 

[cryellow]

The main thing that disturbs me (MBP 16 inch, 2.4Ghz i9, 32Gb, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8Gb, 2Tb SSD) is that the system seems to use up a lot of power just while asleep overnight. Why? Leave the thing unplugged and asleep for 24 hours after a full charge and it will be dead? Seems excessive.

Only a few days old, maybe it is still spotlight indexing, I dunno. Single user not multiple.

 

[am2am]

The main thing that disturbs me (MBP 16 inch, 2.4Ghz i9, 32Gb, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8Gb, 2Tb SSD) is that the system seems to use up a lot of power just while asleep overnight. Why? Leave the thing unplugged and asleep for 24 hours after a full charge and it will be dead? Seems excessive.

Only a few days old, maybe it is still spotlight indexing, I dunno. Single user not multiple.

Not my experience - just verified - battery went down from 90% to 83% in 7 hours while I did not use it - with this rate it will discharge in ~100h / 4days. Not sure if it's normal or not but not very disturbing IMO.

The problem with multi-users battery draw is real in my case. dGPU gets activated as soon as second account is logged in and consumes 5W constant. It may shorten your useful life on battery even by 40% if your workload is really light.

EDIT
I've just just logged-out my second account and remaining battery prediction jumped from 4 to 8 hours (with 71% level currently)

 

[topcat001]

The main thing that disturbs me (MBP 16 inch, 2.4Ghz i9, 32Gb, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8Gb, 2Tb SSD) is that the system seems to use up a lot of power just while asleep overnight. Why? Leave the thing unplugged and asleep for 24 hours after a full charge and it will be dead? Seems excessive.

Only a few days old, maybe it is still spotlight indexing, I dunno. Single user not multiple.

I'm not seeing this at all, strange. It only loses a few percent when asleep over a 24 hr period. Do you have App Nap disabled on battery? Also in your Console.app system.log do you have entries during the time it is supposed to be sleeping? If there are entries then it's not sleeping.
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Not my experience - just verified - battery went down from 90% to 83% in 7 hours while I did not use it - with this rate it will discharge in ~100h / 4days. Not sure if it's normal or not but not very disturbing IMO.

The problem with multi-users battery draw is real in my case. dGPU gets activated as soon as second account is logged in and consumes 5W constant. It may shorten your useful life on battery even by 40% if your workload is really light.

I haven't tried this myself, but if you run

sudo pmset -b gpuswitch 0

which disables the switch to discrete gpu while on battery (-b), does it still turn on the dGPU? I have this set on mine so programs like Chrome don't turn on the dGPU. It seems to work, but I don't have multiple accounts on my machine.

 

[cryellow]

 

[topcat001]

Great! What about the Console log? There should be no entries under system.log for the time the machine was sleeping.

 

[FaustsHausUK]

If your battery isn't lasting more than 3-4 hours, take your MacBook Pro in ASAP. Your return window is very short if you didn't get Apple Care.

I don't think it's a widespread issue: after my Mac had finished all the syncing on the first day, it's been a champ. Last night, I had the brightness up and was constantly switching between several Safari tabs and Maps for an hour. I used about 8%.

 

[cryellow]

The system.log shows only entries for today 12/18/2019, with the first entry at just after midnight
Dec 18 00:03:47 ______-MBP-2019 syslogd[118]: ASL Sender Statistics
then this
Dec 18 00:12:12 ______-MBP-2019 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.avast.hub.schedule[13990]): Service exited with abnormal code: 11

Dec 18 00:12:24 ____-MBP-2019 EPSON Software Updater Agent[14097]: objc[14097]: Class NWInterface is implemented in both /System/Library/Frameworks/Network.framework/Versions/A/Network (0x7fff88574b40) and /Applications/Epson Software/EPSON Software Updater.app/Contents/EPSON Software Updater Agent.app/Contents/MacOS/EPSON Software Updater Agent (0x100068f40). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.

Dec 18 00:13:54 ____-MBP-2019 syslogd[118]: ASL Sender Statistics

Dec 18 00:22:07 ____-MBP-2019 GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon[14453]: objc[14453]: Class KSPaths is implemented in both /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Frameworks/DeviceManagement.framework/Versions/A/DeviceManagement (0x104bc3b48) and /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/MacOS/GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon (0x1049abe50). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.

Dec 18 00:22:07 ____-MBP-2019 GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon[14453]: objc[14453]: Class KSBundle is implemented in both /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Frameworks/DeviceManagement.framework/Versions/A/DeviceManagement (0x104bc3aa8) and /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/MacOS/GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon (0x1049ac210). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.

