How to see which applications are draining your mac’s battery

Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He’s written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris has written for The New York Times, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami’s NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read nearly one billion times—and that’s just here at How-To Geek. Read more.

Your Mac tracks the “energy impact” of each running application in a few places. Like on an iPhone or iPad, you can see exactly which apps are using the most power, and adjust your usage accordingly so you don’t run out of juice.

Applications aren’t the only thing draining battery power, of course. Hardware components like the display, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth will use battery power as long as they’re on, so this list of apps is only part of the picture–but it’s a big one, and one you have a fair amount of control over.

Check For Apps Using Significant Energy

Since OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the Battery status menu on your menu bar has provided a helpful list of “apps using significant energy.” If your battery seems to be draining faster than usual, a quick click on the battery menu on your Mac’s menu bar will show you a list of the most battery-hungry apps you have running.

When you click the menu icon, the message “Collecting Power Usage Information” will appear in the menu, shortly followed by a list of “Apps Using Significant Energy.” If no apps are using a larger amount of power, you’ll see a “No Apps Using Significant Energy” message instead.

You might wonder what Apple considers a “significant amount of energy.” Apple’s documentation says this applies to apps “consuming higher than average energy from the battery.”

It’s normal for some types of apps to appear here, depending on what they’re doing. For example, if you’re playing a demanding game, it’s using a large amount of energy and will appear here. If you’re compressing a video in a media application, it’s using a lot of CPU cycles and will appear here.

However, some applications may appear here because they’re just inefficient compared to other apps. We like Google Chrome, but it often appears here because it isn’t anywhere near as power-efficient as Apple’s own Safari browser on a Mac. If you’re desperate to squeeze out more battery life, you may want to try Safari instead of Google Chrome in those instances.

Other applications might appear here because they’re malfunctioning. For example, an application bugs out and starts using 99% of your CPU, it will appear here. If an app appears here and you think it shouldn’t, try closing the app and re-opening it.

If you don’t see the battery menu on your Mac at all, you’ll need to enable the battery menu icon. To do so, click the Apple menu on your menu bar and select “System Preferences.” Click the “Energy Saver” icon and ensure the “Show battery status in menu bar” option at the bottom of the window here is checked.

View Each Application’s Energy Usage

Apple tries to simplify things and only expose basic energy usage information to most users. That’s why OS X only points out a few particular energy hogs rather than giving you a full list of how much power each app used, as you can on mobile operating systems like Apple’s own iOS and Google’s Android.

However, you can check a list of which apps have been using the most battery power. This information is found in the ever-useful Activity Monitor application. To access it, you can click an application’s name under “Apps Using Significant Energy” in the battery status menu. You can also open the Activity Monitor directly. To do so, press Command+Space to open Spotlight search, type “Activity monitor,” and press Enter. You can also open a Finder window, select the “Applications” folder in the sidebar, double-click the “Utilities” folder, and double-click the “Activity Monitor” app.

Click the “Energy” tab at the top of the Activity Monitor window. Each application in the list here has an “Energy impact” score. Mac OS X calculates this score based on CPU, disk, and network usage, among other factors. The higher the number, the more impact the application has on your battery life.

By default, the list is sorted by each app’s current “Energy Impact”–that is, how much impact the application is having on your battery life right now.

You can choose to sort the list by Average Energy Impact by clicking that heading. This will show each app’s average energy impact, which will give you a better idea of how much impact each app has been having on your battery–not just what’s using your battery most at this very moment.

Note that the “energy impact” score isn’t a scientific measure of actual energy usage. It’s merely a rough estimate based on how much an application uses your CPU, disk, network, and other hardware.

The average energy impact will show you data based on the last eight hours your Mac was running. If your Mac hasn’t been running for eight hours since you last booted it up, you’ll only see data since the last boot-up.

For example, let’s say your Mac was powered on for seven straight hours from 12pm to 7pm. The Mac was then in sleep mode all night and was turned on at 9am. At 10am, you opened the Activity Monitor and looked at the energy usage data. It would show data based on the 12pm-7pm period and the 9am-10am period combined. Time the Mac was in sleep or hibernation mode doesn’t count towards the eight hours.

The “Average energy impact” data is also kept for applications that were running, but have since closed. These applications will appear grayed out in the list, but you’ll see their average energy impact. For example, if you were playing a game and closed it, it would appear here.

How to Save Battery Power

If an application is using a lot of power, you may want to close that application or switch to an alternative app that’s less power-hungry–at least in instances where you need your battery to last as long as possible. You can prevent apps from running at startup, which will prevent them from using battery power in the background until you launch them. If an app is misbehaving, you may be able to fix the problem by closing the app and re-opening it. However, there’s no way around it–apps you use a lot will have a noticeable energy impact.

But tweaking your list of running applications isn’t the only way to save power. Dimming your MacBook’s display and adjusting other energy-saving settings can have a big impact, too. Check out our guide to saving MacBook battery life for more info.

Панель «Энергия» в окне Мониторинга системы позволяет увидеть, сколько энергии потребляет Ваш компьютер Mac. Можно вести мониторинг энергопотребления компьютера в целом, а также просматривать подробные сведения об энергопотреблении каждого приложения.

В приложении «Мониторинг системы» на Mac нажмите «Энергия» (или воспользуйтесь панелью Touch Bar).

Чтобы отобразить другие колонки, выберите меню «Вид» > «Колонки», затем выберите колонки для отображения.

В верхней части окна Мониторинга системы показано энергопотребление отдельных приложений и их процессов.

Энерговоздействие. Относительный показатель текущего энергопотребления приложения (чем ниже, тем лучше).

Потребление за 12 ч. Среднее воздействие приложения на энергопотребление за последние 12 часов или с момента загрузки Mac (чем ниже, тем лучше). Этот столбец отображается только на ноутбуках Mac.

App Nap. Показывает, включен ли для данного приложения режим App Nap.

Видеокарта. Показывает, требуется ли приложению видеокарта высокой производительности. Этот столбец отображается только на компьютерах Mac с одной или несколькими видеокартами.

Предотвращение сна. Предотвращает ли это приложение переход Mac в режим сна.

Пользователь. Имя пользователя, запустившего процесс.

Внизу окна отображается информация об общем энергопотреблении. На ноутбуке Mac отображается дополнительная информация о его аккумуляторе.

Компьютеры Mac с одной или несколькими видеокартами

Видеокарта (несколько видеокарт). Тип используемой видеокарты, если в компьютере несколько видеокарт. Высокопроизводительные видеокарты потребляют больше энергии.

Ноутбуки Mac

Оставшийся заряд. Отображение оставшегося заряда аккумулятора в процентах.

До полной зарядки (компьютер подключен к сети). Время, в течение которого компьютер должен быть подключен к сети переменного тока для того, чтобы аккумулятор полностью зарядился.

От сети переменного тока (компьютер подключен к сети). Время, прошедшее с момента подключения компьютера к сети переменного тока.

Оставшееся время (компьютер отключен от сети). Прогнозируемое оставшееся время работы от аккумулятора. Если аккумулятор полностью заряжен, в этом поле отображается сообщение «Аккумулятор заряжен».

От аккумулятора (компьютер отключен от сети). Время, прошедшее с момента, когда Ваш компьютер был подключен к сети переменного тока.

Аккумулятор (последние 12 ч). Уровень заряда аккумулятора за последние 12 часов.

Here’s how to quickly and easily discover which apps are sucking at your MacBook’s battery the most.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over two decades to helping users get the most from technology — whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera. Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs.

Apple has designed the MacBook to have a pretty good battery life, but sometimes you’ll want to squeeze out as much life as possible from your Mac, and that means finding – and eliminating – apps that suck at the battery the most.

Here’s how to do that.

Your first port of call should be the battery icon in your menu bar. A click on this will show you the worst culprits on your system. Since this information is based on data collected over the previous eight hours, you might find apps listed here that are no longer running.

On my system it’s the usual suspects – Google Chrome and Adobe Photoshop.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the amount of information that you have access to. To get more detailed information, click on one of the entries. This will fire up Activity Monitor and land you in the Energy tab. Here you have access to even more data relating to how apps are using the battery.

Two columns that offer the most information here are Energy Impact, which shows the current energy usage for the apps that are running, and Average Energy Impact, which is an average collected over the previous eight hours.

You can also find out if an app makes use of the high-performance GPU on systems with two GPUs (the higher performance GPU will eat battery life quicker), and whether the app will prevent the system from going to sleep.

If you find an app that’s out of control, you can close it directly from the Energy tab of Activity Monitor by selecting it and clicking the Force Quit button.

After a while you’ll get to know which apps are battery hogs and which aren’t. For me, it’s always Google Chrome that’s at the top of the list, so if I know I need to get the most from my battery, I’ll switch to Safari to do my browsing.

November 16, 2017

Sometimes, you might be lucky to see the hand of God in your life. As in, pepper don rest and your finances are about skyrocket.

And then the devil will plan with your village people and send a girlfriend to you to suck you dry.

It happens in computers too.

Sometimes your Mac battery might be full, but some little demons in the form of applications will start draining it.

Usually, your Mac tracks the “energy impact” of each running application in a few places. Like on an iPhone or iPad, you can see exactly which apps are using the most power, and adjust your usage accordingly so you don’t run out of juice.

Applications aren’t the only thing draining battery power, of course. Hardware components like the display, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth will use battery power as long as they’re on, so this list of apps is only part of the picture–but it’s a big one, and one you have a fair amount of control over.

Check For Apps Using Significant Energy

Since OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the Battery status menu on your menu bar has provided a helpful list of “apps using significant energy.” If your battery seems to be draining faster than usual, a quick click on the battery menu on your Mac’s menu bar will show you a list of the most battery-hungry apps you have running.

When you click the menu icon, the message “Collecting Power Usage Information” will appear in the menu, shortly followed by a list of “Apps Using Significant Energy.” If no apps are using a larger amount of power, you’ll see a “No Apps Using Significant Energy” message instead.

