Optimized Battery Charging or AlDente

bakubo · Mar 5, 2023

My MBP has these battery settings:

Here is some info about battery charging:

https://support.apple.com/guide/macbook-pro/charge-the-battery-apdbc13fd966/mac

Optimized Battery Charging: This feature helps to reduce the wear on your battery and improve its lifespan by learning your daily charging routine. It delays charging the battery past 80% when it predicts that you’ll be plugged in for an extended period of time, and aims to charge the battery before you unplug. In System Settings, click Battery in the sidebar, click the information button by Battery Health, then turn on Optimized Battery Charging.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212049

Much of the time this MBP is sitting on my desk connected to 2 monitors and I have it plugged in. I have noticed that the charge never goes below 100% fully charged while plugged in even though Optimized Battery Charging is turned on. I unplugged it and let it get down to about 70% and then plugged it in, but it did not stop charging at 80%. It went back up to 100%. Is there something I need to do to make Optimized Battery Charging charge to 80%?

I also found this AlDente app. Anyone using it? What do you think?

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/63002/aldente

AlDente allows you to limit your MacBook from charging above a certain percentage. This will not only decrease Battery wear but also increase longevity of your Battery.

CAcreeks · Mar 5, 2023

bakubo said:
Much of the time this MBP is sitting on my desk connected to 2 monitors and I have it plugged in. I have noticed that the charge never goes below 100% fully charged while plugged in even though Optimized Battery Charging is turned on. I unplugged it and let it get down to about 70% and then plugged it in, but it did not stop charging at 80%. It went back up to 100%. Is there something I need to do to make Optimized Battery Charging charge to 80%?

I also found this AlDente app. Anyone using it? What do you think?

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/63002/aldente

AlDente allows you to limit your MacBook from charging above a certain percentage. This will not only decrease Battery wear but also increase longevity of your Battery.

Ventura 13 bug?

On Monterey 12, the optimized battery charging works as I would expect.

Before leaving on a trip, I select Charge to 100% and it does, much faster than predicted.

bakubo · Mar 5, 2023

CAcreeks said:
bakubo said:

Much of the time this MBP is sitting on my desk connected to 2 monitors and I have it plugged in. I have noticed that the charge never goes below 100% fully charged while plugged in even though Optimized Battery Charging is turned on. I unplugged it and let it get down to about 70% and then plugged it in, but it did not stop charging at 80%. It went back up to 100%. Is there something I need to do to make Optimized Battery Charging charge to 80%?

I also found this AlDente app. Anyone using it? What do you think?

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/63002/aldente

AlDente allows you to limit your MacBook from charging above a certain percentage. This will not only decrease Battery wear but also increase longevity of your Battery.

Click to expand...

Ventura 13 bug?

I have Ventura 13.2.1.

CAcreeks said:
On Monterey 12, the optimized battery charging works as I would expect.

Before leaving on a trip, I select Charge to 100% and it does, much faster than predicted.

I do not see a Charge to 100% option anywhere. Where is it on Monterey? Here is the Battery info in System Settings that I have:

And if I click on the i next to Battery Health Normal I see this:

CAcreeks · Mar 5, 2023

bakubo said:
CAcreeks said:

Ventura 13 bug?

Click to expand...

I have Ventura 13.2.1.

bakubo said:

On Monterey 12, the optimized battery charging works as I would expect.

Before leaving on a trip, I select Charge to 100% and it does, much faster than predicted.

Click to expand...

I do not see a Charge to 100% option anywhere. Where is it on Monterey?

It's in the pull-down menu from the battery icon on upper right.

(What's it called? maybe the menu bar, because it has menus on upper left.)

bakubo · Mar 5, 2023

CAcreeks said:
bakubo said:

CAcreeks said:

Ventura 13 bug?

Click to expand...

I have Ventura 13.2.1.

CAcreeks said:

On Monterey 12, the optimized battery charging works as I would expect.

