Macbook - Checking battery health

Macbook - Checking battery health

Problem

A Macbook laptop is experiencing reduced battery uptime or is draining abnormally quickly.

Note
  • The internal rechargeable Macbook battery is covered under Apple's warranty for the first year. 
  • Rechargeable batteries are subject to ageing through use and are therefore excluded fcrom replacement under extended warranty.  

Steps

Method 1: Battery health status (Apple Silicon)

If you have an Apple Silicon Mac or running Mac OS Monterey 12.x or later use these steps below. 

  1. Click battery symbol top right in menu bar.
  2. Choose Battery Preferences.
  3. Then click Battery Health button, the information displayed should describe the battery condition and whether it needs to be replaced.

Method 2: In System Report

If you have an earlier operating system you can use the System Report app to find out battery condition.

  1. Press COMMAND+SPACE, then search System Report and open it.
  2. Click Power on the left hand side.
  3. You will then observe battery status information, items of particular interest are the following (please report these to Technical Support):
    • Full charge capacity
    • Cycle count
    • Condition

Method 3: Extended battery status info

If  you have an Intel Mac running older Mac OS versions this may work as well.  This does not work for Mac OS Monterey or above.

  1. Hold down the Option key on the keyboard.
  2. With Option held down click the battery symbol in the menu bar.
  3. A menu will appear with information you may wish to report to Technical Support, items of interest are the following:
    • Cycle count
    • Battery condition


  • The battery cycle count is the maximum limit of charge/discharge cycles before it needs to be replaced.
  • In general most Macbook models now have a cycle count of 1000 whereas older models it is 500. Visit the link below for furtrher information for Macbook models:
    https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201585

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