You might wonder what Apple considers a “significant amount of energy.” Apple’s documentation says this applies to apps “consuming higher than average energy from the battery.”

It’s normal for some types of apps to appear here, depending on what they’re doing. For example, if you’re playing a demanding game, it’s using a large amount of energy and will appear here. If you’re compressing a video in a media application, it’s using a lot of CPU cycles and will appear here.

However, some applications may appear here because they’re just inefficient compared to other apps. We like Google Chrome, but it often appears here because it isn’t anywhere near as power-efficient as Apple’s own Safari browser on a Mac. If you’re desperate to squeeze out more battery life, you may want to try Safari instead of Google Chrome in those instances.

Other applications might appear here because they’re malfunctioning. For example, an application bugs out and starts using 99% of your CPU, it will appear here. If an app appears here and you think it shouldn’t, try closing the app and re-opening it.

If you don’t see the battery menu on your Mac at all, you’ll need to enable the battery menu icon. To do so, click the Apple menu on your menu bar and select “System Preferences.” Click the “Energy Saver” icon and ensure the “Show battery status in menu bar” option at the bottom of the window here is checked.

View Each Application’s Energy Usage

Apple tries to simplify things and only expose basic energy usage information to most users. That’s why OS X only points out a few particular energy hogs rather than giving you a full list of how much power each app used, as you can on mobile operating systems like Apple’s own iOS and Google’s Android.

However, you can check a list of which apps have been using the most battery power. This information is found in the ever-useful Activity Monitor application. To access it, you can click an application’s name under “Apps Using Significant Energy” in the battery status menu. You can also open the Activity Monitor directly. To do so, press Command+Space to open Spotlight search, type “Activity monitor,” and press Enter. You can also open a Finder window, select the “Applications” folder in the sidebar, double-click the “Utilities” folder, and double-click the “Activity Monitor” app.

Click the “Energy” tab at the top of the Activity Monitor window. Each application in the list here has an “Energy impact” score. Mac OS X calculates this score based on CPU, disk, and network usage, among other factors. The higher the number, the more impact the application has on your battery life.

By default, the list is sorted by each app’s current “Energy Impact”–that is, how much impact the application is having on your battery life right now.

You can choose to sort the list by Average Energy Impact by clicking that heading. This will show each app’s average energy impact, which will give you a better idea of how much impact each app has been having on your battery–not just what’s using your battery most at this very moment.

Note that the “energy impact” score isn’t a scientific measure of actual energy usage. It’s merely a rough estimate based on how much an application uses your CPU, disk, network, and other hardware.

The average energy impact will show you data based on the last eight hours your Mac was running. If your Mac hasn’t been running for eight hours since you last booted it up, you’ll only see data since the last boot-up.

For example, let’s say your Mac was powered on for seven straight hours from 12pm to 7pm. The Mac was then in sleep mode all night and was turned on at 9am. At 10am, you opened the Activity Monitor and looked at the energy usage data. It would show data based on the 12pm-7pm period and the 9am-10am period combined. Time the Mac was in sleep or hibernation mode doesn’t count towards the eight hours.

The “Average energy impact” data is also kept for applications that were running, but have since closed. These applications will appear grayed out in the list, but you’ll see their average energy impact. For example, if you were playing a game and closed it, it would appear here.

How to Save Battery Power

If an application is using a lot of power, you may want to close that application or switch to an alternative app that’s less power-hungry–at least in instances where you need your battery to last as long as possible. You can prevent apps from running at startup, which will prevent them from using battery power in the background until you launch them. If an app is misbehaving, you may be able to fix the problem by closing the app and re-opening it. However, there’s no way around it–apps you use a lot will have a noticeable energy impact.

But tweaking your list of running applications isn’t the only way to save power. Dimming your MacBook’s display and adjusting other energy-saving settings can have a big impact, too.

Batteries on the MacBook Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Air are made to offer many hours of work on a single charge. Unfortunately, sometimes apps get in the way of our wonderful Mac battery life, often without a user even noticing until suddenly their battery life has been drained dramatically. The good news is it doesn’t have to be that way, because OS X provides a very easy way to see exactly what’s using battery (well, energy), which you can then take whatever action is necessary to resolve.

The MacBook Air, MacBook, or MacBook Pro will need to be running a newer version of Mac OS to have this energy watching option available within the menu bar. Assuming the Mac is new with a modern MacOS version, here’s how you can check what is using battery on any portable Mac. To be clear, this shows what apps are using energy, which on a portable Mac can translate into which are using the computers battery.

Instantly See What Apps Are Using Battery & Energy on a Mac

This offers a quick glance at what apps are actively energy hungry in macOS / Mac OS X:

1. Pull down the battery menu bar item from the top corner of the screen and look under the “Apps Using Significant Energy” section – let this list populate to see the application(s) using battery and/or power on the Mac, you can then take action by doing the following:
   • To save battery/energy, go to the app listed, save your work, then quit the app, or address the action taking power in that app (like a browser tab or movie playing)

Note that sometimes you will click on the menu bar and the energy indicator has to gather data for a few moments before giving an accurate list of what apps are power hungry.

Saving any data from the apps listed under “Apps Using Significant Energy” and then quitting those apps is usually the best solution. This preserves your data and work, and then exits out of the app that was draining battery. If the app listed is a web browser, as shown in the screen shot, look for active web browser tabs or windows that are using things like Flash, animation, video, or AJAX, and close those if possible.

Of course, sometimes you’ll find the “App Using Energy” is the one you’re using and thus can’t do much about, or can’t quit it until you’ve completed the task at hand. If that’s the case, you may want to refer to more specific battery tips that can help to extend the battery longevity of all MacBooks.

It’s worth pointing out that selecting the app from the battery menu will launch into the Activity Monitor, which allows users to take further advanced action, usually killing apps or processes selectively.

For energy purposes, that’s best handled in another article, but if you’re comfortable force quitting apps in Mac OS X you’ll probably already know what to do already. Sometimes simply quitting and relaunching an app is sufficient to end the battery draining action.

As mentioned, this feature is limited to modern versions of macOS, including macOS Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, Mavericks, Mac OS X Yosemite, and newer, and is one of the reasons that portable Mac users may want to upgrade to Mavericks if they’re on an older version of Mac OS X, because it really can help to improve battery life quite a bit by providing quickly actionable information.

Before we start

Having spent some years coding applications for macOS we’ve created a tool that everybody can use. The all-round problem fixer for Mac.

So here’s a tip for you: Download CleanMyMac to quickly solve some of the issues mentioned in this article. But to help you do it all by yourself, we’ve gathered our best ideas and solutions below.

Features described in this article refer to the MacPaw site version of CleanMyMac X.

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 several 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, particularly 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 check out battery percentage so that you can clearly see how fast it’s draining.

If you click on the battery icon, it will show which apps are using the most power.

1. From here, click Battery Preferences.
2. Within this, you’ve got the option to set the amount of time your display should wait before it turns off and dim the display when a Mac is not connected to power.

2. Manage Power Adapter Preferences

It is always useful to do so 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.

1. From the  Apple menu;
2. Go to System Preferences > Battery.

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:

1. Go to Applications;
2. Click on Utilities > Activity Monitor;

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.

Now, clearly, that sort of thing isn’t ideal, and you won’t want apps running that drain power, steal data, or use your Mac for something you aren’t even aware of. To solve these potential battery draining problems, we recommend taking the following steps:

1. Download CleanMyMac X (for free, here).
2. Click on Uninstaller.
3. 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.

It displays tiny background applications otherwise nonvisible 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.

5. Reduce screen brightness

The brightest lightbulbs consume more energy, the 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 the “Automatically adjust brightness” checkbox.

6. Count your battery cycles

Battery cycles are a number of charge-discharge phases the MacBook battery can take in its life. Yes, this is a relatively fixed number. Count cycles are much more informative in terms of battery health than your basic charge indicator.

Open Apple menu > About this Mac > System report.
Scroll down for Power specifications.

The average MacBook battery can go through 1000 cycles.

7. Clean up your Mac

Mac battery benefits from various forms of cleaning. Why? Because the cluttered hard drive uses more CPU resources. The more strain on the CPU, the more it affects and eventually wears off your battery. There are dozens of pretty good tools to remove hidden junk from Mac. Still, my personal favorite is CleanMyMac X. It’s so enjoyable to use even for such a trivial operation as deleting junk files.

1. Download CleanMyMac X — here’s a link to a free edition
2. Click on the System Junk tab

As you can see, I removed 18.9 GB worth of useless files: caches, broken downloads, localizations, etc.

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.

Follow ScreenRant.com

Something New

Apple includes a utility with every Mac computer that can identify each app’s energy demands and for a MacBook, it measures battery usage.

If it seems like your MacBook is losing power faster than it should, it’s important to know that Apple provides a handy tool that can help identify which apps are using the most energy. As a portable device, there could be instances when just a little more time is needed between charges. With the knowledge of which apps have a high power usage, it might be possible to shut them down so an important project can be finished before a MacBook battery starts running low.

Apple’s latest laptops, the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro use a super-efficient processor that provides longer battery life than ever. Built with the latest 5-nanometer manufacturing process, the chip integrates the CPU, GPU, neural engine, and other components which increases performance and reduces the amount of power required since the electrons travel a smaller distance. Known as Apple Silicon, the processor is based on the same chip used in an iPhone. While the longer battery life is nice, it doesn’t last forever and every MacBook user can benefit from knowing how to monitor battery usage at the app level.

Activity Monitor is part of macOS and has various sections that reveal intricate details of apps and processes that are currently running. CPU, memory, energy, disk reads/writes, and network usage are all available to explore. Activity Monitor doesn’t appear in Launchpad but can be found in the Utilities folder which is contained in the Applications folder. The Energy tab is where battery usage details will appear. The two most important columns are ‘Energy Impact’ and ’12 hr Power,’ which show current energy draw and long-term usage respectively.