Dec 18 00:22:07 ____-MBP-2019 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.pid.mdmclient.14460): Failed to bootstrap path: path = /usr/libexec/mdmclient, error = 108: Invalid path

and more stuff until about 8am when I actually started using the machine. I don't think I used the machine from about 7pm yesterday until about 8am this morning at all, and it wasn't fully charge at 7:30pm but it was nowhere near dead and then this morning it was just 4%. (Checking my Chrome browser history seems to verify that last time I used the machine was at 7:10pm yesterday, then not again until 8:44am today.)


This is interesting: I don't know what it means, but it refers to the preferences in the browser:
refer to my issue with Chrome browser slowing on my MBP:

Chrome browser slows on MacBook Pro

.

forums.macrumors.com

Dec 18 00:22:07 ____-MBP-2019 GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon[14453]: objc[14453]: Class KSPaths is implemented in both /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Frameworks/DeviceManagement.framework/Versions/A/DeviceManagement (0x104bc3b48) and /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/MacOS/GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon (0x1049abe50). One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.
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(interesting in that these are the preferences that run Chrome, I believe.)

I have AppleCare. I don't feel like returning it if they are all like this, that so many people are complaining means that this is a widespread issue. My battery lasts far more than 3-4 hours, the issue that I wonder about is why it seems to drain so much when asleep compared to my MBP 15 inch 2018.

 

[am2am]

I haven't tried this myself, but if you run

sudo pmset -b gpuswitch 0

which disables the switch to discrete gpu while on battery (-b), does it still turn on the dGPU? I have this set on mine so programs like Chrome don't turn on the dGPU. It seems to work, but I don't have multiple accounts on my machine.

I was not precise with my description.
MPB is NOT running with dGPU. There is no application forcing dGPU - I can see it with istat monitoring. Despite it dGPU is drawing 5W if multi-users are logged in (0,07W is only single user).
I've just tested it with manual iGPU forced in terminal (pmset as you suggested) and it is exactly the same.
Compare two screenshots - I've highlighted dGPU power draw in both scenarios (you can see letter "i" on top confirming that matchbook is running on iGPU)

if average power total power consumption is 15W in single user and 20W in multi user it means ~30% power increase = ~30% less time on battery.

 

[am2am]

I just did another test doing nothing (safari with 1 tab opened) and this time I've marked battery power draw rather than dGPU.

It is 50% difference!

single user only: 5.9W battery current
second user logged in: 13.8W battery current

Not surprised some may get 4-5h battery vs 10h expected
I understand there are background processes for second user, but did not expect such power draw difference with light work (and still don't understand why Radeon is consuming 5W when not active - this looks like biggest contributing factor for shorter battery life with multi-user scenario)

 

[topcat001]

I see, so the multi-user behaviour overrides the manual setting and turns on the dGPU, which seems to have 5W idle draw.

One more clarification: Did you run these experiments plugged in? Your battery icon shows powered. The pmset -b only applies to battery power, unplugged.

I'd set that in the terminal, unplug, reboot, and verify the current mode with

pmset -g

You should have a line like

gpuswitch            0

Edit: My bad, the second set of tests are on battery.

 

[am2am]

yes - the same on battery and with charger plugged-in

 

[cybeross]

So on the phone w/ apple (2.4 8 core/32 ram/8gb vram, 10.15.2), I'm getting no more than 3 hours on a full charge. Power switching is on, booted into safe mode and was only marginally better... Not sure if defective unit or if this is a widespread problem. But never anywhere CLOSE to 11 hours.

 

[cryellow]

I put it (MBP 16 inch 2019) to sleep last night at 9pm was at 46% restarted it at 7am was at 41%, that doesn't seem so bad. Maybe things are settling down.

I wonder if formally going to upper left Apple and putting to sleep is different from just walking away from it and letting it go dark on its own?

 

[Francesco Cinque]

Brightness 75%
Wifi
Chrome web browsing
Mail and few non-massive tasks

Pre resetting-SMC

08:30 100%
09:00 85%
10:00 75%
10:30 65%
11:00 58%
12:00 30%

-70% in 3,5 hrs

After resetting SMC

1. Choose Apple menu > Shut Down and wait for your Mac to shut down.
2. Press and hold the right Shift key, the left Option key, and the left Control key for 7 seconds. Your Mac might turn on and show the Apple logo on its display. Keep holding those keys while you also press and hold the power button for another 7 seconds. If your Mac turned on when you first pressed the keys, it turns off at this point.
3. Release all three keys and the power button, then wait a few seconds.
4. Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

14:00 100%
14:30 97%
15:00 87%
15:30 76%
16:00 62%
16:30 51%
17:00 45%

-65% in 3 hrs (so probably -70% in 3.5 hrs)