Before leaving on a trip, I select Charge to 100% and it does, much faster than predicted.

Click to expand...

I do not see a Charge to 100% option anywhere. Where is it on Monterey?

Click to expand...

It's in the pull-down menu from the battery icon on upper right.

(What's it called? maybe the menu bar, because it has menus on upper left.)

Clicking the battery icon at the top of the screen on the right shows this:

The only item above that can be clicked on is the Battery Settings... at the bottom and it gives the window I showed already. On Monterey you see different things than the 3 Ventura screenshots I have shown?

CAcreeks · Mar 5, 2023

bakubo said:
Clicking the battery icon at the top of the screen on the right shows this:

The only item above that can be clicked on is the Battery Settings... at the bottom and it gives the window I showed already. On Monterey you see different things than the 3 Ventura screenshots I have shown?

My original theory was correct (or perhaps it's a feature not a bug).

Looks Like Ventura Broke My Optimized Battery Charging

Is it just me or does anyone else notice their 16" MBP stay fully charged without learning charging habits in Ventura? I have my laptop plugged in all the time with the occasional battery usage and it used to default back to optimized charging to 80%, but it has stayed 100% since I upgraded to...

forums.macrumors.com

bakubo · Mar 5, 2023

CAcreeks said:
My original theory was correct (or perhaps it's a feature not a bug).

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/looks-like-ventura-broke-my-optimized-battery-charging.2369031/

Thank you for that link. I read through it and see the reports in it are from November and December 2022 using Ventura 13.0 and 13.0.1. I also saw a few people said that after 14 days (or maybe a little longer) Optimized Battery Charging suddenly started behaving properly and charging to 80% instead of stuck on 100%. One or two people though said it did not happen for them.

Well, I have had this MBP for 8 days so I will wait and see what happens after 14-15 days (which is conveniently for Apple after the easy, free 14 day return). Fingers crossed it starts behaving properly. I have Ventura 13.2.1 so a later version than the people in the thread.

Tom_N · Mar 5, 2023

CAcreeks said:
Before leaving on a trip, I select Charge to 100% and it does, much faster than predicted.

Is it "Charge to 100%", or "Charge to Full Now"?

How-To Geek – How to Force Your MacBook to Charge Fully

Tom_N · Mar 5, 2023

bakubo said:
Well, I have had this MBP for 8 days so I will wait and see what happens after 14-15 days (which is conveniently for Apple after the easy, free 14 day return).

If you have only had the laptop for 8 days, I doubt that it's had much opportunity to learn your daily usage and charging routine.

Mike Boreham · Mar 6, 2023

Tom_N said:
bakubo said:

Well, I have had this MBP for 8 days so I will wait and see what happens after 14-15 days (which is conveniently for Apple after the easy, free 14 day return).

Click to expand...

If you have only had the laptop for 8 days, I doubt that it's had much opportunity to learn your daily usage and charging routine.

I believe it can take a few weeks to learn, but I gave it two months on my M1 MBA running Big Sur at the time, and it never worked for me with the Mac plugged in nearly all the time.

So I switched to AlDente and never looked back. I have put AlDente straight on to three new macs I have had since then because of the extra control and certainty about what was actually happening. It may be that in Ventura it works but I would still go with AlDente.

I have sold my original two M1 MBAs at 25 months and 18 months of being plugged in nearly all the time. One had 100% battery condition and the other 98%.

CAcreeks · Mar 6, 2023

Tom_N said:
CAcreeks said:

Before leaving on a trip, I select Charge to 100% and it does, much faster than predicted.

Click to expand...

Is it "Charge to 100%", or "Charge to Full Now"?

How-To Geek – How to Force Your MacBook to Charge Fully

Yes I misremembered, it is Charge to Full Now.

Perhaps the estimate of how long it will take is based on a model with larger battery than the M1 Air. By contrast, the estimate of how long updates will take is always low instead of high.

bakubo · Mar 6, 2023

Mike Boreham said:
I believe it can take a few weeks to learn, but I gave it two months on my M1 MBA running Big Sur at the time, and it never worked for me with the Mac plugged in nearly all the time.