How Much Energy Is Too Much?

There is no way to know how much energy usage is too much since it depends on which app is running and how long it has been used. However, if an app is not being used currently but has a high Energy Impact, it could be having a problem. In that case, quitting and reopening the app might resolve the issue. On the other hand, a video editing app might be busy rendering effects in the background which would account for that power draw. If an app is rarely accessed but has a high 12 hour power rating, it might be using more battery than it should. Closing the app could extend battery life.

For a MacBook that has a discrete graphics card, there will be a column showing energy use for the GPU so that extra power draw can be accounted for as well. The battery life of an Intel MacBook is shorter than the newer models, and it might be very helpful to find out which apps are drawing the most power relative to their usage. Even an Apple Silicon MacBook can run low after a long day and finding out why the battery is dying will help to stretch it a bit longer.

Sponsored Links

Notice that your MacBook battery level is falling at an alarming rate? Want to find out which apps are causing the power to drain? There are two easy ways to identify apps that are consuming the battery in your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.

First, you can select the battery icon in your OS X menu bar to get a peek at those apps that are using significant energy, as shown below. You can’t close the offending apps from the menu bar, but you can select an app and view its details in the Activity Monitor app, where you can shut it down.

The Activity Monitor app in OS X Mavericks lets you view important information about your Mac, including a list of apps that are draining valuable energy from your notebook’s battery. You can open Activity Monitor from the Applications folder or the “Other” folder in Launchpad.

Once Activity Monitor is opened, you can select the “Energy” tab to display the amount of energy that is being consumed by open apps and background processes. You then can sort this list by Energy Impact. The number in this column represents the energy that currently is being used by individual processes, with a higher number meaning more power is being consumed.

You also can look at the Avg Energy Impact column, which shows the energy impact for each app over the past eight hours or since the Mac last started (whichever time is shorter). Processes with the highest average Energy Impact recently have consumed the most power.

If a process is consuming too much energy, you can quit these processes by selecting them in Activity Monitor and then tapping the “x” button in the upper left corner. OS X will ask you if you want to quit this process, and you can choose to either “quit” to end the process or “force quit”, if you think the process is locked up and may have difficulty closing.

If you’ve got a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or other kind of portable Mac that contains a battery, OS X Mavericks has made it easier than ever to figure out and keep track of exactly what’s using your battery life. So if you find your battery draining quickly, one click can help you determine what the cause is. Here’s how:

1. In the upper system tray in your Mac, there is a battery icon that shows how much battery you have remaining. Click on it.
2. There’s a new section labeled Apps Using Significant Energy. If there are any apps listed here, these are the ones that could potentially be draining your battery faster.
3. Close down any apps that are in this list in order to save battery life.

That’s all there is to it. Amongst our staff, Google Chrome always seems to be in the list. If you’re experiencing the same, let us know in the comments!

How to get all Green Stars and Stamps in Super Mario 3D World

It can be tricky finding all 380 Green Stars in Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, but we’re here to help. Don’t forget to grab all 85 Stamps along the way as well.

Nintendo recap: Pokémon leaks, Kingdom Hearts coming to Switch, and more

Pokemon Legends: Arceus leaks online, Castlevania NFTs sell for a ton of money, and, oh yeah, Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard. There’s even more to discuss on this week’s Nintendo recap.

Did you know these 10 Kingdom Hearts facts?

Kingdom Hearts has been around for two decades and in that time it’s had a fascinating history. Here are 10 facts you probably didn’t know about the popular games.

Take an Apple Watch charger on the road with you

Looking for an Apple Watch charger to take with you while you’re out and about? Check out these portable chargers!

Deleting unused apps and software from your MacBook is a good practice, even for battery saving tasks. (Image for representation)

MacBook Pro is a venerable Apple laptop, but it can run into battery issues too; in case you’re facing such troubles, here’s what to do.

• Trending Desk
• Last Updated: August 25, 2021, 18:45 IST
• FOLLOW US ON:

If you are not getting the promised 10-17 hours battery backup in your not-so-old MacBook Pro, there may be some underlying problems that are causing the unusual battery drain. Fortunately, you can locate these problems and eliminate them to enjoy a healthy battery life on your Apple device. To fix the common battery life issues on a MacBook Pro, you can look at the following options.

Check power-hogging apps

If you click on the battery icon in the top-right corner of your desktop, a dropdown will show you which apps are using significant energy. You can close the apps you are not currently working with to save power.

Optimising screen power

Apple’s New MacBook Pro Users Facing SD Card Slot Problems

New MacBook Pro Laptops, AirPods 3 Finally On Sale: How To Order, Prices & Features

The best practice for the health of your battery is to keep your screen on only when you need it. Moreover, using your MacBook Pro at the minimum brightness you are comfortable with can be good for both your eyes and your Apple device both.

Check for software updates

Outdated app processes in combination with newer system configuration and vice-versa can cause unnecessary power usage. To ensure that all app and system processes are running efficiently, make sure all your apps are updated and update your MacBook Pro as soon as possible once you get an update notification.

Fresh restart every now and then

You may have the impression that since your MacBook is not a Windows device, it does not need to be restarted regularly. But the truth is restarting your MacBook starts your system processes afresh, just like when you wake up after a good night’s sleep.

Enabling energy saving

Your MacBook Pro has a built-in energy saver that you can use to control unnecessary power usage. To open Energy Saver, click on the battery icon and then click on Open Energy Saver Preferences in the dropdown menu.

In the Energy Saver window, under the battery section, turn on the ‘put the hard drives to sleep whenever possible’ option. Then, uncheck the power nap option while on battery power. If your PC is not used for local or remote access, turn off the Wake for wi-fi network access option.

For the times you hope your Mac to last a little longer.

• Post author

By Kunal Mishra
Post date

” data-medium-file=” data-large-file=” /> Illustration by Eager Eyes via Dribbble

Is your Mac’s battery at 5% and your adapter is nowhere to be found? Or do you think your Mac’s battery is not as good as it was when you first bought it?

Many users experience these problems. And there are some quick fixes for these issues. So let’s not waste time (and battery) and get to the point.

But before jumping right into the 14 tips, you should know…

How to check your MacBook’s Battery Status?

I’d recommend you to check your Mac’s battery status. It might concern you. Because it concerned me. I’ll show you the two things to check:

1. Using Inbuilt Settings

Hold the Option key and tap on the battery icon on your menu bar. It’ll show your battery’s condition.

• If it reads Normal, then there’s not much to worry about.
• If it reads Replace Soon, then your Mac’s battery can not hold as much charge now as it was able to when it was new.
• If it reads Replace Now, then your Mac’s capacity to hold charge has dropped significantly. And a replacement is recommended. But there are some other ways to solve this if your Mac is not old.
• If it reads Service Battery, then your Mac’s charge capacity is so low that it should be taken to a service centre. But you can still continue using it.

2. Using coconutBattery app

The coconutBattery app is the best app to see your Mac’s battery stats. Download it here.

Once installed, you can see detailed stats about your Mac’s battery. You can see there two really important things:
Full Charge Capacity which is the maximum amount of charge your Mac’s battery can store.
Design Capacity which is the amount of charge your Mac’s battery could store when it was new.

If you notice that the full charge capacity is dropping, it’s recommended to calibrate your Mac’s battery. There are a lot of good tutorials online for the same.

And I know these some tips mentioned below can be hard to remember. So I’ve created a free checklist you can download and refer to whenever you need it.

#1 Lower Brightness

Your Mac’s screen has a backlight behind it which controls the brightness of the screen and consumes a lot of power. Lower the brightness of your Mac’s display, lower will its power consumption be. But very low brightness can result in eye strains.

So what is the ideal brightness? Look at things around you. Preferably a wall but not any screen. How bright are they? The best trick is to match your display’s brightness with that of a wall.

How to lower the brightness on a Mac

• Just press F1 or Fn + F1 to configure brightness.
• To fine-tune brightness, hold Option + Shift while pressing F1 or Fn + F1 .

#2 Turn off Bluetooth and Wifi

If your work depends on Wifi and/or Bluetooth, skip this trick.

Bluetooth and Wifi do consume a lot of energy. Even when you aren’t connected to a network. Because they keep on searching for new networks.

How to turn off Wifi/Bluetooth

1. Go to System Preferences on your Mac.
2. Click on Network. And you can see Wifi and Bluetooth listed there.
3. Turn both of them off.

#3 Prefer Dark Mode

It’s proven that white colours consume the most power to get displayed and black consumes the least. Though, this is more accurate if your device has an OLED screen.

by Kunal Mishra

So if your Mac has a retina display you should seriously consider turning on Dark mode. It will save a lot of battery for your Mac. And it feels kinder to the eyes too.

How to turn on Dark Mode in a Mac

1. Head to System Preferences. Then, open General.
2. You can now select Dark in appearance to switch to Dark Mode.

All Apple apps and supported non-Apple apps will switch to a darker theme.

#4 Turn off your Mac keyboard’s backlight

Most MacBooks has a backlit keyboard (keyboard with light under the keys).

From Apple Insider

You can save a good amount of battery charge by turning off the lights especially if you have a fair amount of lights around you. If you’re in a dark room, you can still save your Mac’s battery by lowering the brightness of your Mac’s keyboard suitably.

How to lower/turn off the keyboard backlight

• Press F5 or in some Macs, Fn + F5 to decrease keyboard backlight brightness.
• The brightness fine-tuning trick works here too. Though not much useful. You can hold Option + Shift while pressing F5 or Fn + F5 .

#5 Quit Apps You Aren’t Using

More the number of apps you have kept open, the more battery power will be consumed. You should immediately look for apps that are open but not much useful.

When closing an app, press ⌘ + Q instead of pressing the red button on the app’s window. (Note: this won’t work on Finder though.) This will properly close the app.

Find and close apps that you aren’t using

1. Look at the dock. Apps with a dot below their icon are currently opened.
2. To close them, right-click (tap with two fingers) on their icon. And select Quit.

#6 Find and use alternatives to power-hungry apps.

Apple apps like Pages, Safari etc are more optimised for your Mac. And hence, they consume less battery power. Non-Apple apps such as MS Word and Chrome, on the other hand, are not as optimised. They consume more power to run.

Moreover, Apple apps have almost the same set of functions and features as non-Apple apps. So switching to Pages from Word wouldn’t be as difficult.

So, find apps that are consuming significant power, and replace them with lighter alternatives. Use Safari over Chrome, Pages over MS Word, Numbers over Excel, etc.

How to see which apps consume significant power:

1. Click on the Battery icon on your Menu bar.
2. You’ll see apps that consume high power.

#7 Turn Off Automatic Email Checking

If you don’t use or haven’t signed into the Apple Mail app, then skip this one.

The Apple Mail app runs in the background and keeps checking for new emails every now and then. This consumes a lot of battery power. You can avoid it by turning off automatic mail checking.

Also, the Mail app takes up a lot of space, slowing down your Mac. So give it thought: Do you really use the app? If not, better sign out from it.

If you notice abnormal battery drain after moving your Mac to macOS Monterey, there are some steps you should take before getting in contact with customer service.

As we push away from the macOS Monterey release, Mac users are reporting problems with the new operating system. Unsurprisingly, bad battery life is on the current list of issues.

While some battery issues might be hardware-related, some issues may be related to the new operating system. In many cases it could be an app causing the problems.

If you start seeing terrible battery drain after installing macOS Monterey on your Mac, your first thought might be to downgrade back to older macOS software.

Downgrading your Mac’s software is certainly an option, but before you drop down you’ll want to try and fix the problem. Fixing macOS battery life problems can be tricky, but we’ve got some solutions that have worked for us, and other Mac users, in the past.

• Reboot Your Mac
• Update Your Mac
• Update Your Apps
• Check Battery Usage History
• Reset PRAM and NVRAM
• Reset SMC
• Downgrade

This guide will take you through fixes for bad macOS Monterey battery life and there’s a chance they’ll help you get your issues resolved in a matter of minutes.

Reboot Your Mac

If your Mac’s battery starts draining rapidly for no apparent reason, the first thing you’ll want to do is reboot it. Rebooting can end rogue processes and it can help you get better battery life and/or overall performance.

Try rebooting your Mac before doing anything else. If you still notice abnormal battery drain, move onto the following solutions.

Update Your Mac

Apple will periodically release new macOS Monterey software. Point updates (x.x.x) are typically focused on fixing bugs while milestone upgrades (x.x) usually deliver a mix of features and fixes.

The company might not call out battery life fixes in a macOS update’s change log, but new software always has the potential to help. If you’re running older software, think about updating to the latest.

Update Your Apps

Developers are pushing support updates for macOS Monterey and a new version of an app could help alleviate the battery life issues you’re seeing.

Check for updates in the Mac App Store. If you’re feeling leery, you’ll want to dig into reviews from Mac users currently running macOS Monterey.

You’ll also want to click on the battery icon in the upper right corner of your Mac. If you see an app “Using Significant Energy” you’ll want to check in with the developer to see if there’s update, an update planned, or if there’s a known issue with macOS Monterey.

Check Your Battery Usage History

In your Mac’s System Preferences you’ll notice a “Battery” section. In here you’ll notice a Usage History feature. Usage History gives you details about your Mac’s battery life over the last 24 hours or the last 10 days.

It’s broken into Battery Level and Screen On Usage so you’re able to see how your Mac’s battery is performing. If the readouts are way off, you might need to get into contact with Apple customer service.

You’ll also notice Battery and Power Adapter sections. Here you can select when to turn your Mac’s display off, turn power nap on or off, and more.

Reset PRAM and NVRAM

This next step is a little more involved, but it has the potential to fix battery drain issues.

If your battery drain issues are bad, try resetting the PRAM and NVRAM on your MacBook. This resets some settings, but does not delete your Mac’s data.

You will need to set up speaker, screen resolution and some other settings after you do this, but there’s a chance it alleviates your issues. Here’s how to do this:

• Shut down your Mac.
• Turn on your MacBook.
• Press and hold the Command, Option, P, R keys at the same time right after the startup sound.
• Hold until the computer reboots and you hear the startup sound again.

If you have the 2016 MacBook Pro or newer you need to hold these keys as soon as you turn your MacBook Pro on and hold them for 20 seconds.

Note that the steps might be different on Apple’s newer MacBooks.

Reset SMC

You can also try resetting the SMC on your Mac. It only takes a minute and it could help you avoid a trip to the Apple Store.

The process varies across Apple’s MacBook models, but for most you can use these directions:

1. Choose Apple menu and then Shut Down.
2. After your Mac shuts down, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the built-in keyboard, then press the power button at the same time.
3. Hold these keys and the power button for 10 seconds. If you have a MacBook Pro with Touch ID, the Touch ID button is also the power button.
4. Release all keys.
5. Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

If you’re using a 2018 model or a newer MacBook Pro, you should follow the directions on this page, which will help you complete these tasks.

Downgrade

If you can’t find a fix for your problem and/or don’t want to wait for Apple’s next macOS Monterey update, you can try downgrading back to an older version of macOS Monterey or an older version of macOS like Big Sur. Unlike iOS, your downgrade options won’t change over time.

For more on the macOS downgrade, take a look at our walkthrough.

Install macOS Monterey 12.1 for Better Security

If security is important to you, think about installing the macOS Monterey 12.1 update right away.

Apple’s macOS Monterey 12.1 update includes 40+ new security patches to Macs. You can read all about them over on the company’s security site.

Microsoft says it discovered a new ‘Powerdir’ vulnerability lurking in macOS. Powerdir allows “an attacker to bypass the operating system’s Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) technology, thereby gaining unauthorized access to a user’s protected data.”

Fortunately, Apple patched up the issue in macOS Monterey 12.1.

macOS Monterey 12.1 also includes some important upgrades to privacy. The software delivers Apple’s communication safety features for kids. You’ll find these features in the Messages app, in Siri, in Spotlight, and in Search.

If you’re moving up from macOS Big Sur, you’ll get macOS Monterey 12.0.1’s 30+ security patches in your update. If you’re interested in the exact nature of these improvements, you can read about them over on Apple’s website.

In addition to those patches, the macOS Monterey update comes with additional security and privacy upgrades.

If you’re an Apple Card user, you’ll now get a security code that changes regularly to use when you make online transactions.

Apple’s also included a built-in authenticator that’s similar to Google Authenticator. This will let you generate verification codes for enhanced sign-in security under your Passwords.

New Mail Privacy Protection helps prevent senders from tracking your Mail activity and there’s a new recording indicator in Control Center for apps that are accessing your mic.

No matter which portable Mac you use, the lifespan of its built-in battery is limited to a particular number of charging cycles. This depends on the model you own – some only have 300, others 500, while the more expensive models last 1,000 charges – but the main idea is that you don’t want to charge the machine too often (for example three times a day would be too much), because these charging cycles are going to run out sooner.

MacBook Pro/Air computers usually have enough power to keep you on the move throughout the day, often lasting for nine or ten hours. However, as the MacBook’s battery inches toward the end of its lifespan, your mobility becomes reduced due to needing to find a power socket, which is something you don’t want since you opted for a portable Mac instead of a desktop computer.

Download CleanMyMac X from MacPaw’s website and clean up to 500MB of junk data from your computer while enjoying all the features of the software without major limitations.

Why Does My Battery Deplete so Fast?

The reasons for a battery draining quickly may vary, but the main point is that there are CPU and GPU intensive apps, which obviously requires more power to be delivered by the battery. The more hardware intensive the process initiated by the app is, the quicker it drains the battery.

How Do I Monitor the Energy Consumption on My Mac?

Starting with macOS Sierra 10.12, Apple provides two options to check which apps are using significant battery power, either by checking Activity Monitor or by clicking the battery icon and checking the applications listed under “Apps Using Significant Energy”.

The latter option will give you an idea of which apps to quit, while Activity Monitor will give you the necessary tools to fix the drain. This utility is widely used by Mac experts, because it helps them to identify the root cause of a machine overheating and the overuse of memory and CPU. We recommend using either Activity Monitor or a third party app such as iStat Menus – we’ve put together a list of Mac monitoring apps – which provide much more information packed into a user-friendly GUI.

Which Apps to Avoid

To get the most out of your MacBook, there are certain types of software we recommend avoiding. This doesn’t mean we don’t want you to do what you want to, though, but if you want to save battery power then it’s recommended that you avoid graphically intensive apps, games, 3D graphics, and video editing software – if that’s not your job anyway. Also, a good tip is to quit all the apps that you aren’t using and not let them run in the background, because they might contribute to the battery drain that you’re hoping to prevent.

There are certain apps that users have reported as particularly draining for their MacBook’s battery and so, without aiming for a complete list, here they are:

Spotify

If you are using Spotify instead of Apple Music, you might have noticed that the app can become a battery hog – something that was reported by a user on the Spotify support page. Apparently, this is caused by a bug in the software, which can be solved by disabling the friends feed. This way you won’t see what others are listening to.

Bitdefender

After installing this antivirus software on the Mac, some users have noticed a considerable drop in performance and battery drain, prompting Bitdefender to explain the cause. Apparently, the real-time protection called Autopilot causes the battery drain, so it is recommended that you turn this off.

Adobe Apps

If you are a creative professional working with Adobe applications, then these will affect your battery’s life. There is no solution to this, since image editing software requires certain processes of the machine that will always use up more battery.

Xcode

Apple’s own giant application used by developers will deplete a portable Mac’s battery. As with Adobe software, unfortunately this is something developers will have to cope with.

Chrome

Some like to use Apple’s web browser, others enjoy Google’s Chrome. At a certain point, both Chrome and Safari become resource hogs and as such speed up the battery drain. In this case you might want to have a look at Activity Monitor (if using Safari) or Chrome’s Task Manager, and close the tab that is taking up too much from the CPU.

Windows

After installing Windows using Boot Camp on a MacBook Air we’ve noticed that despite the dual-boot, Windows does not match the battery usage of the macOS, so if you’re concerned about battery life then avoid installing Windows, even with Boot Camp. If you are using a third party app such as Parallels Desktop to run both operating systems, don’t expect too much from your battery.

Some users have reported that, after upgrading to macOS Big Sur, their Mac’s batteries have been draining very quickly. When experiencing this problem, the battery may drain from full charge in less than a couple of hours. Users experiencing this problem also note that the computer gets very warm and the fan runs loudly and continually.

Reports of new macOS installs draining battery are not a new thing – we saw them in Mohave and Catalina too. There are, however, many different problems that can cause battery issues. In this article we will take you through some steps to identify and troubleshoot the issue.

First of all, after upgrading to a new macOS version, many things will need to take place in the background, even after it appears to you that the installation has finished. These processes can sometimes take a day or two to complete. If you have recently installed macOS Big Sur, you may want to wait a couple of days to see if your battery life returns to normal. If you spend too much time and fiddle with too many things trying to resolve the issue, the process may take longer.

Reboot

To try and resolve your battery issues, first try rebooting your Mac.

• Go to Apple menu  > Restart.

Check Activity Monitor

You may want to look for processes that are consuming a lot of resources. Sometimes there is just one process responsible for all of your problems. In order to see what’s going on with processes on your computer, take a look at Activity Monitor.

1. Open a Finder window.
2. Go to the menu bar at the top of your screen and select Go. Scroll down and select Utilities.
3. From the Finder window, double-click on Activity Monitor.
4. Select the CPU tab in Activity Monitor. Look for any processes using a large percent of your CPU.

Spotlight Search Indexing

One of the things that can take a while to complete after upgrading to a new macOS is indexing by Spotlight search. Spotlight can help you find apps, documents and other files on your Mac.

If you see that spotlight.app is using a large percent of your CPU, you have a few choices:

• Let it finish. It may take a while – a day or two maybe if you’ve freshly upgraded.
• Disable some of the Spotlight search categories.
  • Go to System Preferences > Spotlight.
  • Uncheck some/all of the categories.

• Stop the process. Select the spotlight.app process in Activity Monitor, then click on the Stop button (a hexagon with an X in it).

Other Processes

You may see that there is some other process hogging your resources. Some users have reported seeing that a Chrome helper process is the problem. You should first try to figure out what that process does and where it is coming from. You can stop the process by selecting it in Activity Monitor and then clicking on the Stop button. Your process could be something incompatible with the new OS. If the process is part of some software that is now obsolete or that your are no longer using, you should remove that software.

Reset NVRAM and PRAM

1. Shutdown your Mac.
2. Power on your Mac and immediately press and hold 4 keys: Option, Command, P and R. Hold for 20 seconds, then release.

Reset the SMC

1. To reset the SMC, Shutdown/power off your MacBook.
2. Press and hold 3 keys: Shift, Control and Option.
3. Press and hold the power button, without releasing the other 3 keys.
4. Hold all keys for 10 seconds, then release.
5. Press the power button on your Mac.

Boot into Safe Mode

Booting into safe mode will automatically run a disk check on your Mac.

Note: Your Mac will be shutdown in the middle of these steps, so either print, write down or follow these instructions from your phone.

1. Go to the Apple menu in the top-left corner of the menu bar at the top of your screen. Choose Shutdown.
2. Wait 10 seconds, then press the power button.
3. Immediately after your Mac starts up, press and hold the Shift key.
4. Release the Shift key when the gray Apple logo and progress indicator appear.
5. After you are booted up in safe mode, restart your Mac by going to the Apple menu, and selecting Restart.

MacBook Battery Help

To more directly investigate your Mac’s battery, you can take a look at it’s health.

1. Go to System Preferences > Battery.
2. Select Battery in the sidebar. Then click on Battery Health.

1. If you see Service Recommended, then you should take your Mac to an Apple Store or authorized service provider for evaluation.

You can also try using Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac for hardware issues.

If none of these steps has helped, you can contact Apple Support for advice on how to resolve your battery issues.

Stacey Butler

Dr. Stacey Butler is a tech writer at macReports covering news, how-tos, and user guides. She is a longtime Mac and iPhone user and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Here is her LinkedIn profile.

Thank you for choosing to leave a comment.

Please note the following:

• All comments are moderated.
• Your email will NOT be published nor shared.
• All SPAM comments will be deleted.
• Please see our comment policy page for more info.

10 thoughts on “How to Fix Big Sur Battery Drain Issues”

One solution worked for me, that disabling Wi-Fi before sleep works pretty well.

I’ve just had to pay close 800 pounds to get my Macbook Pro’s motherboard replaced. After ‘upgrading’ to Big Sur my machine had the issues above. It then died. It would not respond when I pressed the power button. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with Apple Support who then advised the repair.

If you have an older Macbook you can try to disconnect the I/O on the right manually by plug out all cables. And then Try rebooting. For me it works perfectly then you can update old downgrade and plug back in all cables.

Why would you need a new motherboard. That makes zero sense.

My macbook air 2017 had a fried motherboard as well at only a year and a half old. I’ve just made the mistake of upgrading this new computer to Big Sur. It’s now overheating and the battery drains like crazy when I play games on it, which it did NOT do before the update. Insanity.

There is no button “battery health” in Battery part.
I tried all other suggestions but still the battery drains… I am thinking of returning back to the previous OS.

The last step that solves the Problem of the secd task draining the battery is to uncheck keychain in iCloud Preferences, sign out of the cloud, reset the smc and sign in to iCloud again.

Just did it and I think it really helped! Thank you Macreports team and Weichier!

This solved my battery drain issue I was having for months. Thanks for info.

I just follow the steps you mentioned only, and still my MacBook’s battery drain very quickly. Do i need to do extra steps to solve the battery drain issue?

Freelance Writer, Lawyer & Blogger Read full profile

• Share
• Pin it
• Tweet
• Share
• Email

Smartphones are hardly ever used as phones anymore. They are now mini computers which we carry about everywhere and do everything with. The number of tasks we can perform with our phones keeps increasing every day. We text, play games, surf the Internet, stalk our crushes, shoot videos on the devices, and stay on several social media sites all day. These are all cool things which I am sure most of us cannot last through a single day without doing. However, we need to have enough battery power to perform these fun tasks.

Running out of battery power while doing something important can be very frustrating, so we put together a list of apps that are draining your phone’s battery power. Check them out so that you can be mindful and manage your phone battery power accordingly.

1. Facebook

This is an addiction for millions of people. The degree of addiction to Facebook might vary, but it is easy to recognize. Many people are constantly glancing at or glued to Facebook on their phones throughout the day. Social media is cool for keeping up with friends, keeping in touch, meeting new people, and even getting those annoying game requests, but using your Facebook app all the time is a great way to bring your battery life down to 10 percent before noon. You should make a schedule and login only at the appointed times to check on updates. That way, you won’t stay on Facebook all day. This will help reduce your addiction and save your phone battery.

2. Games

Yes, we are all guilty of this! I bet you have all had times when you’ve been in the waiting room somewhere or just out of things to do, and you whipped out your phone and headed straight to Clash of Clans, Subway Surf or Candy Crush to pass the time. Although moving up the scoreboard and beating your online friends might be fun and fulfilling at the time, these gaming apps with their cool graphics and online connectivity exert heavy use on your battery. If you intend to save your phone’s battery power and general battery life, then you should get a gaming laptop and use that instead. This would drastically minimize your gaming activity on your phone.

3. Screen brightness

I am pretty sure that most of you have figured this out already. Though a bright screen makes it easier to see what you are doing and easier to watch movies, you should be aware that keeping your screen’s brightness all the way up is killing your battery. When it’s not absolutely necessary to keep the screen brightness at the max, decrease brightness!

4. Enabling Bluetooth

There are some Bluetooth accessories and gadgets, like portable speakers or wireless headsets, which we connect to our phones for convenience and to enhance our productivity. After use, you should always remember to disable your Bluetooth. It’s not exactly the worst battery drainer, but it’s a waste to have your Bluetooth enabled when you are not using it.

5. Virtual Private Network (VPN)

This is all the rage today. I know this because I have a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on my gadgets, and most of my friends do too. For privacy or for other reasons, most of us make use of VPNs on our computers, and for some reason, we use them on our phones too. Just like most apps, a VPN stays connected in the background and drains your phone’s battery. I know VPNs are indispensable to some of us, so you are probably asking right about now: what’s the solution? I have a simple solution so you can save your battery. Only turn it on when you need to use it, and just like with Bluetooth, turn it off when you are done.

6. Location services

If we didn’t enable GPS or location-based services on our phones, some of us would be lost. It is routine for many people to use these tools to locate places like hotels, concert venues, restaurants, and lots more. This makes GPS and Google Maps some of our favorite phone apps. However, if you have your GPS and other location-based apps enabled all the time, they might drain your battery until you don’t have enough battery power left to get to your destination. Thankfully, Google Maps allows map download for offline use, which helps conserve battery and data.

7. Spotify

Music is the food of the soul, and we all love to feed our souls and light up our days with music. This is why we enjoy Pandora, Spotify, and other music services. Unfortunately, Spotify happens to be one of the biggest battery killers. Those long hours of lovely listening are great and all, but your battery power won’t last three hours if you continue with the habit.

8. Snapchat

We know what’s going on when you hold up your phone at a great party to capture all the booze and fun going down before typing about how awesome your Friday night is. Chances are that you’re on Snapchat and you’re trying to make us normal boring mortals jealous of your cool life by sharing some great stories. Well, you should tone it down a little or you are going to have a dead battery soon. This is because the camera and location-based service you enable while you use Snapchat take up lots of battery power.

9. Netflix

Binge watching entire seasons of “Orange is the New Black” or “House Of Cards” on Netflix over Wi-Fi is all fun and interesting until you get the low battery notification. Netflix is a handy video-streaming service you can enjoy anywhere. It offers lots of interesting movies, but none about how to replenish battery power in emergencies. Thanks to the data usage and HD playback, this service sucks battery power like a child with a juice box. Please, for your own sake, you should use Netflix on a TV or laptop, not on your phone.

For many MacBook users, one dreads to see the ‘low battery’ notification on their screen. If you are next to a power outlet then this notification won’t cause any impact at all. But if you aren’t close to any source of power then this will cause major issues. So what can one do when your battery drains so fast?

It is common knowledge that, just like any other technology, something in your device might suffer issues over time. In this case, it’s your MacBook battery, which in many instances can get exposed to many issues in your computer.

So what are these issues affecting your battery and what are the causes? It could be because of several things and if this has been happening for a while, it is time to get to the bottom of it and fix it. Keep on reading this article and you might actually find what might be causing your battery to act out.

Why Is My MacBook Battery Dying So Fast?

Is your MacBook battery messing you up? Are you getting stressed by the way it’s draining its life so fast? And what can you do to fix this problem?

You could not be knowing this, but there are so many reasons that cause your battery to die fast, including your habits which can either make or break your battery efficiency. But don’t worry there is no reason to panic.

The most common problem is that your battery might be an old one, so the right solution is to discharge it and get it replaced. Besides that, below are some of the other reasons that may have caused your battery problems:

1. There could be multiple programs running in the background
2. Your laptop screen could be on high brightness or other advanced options.
3. The MacBook could be in the wrong settings.
4. Not updating your old macOS to a newer version.
5. There could be too many online and network connections.
6. A corrupt firmware that was installed could be a cause.

Let’s get into each of these below

How Can I Fix My Battery Drain Problem?

Carrying a laptop charger everywhere you go can be tiresome and when you do, one is constantly looking for a socket. So what can you do to fix your battery-draining problem?

Here are some simple tips to boost your MacBook’s battery life:

1. Regularly check your Battery’s health– you can do this by clicking the CleanMyMac app that you’ll find on your Mac menu taskbar. By doing this, you’ll be able to see the overview of your Mac’s battery life.
2. Monitor your screen’s brightness– The system’s display is one of the major components that feed off your battery. The best cause of action is to reduce the brightness so as not to burn a lot of your battery’s life.
3. Investigate what could be draining your battery– It is always useful to know what could be using that amount of energy on your laptop. This could be accomplished by going to your setting and checking on the utilities. This way you can see all your applications and monitor their activities.
4. Unplug some of your peripheral devices– Apart from your internet connections you can also monitor all the devices that might be connected to your computer. In this case, if you have many devices connected to your device then it’s a probability that it’s causing your battery to drain fast.
5. Upgrade to the latest macOS– It’s advisable to keep your MacBook with the latest version. This way, if there is an issue that is about to affect your battery, then the problem itself would have been fixed.
6. Energy Saver– This is an inbuilt feature available for the MacBook. So if and when you turn on this feature be assured that your battery backup will be improved.
7. Turn off thekeyboardlight– If you want to save your battery especially when you are not close to a socket be sure to turn off the light on your keyboard. This will reduce the amount of energy that will be used by your battery to a great extent.

All these tips recommended above will be sure to put you at ease whenever you are too lazy to carry a charger, or that there may be a power outage, or that there could be no power socket anywhere close to you. As a reminder, if your battery continues to act up, be sure to replace it.

Conclusion

We can all agree that having battery issues can suck big time, especially when having tons of work with a set deadline. While this article points out the many reasons why your battery is losing power, including that the battery itself is prone to get in touch with issues that may harm it, there is a chance that your particular problem hasn’t been highlighted.

In this case, when all these tips don’t work on your MacBook, it is advisable to seek support on Apple support lines or to keep on researching the problem on active Apple forums.

If you’d like to learn more about your MacBook, take a look at this article.

Preserving battery life is key for making sure your mobile phone actually stays “mobile.” There’s nothing worse than downloading a few new apps only to find that your battery life has begun to take a serious drop. Luckily, there’s a way you can check to see which apps are draining the battery most, allowing you to reclaim your battery’s longevity once again.

Also read: Fix Google Play Services Battery Drain on Android

How to Find Energy Drainers

Using Android’s Battery Settings

In order to see what apps have been taking the biggest toll on your battery, first access the Settings. This is typically done by accessing the full apps list and choosing “Settings.”

In the list of options that appear find and select “Battery.”

This provides some very useful information on your device and how it uses the battery. If you scroll down, you’ll see a list of apps and how much they’ve drained the battery. There are some system-based apps you’ll find here, so keep going until you see apps that you’ve personally installed.

Using a Third-Party App

Of course, this can be long and laborious to do if you just want to check the battery drain of all your apps every so often. If you want, you can download free apps that help you compile a list of apps and their battery drainage statistics so you can quickly check them from the home page. Good examples of apps that can do this are GSam Battery Monitor and AccuBattery.

What Is “Screen” and “Mobile Standby?”

If you use the native Android option, you may notice that there are two apps that are high on battery usage – “Screen” and “Mobile Standby.” “Screen” is related to your screen being turned on, while “Mobile Standby” is the power needed to keep your phone connected to a signal to receive calls. To reduce screen battery consumption, lower the screen brightness and try not to check the phone as much over the course of your day. Mobile standby can be reduced by using airplane mode, but if you want your phone to be reachable 24/7, this may not be ideal.

Also read: How to Recalibrate Android Battery and Improve Its Battery Life

Reducing an App’s Battery Usage

The most obvious way to stop an app from taking up too much battery is to uninstall it; however, there are less nuclear options to reduce an app’s footprint on your phone! If an app is being particularly troublesome, you can check the app’s options to see if you can limit its background activity. If you want to stop it completely, you can do so via the “Apps” option in the Settings page.

In the list of apps, find the one you want to stop, select it, then press “Force Stop” to bring it to a halt.

If the app is quite system-intensive, such as a 3D game, you can try limiting the amount of time you play it to help prolong the battery further. Alternatively, if the game comes with any video or graphical options, try lowering them to see if you can get your battery to last longer.

Battery Bonuses

It can be annoying to see your once-mighty battery life suddenly begin to drain on you for no explicable reason. Now you know how to see what’s killing your battery as well as some ways to prevent the battery drain.

Does this help? Let us know below!

Never Miss Out

Receive updates of our latest tutorials.

Simon Batt is a Computer Science graduate with a passion for cybersecurity.

I hope someone can help me. My battery was draining very quickly so I bought a new one from this website.

However, the battery still drains really quickly. Even though the ‘battery time remaining’ in the information when I click at the top might say 2 or 3 hours, it will never last longer than about an hour.

Even if it is on 100% and I shut the lid, by the time I get back to the laptop a few hours later it will have lost a significant amount of battery despite not being used.

I’ve tried to reset the PRAM and recalibrate the battery but it doesn’t seem to have done the job.

Any suggestions would be most grateful.

Это хороший вопрос?

3 Ответов

34

283

950

Sounds like you have something (process) running in background which is chewing on you battery.

First look under your account to see what you have setup as a start up item. Next make sure you have shutdown all of your open apps. Also make sure if you have any add on’s running on your menu bar shut them down as well.

So at this point you should only have the core OS processes running. Making sure your battery is fully charged open up Activity Monitor and review these Apple T/N’s Use Activity Monitor on your Mac and this one Apps can affect Mac performance, battery runtime, temperature, and fan activity. See what is running that shouldn’t. Do be careful! You don’t want to kill off needed services. The trick is to see what folder the file sits in if its one of Apple’s it will have it in its path name.

After numerous MacBook recharge cycles, its battery can lose its capacity, so that you will have to replace the battery. This article will explain how to check battery cycles on a MacBook, how long a MacBook’s battery usually lasts, and how to save the battery life of a MacBook.

Why check the battery health on a MacBook

If you use MacBook Air or Pro, you should pay attention to the state of your laptop batteries. Be watchful if there are any suspicious symptoms of the MacBook battery. For example, your Mac’s battery is draining fast, or even worse, your MacBook is not charging.

Usually, the MacBook battery is draining fast if you use it intensively or have many memory-consuming applications working in the background. You should regularly monitor the battery status and its serviceability. The macOS monitors the state of the battery continuously, so you can quickly determine the battery’s health, fix issues, and prevent the battery from getting dead at the most inopportune time. Below in this article, we will explain how to do this.

How to check battery condition on a Mac

On macOS Catalina and earlier versions, the users could check the power on a MacBook Pro right in the menu bar. If you use macOS Catalina or earlier, you can press and hold the Option (Alt) key and click on the Battery icon in the menu bar. In this case, the advanced options of the battery menu appear, and you can view all the important data about your MacBook’s battery life.

If you use macOS High Sierra or later, you need to open the System Preferences window to check battery condition on a Mac.

Steps on how to check battery life on a MacBook (macOS High Sierra and later):

1. Click on the Apple icon in your menu bar.
2. Press and hold the Option (Alt) key.
3. Instead of “About this Mac…” you will see the “System Information” option. Select System Information.
4. Go to the Power Options from the sidebar.
5. In this section, you can find the battery health information. Look at the battery condition.

There are four conditions your battery might have:

• Normal – your battery is in excellent health and is functioning well.
• Replace Soon – this means that the battery has deteriorated. It works fine; however, it keeps a charge now less than it did previously. You will have to replace it soon.
• Replace Now – the battery is functioning well, but it keeps a charge much worse than previously. You should replace the battery as soon as possible to prevent damaging your laptop.
• Service Battery – The battery has to be replaced immediately. It can be damaged and overheated, which, as a result, may damage other components of your MacBook.

How to check the number of battery charge cycles

Every MacBook Pro or Air has a certain number of charge cycles. To view all details about your battery’s cycles, follow the next steps:

1. Go to the Apple menu and press and hold the Option (Alt) key.
2. Select System Information.
3. Go to the Power Options section in the sidebar.
4. Look at the Cycle Count information.

Now you know how to check the power condition of Macbook batteries. Regularly check your MacBook’s battery health to protect yourself from unexpected problems. You can use MacCleaner Pro to quit the heavy consumers and clear junk files to maximize the battery life on your MacBook.

Frequently asked questions about MacBook battery

By default, once your battery is full on your MacBook, it stops charging. So you do not need to unplug your MacBook Pro or Air. However, Apple does not recommend leaving your MacBook plugged in constantly. The MacBook’s battery is a lithium-based battery and its electrons need to move occasionally to work well for a long time.

If your MacBook is not charging, check the power supply for damage. Make sure there are no charging cords for kinks, especially near the plug. Also, check a MagSafe connector. If it is dirty and clogged with dust, your MacBook will not charge. If everything is okay with the power supply and MagSafe, the problem might be connected to your battery.

Another common reason why your MacBook is not charging can be the failure of SMC. At first, try first to restart your Mac. If it also doesn’t help, then reset SMC. You can learn how to do this in the article “Mac won’t turn on.”

The batteries of modern models of Apple MacBooks can work great if their cycle number is no more than 1000. Usually, if the battery’s charge cycles reach the number 1000, the battery starts to drain fast and its capacity will be reduced by 20% and more over time.

Different processes and applications affect MacBook’s battery life differently. If a MacBook is draining fast, you most likely have memory-consuming applications or many processes working in the background. Also, you should check the battery cycle count of your MacBook. For most MacBooks, if the battery cycle count is more than 1000, the battery will start draining fast.

You can’t reset the cycle count on your MacBook battery. The system automatically counts the number of battery charges and displays it in the System Information window. This number increases, and it can’t go back.

Battery health management is coming in Catalina 10.15.5

Share this story

• Share this on Facebook
• Share this on Twitter

Share All sharing options for: Apple is tweaking how MacBooks charge to extend battery lifespan

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Apple is introducing a new feature in most modern MacBooks called “Battery health management.” It’s going to be available today for developers and will roll into the future macOS Catalina 10.15.5 update.

On by default, the new feature is intended to extend the overall lifespan of your laptop battery by reducing the rate of chemical aging. It does so by not charging the battery all the way up to the maximum in certain cases. Fully charging a battery puts a strain on it that can more rapidly reduce its longevity over time. Some phones now avoid charging all the way to 100 percent until just before you wake up for this reason.

What that means for your laptop is that in certain cases, seeing 100 percent battery life in your menu bar may not necessarily mean it’s the maximum your battery could charge to. Instead of meaning that it’s charged to 100 percent of what the battery could take, it will now mean it’s charged to 100 percent of what the battery should take to maximize it’s lifespan.

Apple says that it will of course ensure that it doesn’t have a major impact on battery life, but would not say what percentage a charge may be reduced.

It may be that you don’t need to worry about that anyway, because Apple is being strategic in how it targets who will be affected by this change. It’s using your MacBook’s on-device history of charging and battery temperature to determine if your battery lifespan could be significantly extended by this feature.

The feature will apply to any MacBook that supports Thunderbolt 3. That includes any MacBook Pro since 2016 and MacBook Air models since 2018.

Apple MacBook Pro Photo by Vjeran Pavic

So, for example, if you’re the sort of user who tends to have their laptop plugged in nearly all the time, keeping your battery at 100 percent charge all the time is a recipe for shortening its lifespan. Apple says a variety of factors will play in to the computer’s decision to engage battery health management, including ambient temperature, processor loads, and charging patterns.

Apple says the feature will be on default but that users can turn it off by heading into the power setting in macOS. All of the data in the battery health management feature is collected and analyzed locally, with information only being sent to Apple if opt-in to sharing analytics — and even then Apple says that data would be kept anonymous.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but people are depending on their laptops more than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic and it may be that they’re leaving them plugged in for longer periods than before. That could mean that this update will help those MacBooks last longer. It’s also adaptive, so when your charging patterns change the feature will adjust to match.

Apple’s announcements have come in unexpected bursts this season, as the COVID-19 pandemic prevents the company from holding its usually splashy product launch events. Apple released an updated MacBook Air last month and just yesterday, the company also introduced the iPhone SE.

The latest version of macOS, Catalina, was released in October. It added support for ported iOS apps, broke up iTunes into a number of smaller services, and included an easy way to use an iPad as a secondary display. The update also included some frustrations, like overbearing security prompts that meant apps had to ask for permission to do basic things, like access folders or accessibility functions.

While it’s possible the pandemic will throw off the company’s timing, Apple should be on track to unveil the next version of macOS in June. The company has already said that its annual developers conference, WWDC, will be an all-online event this year. It’s supposed to kick off sometime in June, though Apple hasn’t set a specific date yet. Apple still plans to host an online keynote presentation to make announcements and preview what’s next for its software.

If you’re running your Mac most of the day, it might be necessary to find ways to save battery.

Some of the best ways to save battery on your computer include adjusting your “Energy Saver” settings, and making sure you are up to date with the latest software. Additional tips include turning down your brightness, turning off Wi-Fi, and closing apps when they aren’t in use.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

MacBook Pro (From $1,299.99 at Best Buy)

How to save battery on your Mac computer

Here’s a look at five of the best tips for conserving battery life on your Mac computer.

Update your macOS

Operating a Mac with outdated software negatively affects your battery life. Using the latest version of macOS on your computer allows your battery to last as long as possible throughout the day.

1. Open your System Preferences by clicking the Apple icon in the upper-left corner of your desktop and then selecting “System Preferences…”

2. Click on “Software Update” in the third row. If you are due for an upgrade, there may be a red circle with a number over the gear icon.

3. It might take a few minutes for your computer to load and display the latest update for your computer. Click the “Upgrade now” button to upgrade your macOS. You can also check the box next to “Automatically keep my Mac up to date” for automatic updating.

Adjust your “Energy Saver” settings

Perhaps the best step for saving battery on your Mac is to adjust your “Energy Saver” settings. Energy Saver will automatically dim your display, put hard disks to sleep, and turn off your display to help your battery last longer.

1. Click the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your screen and then select “System Preferences…” Open Energy Saver, indicated by a lightbulb icon.

2. Click “Battery” at the top of the box. Next, check the boxes next to “Put hard disks to sleep when possible” and “Slightly dim the display while on battery power.”

3. Use the slider at the top of the window to select the period of inactivity before your display turns off. Sliding the bar to the left will automatically turn off your display after a minute of inactivity, in turn helping you save battery.

4. You can check the box in the bottom-left corner to display your battery status in the menu bar.

If your phone’s battery is always low and you don’t know why you must know that there are always some apps and background processes that drain the battery fast. Well, you can always find those apps that drain the power out of your phone and you can even stop those apps and extend battery life on your phone. So, here I will tell you three ways to find such apps which drain the battery on your Android phone and how you can stop those apps from eating up your battery all the time.

Find Apps Which Drain Battery

Table of Contents

There is one universal way to find app battery usage on Android and that comes as an in-built feature on most Android phones, especially new ones. But if you don’t see the detailed usage on your phone, you can always go for third-party apps. Here we mention both ways.

1. In-built Feature on Android

Android’s Battery in-built setting shows you which apps and services have used your phone’s battery power since you last charged it. Here’s how to check this:

1. Open the Settings on your phone and then tap the “Battery” option or you can pull down the Quick Settings panel and long-press the battery icon to go straight to this setting.

2. Here you will see some metrics like battery usage since the last charge, the screen on time and available battery life, etc depending on the phone models.

3. Below this analysis, several battery settings appear including App battery management and Phone battery usage. Tap on the second one.

4. When you tap on Phone battery usage, it will open up apps, services that have been eating up your battery.

Note: On older versions of Android, there’s a chart with battery discharge information, and just below that you can see apps and services using the battery.

Stop Apps from Draining Battery

If you want to stop any particular app that is draining too much battery:

1. Tap on the app from the steps mentioned above.

2. It will open its battery usage information. Here, look for background access and disable the toggle if enabled. So, the app will now not use your battery when you’re not using it.

3. Moreover, look for Optimize Battery Use in settings and set it to Auto optimize or Always ask. That’s it.

Your apps will not run unnecessarily in the background and it will save the battery.

2. AccuBattery App

This is by far the best battery usage control app for Android. Our preferred app for getting detailed information about your battery (without rooting) is AccuBattery, which not only gives more insight into which apps are using the most battery, but also provides a detailed look into your battery health. Here’s how to check battery usage on this app.

1. Download and install the app on your phone.

2. Look for App usage access on the home page and tap on Grant Permission below it.

3. Permit usage access from setting when prompted.

4. Now, return to the app and you will see Per-app usage as well as Foreground app battery usage and discharging speed.

But the free version of the app only shows some of the apps from your phone and you cannot manage app battery usage in it.

3. Battery HD App

This is another useful app to get detailed battery stats without rooting your device. The app is also available for free on Play Store and has similar features to AccuBattery. Here’s how to use this app to get battery usage information:

1. Download and install the app on your phone.

2. Open the app and you will see several parameters like how much battery is left and how much time it can offer in several tasks such as media, browsing, flashlight, talk time, etc.

3. On scrolling further, it shows several other such metrics. However, it doesn’t exactly tell you the apps which are draining the battery.

4. It shows a graph with the charging speed, percentage usage, and temperature of the device. That’s it.

The best part of the app is it shows the exact time left for each feature you use. You will need to buy the Pro version of the app to use it more granularly and to remove the ad.

These were some ways to manage apps battery usage on Android, where you can find apps that drain the battery and also how to stop them. Stay tuned for more such tips and tricks!

You can also follow us for instant tech news at Google News or for tips and tricks, smartphones & gadgets reviews, join GadgetsToUse Telegram Group or for the latest review videos subscribe GadgetsToUse Youtube Channel.

by Primož Cigler

Today I want to share a quick and easy hack that doubled the time-on-battery on my laptop.

It is so easy to do once you know where to look.

I spend most of the time on my laptop in the browser. This is mostly because I read stuff, stick on social media or develop websites. I use Chrome for this, I rarely open any other browser — most of the time for testing only.

Chrome is generally known not being energy efficient app, so it is a trade-off, but I find it much better (especially for dev) than anything else.

For quite some time now I started to notice that the battery is not lasting as long as it used to when I bought this laptop a year and a half ago. It is normal that it is losing its power over time. But then one day about 2 weeks ago, when I was lying ill in my bed, I decided to check what is draining my battery so fast and if I can fix it.

Fortunately the OS X comes with the Activity Monitor, which also gives you the overview which apps put most impact on your battery life.

Activity Monitor

If you sort the list by column Avg Energy Impact, you will find the most troublesome apps. In my case Google Chrome. You can solve the problem easily by quitting the app, but as I mentioned, this was not viable in my case, as I want to use Chrome.

The screenshot above was taken at the time I am writing this and it showing the “fixed” Chrome. By the time I went to analyze it for the first time, the Avg Energy Impact value for Chrome was well over 100, around 140.

So, how did I manage to cut it down to about one third?

It was quite simple. I literally had to close one single tab in Chrome, which was using lots of CPU.

My toolbar in Chrome looks like this:

I have couple of pinned tabs which I want always open and then come the tabs that “come and go”.

There is one not-so-well known tool in Chrome, that allows you to analyse how much resources the individual tabs consume. It is called Task Manager and you can find it in Menu > More Tools > Task Manager.

Where to find Task Manager in Chrome

When opened, it will reveal more fine-grained details about CPU and RAM spent within Chrome.

Chrome Task Meneger

What you’re interested in is the CPU — this is what is draining your battery.

Find the tabs that are constantly greedy for your CPU and kill them with fire!

To my case. I had the currency exchange rates (USD to EUR) opened all the time. It was this page. And look at this, when I have this page opened and pinned:

Tab XE.com is sooooooo CPU intensive (the tab was inactive when I created the screenshot)

It was obvious choice. I can live without pinned tab about exchange rates, if that makes my laptop alive for twice the time.

If you feel that your laptop battery is struggling because of the Chrome, check out the Chrome Task Manager. Kill the most greedy websites with fire and notify their developers. They are probably doing some dirty stuff in JavaScript which is draining your battery like hell.

You might follow me on Twitter, but we both know Twitter is very noisy. So you can leave me your email and I will occasionally send you stuff I find useful.

If this article was helpful, tweet it.

Learn to code for free. freeCodeCamp’s open source curriculum has helped more than 40,000 people get jobs as developers. Get started

freeCodeCamp is a donor-supported tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (United States Federal Tax Identification Number: 82-0779546)

Our mission: to help people learn to code for free. We accomplish this by creating thousands of videos, articles, and interactive coding lessons – all freely available to the public. We also have thousands of freeCodeCamp study groups around the world.

Donations to freeCodeCamp go toward our education initiatives and help pay for servers, services, and staff.

Today we are going to see how to identify apps draining iPhone battery life in iOS 12.

Apple has supercharged the Battery stats screen in the Settings app in iOS 12. You can now see data for the past 10 days and if you wish, drill down to see battery usage for a particular hour of the day.

What does all this wealth of knowledge mean? It’s now much easier to identify apps that keep draining your iPhone battery! And you can now use multiple metrics before you decide to finally remove a rogue app. Pretty cool, right?

24 Hour View

There’s an awesome new chart right at the top and you can distinguish between the screen on and screen off time as well.

When you go to Settings -> Battery, you’ll find two tabs on top. Last 24 hours and Last 10 days. The 24 hours is the default so let’s start with that.

You’ll find a graphic that’s split into two parts: On top, you’ll see the battery level and below is your usage time. You’ll also see the screen on and screen off usage for the day.

Scroll down and you get to the meat of the matter. Listed here are apps that used up the battery in the last day. You’ll see the foreground and background usage time. Tap on Show Battery Usage and you’ll be able to see exactly how much battery an app used.

What’s crazy though is the fact that the graph on the top is interactive. So if you tap on one of the sections of the graph, you’ll see the apps that used the most battery in just that amount of time (it can be an hour or a couple of hours sections).

Last 10 Days View

If you’ve been using iOS 12 for more than 10 days, you’ll find that the second tab on top says Last 10 days. Switch to it and you’ll see new data show up in the same graphs. In the Activity section, you’ll be able to tap on one of the bars to see detailed battery usage for the corresponding day.

On the other hand, if an app has very little screen time but its background activity is off the charts, you know that the app has been draining the battery life in the background.

Step-by-Step Guide to Identify Apps Draining iPhone Battery

Now that you have access to data from last hour to 10 days, browse around in the section until you find the apps that are draining a lot of your battery. Use both the percentage metric and the background activity stats to figure out which app has been consistently draining your battery.

Step 1: Go to the Last 10 Days section and tap on the Show Battery Usage feature. The app on top here has been draining the most battery over the last 10 days.

Step 2: Switch to the Show Activity option and now you can see which apps have been active the most time. If an app has been using a lot of energy in the background, you’ll find the background time stats to be in hours instead of minutes.

Step 3: To view apps using the most battery life in the last day, switch to the Last 24 hours tab. Again, the app on the top of the list will be the app which drained the most battery life.

In the screenshot below, notice the Google Photos option. It’s has used as much battery life by operating two hours in the background, as Instagram has used by active on screen for 5 hours. Clearly, Google Photos is draining my battery unnecessarily in the background.

Clearly, I’ll have to do something about the background syncing process on Google Photos. If you’re in the similar boat and you can’t just delete the app outright, try disabling Background App Refresh for the given app.

Find Apps That Went Rogue For a While

It happens sometimes. Your iPhone battery will drop by 40% in an hour and you have no idea why. Well, thanks to iOS 12’s new battery charts, you drill down the particular hour where the battery drain happened.

Go to the 24 Hours section and from the Activity graph, pick a bar that corresponds the hour where the battery drain happened. The culprit should be listed at the top.

How is Your iPhone Battery Life in iOS 12?

Has the battery life on your iPhone or iPad improved after upgrading to iOS 12? What about the performance? Share with us in the comments below.

Consumers have been complaining about their new laptops. These steps may help.

In the past few days, Apple’s new MacBook Pro has provoked heated complaints in user forums from consumers disappointed with their new laptop’s battery life. The company claims the various models deliver up to 10 hours per charge, but some MacBook Pro owners report that they’ve been clocking only 3.

Some users have speculated that the thin new Touch Bar on the keyboard is somehow draining the battery.

Consumer Reports has been testing all three MacBook Pro models in our labs, and we noticed a problem, too. We haven’t yet identified the root cause, but in our experiments, a few easy-to-do adjustments have really helped. It’s possible that a software update from Apple would be able to correct the problem.

Apple has not yet addressed the complaints from users or responded to our request for a comment on the problem.

As a primary part of our battery life tests, we repeatedly download a set of 10 website pages from a server in the lab using a WiFi connection. We test each laptop multiple times.

We saw odd results from our initial battery tests on all three of Apple’s MacBook Pro models—the 13-inch models with and without the Touch Bar, and the 15-inch model, which only comes with the Touch Bar.

“Much like the older models, the laptops started off with 15- to 17-hour results,” Consumer Reports tester Antonette Asedillo says. “But subsequent runs were much lower—down to 6 and even 4 hours long. So that was a new phenomenon.”

The fact that the results varied so widely prompted Asedillo to investigate further.

She dug around online, did some experiments, and cobbled together the following tactics for boosting battery life. By using a combination of these adjustments, she was able to get all three versions of the MacBook Pro to show more consistent results. And battery life got to the same ballpark figures that previous MacBooks achieved.

To be safe, back up your computer before giving any of this a try, Asedillo suggests.

Reset NVRAM

NVRAM, or non-volatile random-access memory, is basically RAM that retains its information even when you turn off your computer. Did you need to know that? No. To reset it, do the following—you can find the same information buried on the Apple website.

1. Shut down your MacBook Pro.
2. Turn it back on.
3. Press and hold the Command, Option, P, and R keys while it’s starting up. (It may help to locate those keys before you turn on the computer.)
4. Hold the keys down for at least 20 seconds.
5. Release the keys.

Check to see whether the problem is resolved. No? Okay, move on to Dock Preferences.

Reset Dock Preferences

1. Open up the Terminal app on your MacBook; this will be familiar if you do any programming. (Otherwise, don’t be intimidated: Just search for it using Spotlight.) Type cd

/Library/Preferences/ and press return.

These directions came from a 2012 article at Cult of Mac.

Next, enjoy your sense of technological sophistication. Then wait to see whether the battery problem has been resolved. If not, move on to the next step.

Reset the System Management Controller

This component, which sits on the logic board, controls power usage—for instance, it tells your computer when to go to sleep. So it’s logical that it could have some impact on how long a battery charge lasts. Apple has the directions as well.

1. Shut down the MacBook Pro.
2. Plug the USB-C power adapter into a power source and your laptop.
3. Press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the keyboard while pressing the power button.
4. Release all the keys, then press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

Note: None of this is guaranteed to work, and Consumer Reports’ testing of the MacBook Pros is continuing.

If a battery problem persists, take the laptop to the Apple Store. Before you leave home, though, back up the files once more and perform a fresh install of macOS Sierra. No, this isn’t likely to fix the problem. But when the guy at the Genius Bar advises you to try it, you can say you already have.