Yes, I have read a few times in various places people complain that the Optimized Battery Charging never starts to work properly. Others though say it eventually started to work for them. It is a shame that yet more Apple software is buggy and does not get fixed. :-(

Mike Boreham said:
So I switched to AlDente and never looked back. I have put AlDente straight on to three new macs I have had since then because of the extra control and certainty about what was actually happening. It may be that in Ventura it works but I would still go with AlDente.

I have sold my original two M1 MBAs at 25 months and 18 months of being plugged in nearly all the time. One had 100% battery condition and the other 98%.

Thank you for the info and personal experience. I think I will wait until my MBP is 2-3 weeks old and see if the Optimized Battery Charging kicks in and starts working. If it doesn't then I will probably get AlDente. I read through the FAQ:

https://apphousekitchen.com/faq/

I pulled out a few interesting bits:

Unlike the common belief, it is actually way more unhealthy for a battery to always get cycled between a reasonable range (for example between 30% and 70%) than to just stay at a healthy percentage (for example 80%). This is due to even reasonable charge cycling adding a lot of charge cycles which results in more and faster battery degradation over time than just using the MacBook plugged in at a healthy percentage. However, this does not mean that you should not use your MacBook remotely. MacBooks are portable devices but if you use your MacBook in your office plugged in, it is better to just limit charging to a healthy percentage than to cycle between a certain range.

Keeping your battery at a lower percentage, such as under 80%, over weeks without doing full cycles (100%-0%-100%) can result in a disturbed battery calibration. When this happens, your Macbook might turn off with 40-50% left or it will stay at 100% for hours, and your battery capacity can drop significantly. However, this is only due to a disturbed battery calibration and not because of a faulty or degraded battery. To avoid this issue, we recommend doing at least one full cycle (0%-100%) every two weeks. Even if your battery calibration gets disturbed, doing 4-5 full cycles will recalibrate your battery and the capacity will go up again. AlDente Pro has a feature called Calibration Mode (https://apphousekitchen.com/feature-explanation-calibration-mode-2/), which will automatically do a full cycle when started.

AlDente Free can not control the charging behavior of your MacBook while it is in sleep or shut down. Therefore, it will continue to charge to 100% when you close the lid or shut it down. AlDente Pro has features called “Stop charging when sleeping” and “Stop charging when powered off” to counteract this behavior.

AlDente Free can not control the charging behavior of your MacBook while it is in sleep or shut down. Therefore, it will continue to charge to 100% when you close the lid or shut it down. AlDente Pro has features called “Stop charging when sleeping” and “Stop charging when powered off” to counteract this behavior.

AlDente has a free version, $14/year subscription version, and a $29 lifetime license version (it does not say if you get free updates for life or if you have the rebuy it each time). From what I can see there is nothing in the paid version I care about except that it can work while the computer is in sleep mode or shutdown. That is a big thing, I think. It sort of seems that without that ability the free version is sort of meaningless. Well, unless one never shuts down or go to sleep while plugged in. I generally dislike adding utility software to my computer that duplicates what Apple already provides, but if Apple does not come through and work properly then I will probably buy this one.

bakubo · Mar 6, 2023

CAcreeks said:
bakubo said:

Clicking the battery icon at the top of the screen on the right shows this:

The only item above that can be clicked on is the Battery Settings... at the bottom and it gives the window I showed already. On Monterey you see different things than the 3 Ventura screenshots I have shown?

Click to expand...

My original theory was correct (or perhaps it's a feature not a bug).

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/looks-like-ventura-broke-my-optimized-battery-charging.2369031/

One problem with these sort of anecdotal reports on forums is that sometimes what happens is that people who report stuff do not come back and update the thread if things change later. Some people in the thread said that after 14 or more days it started working. We do not know if a few days or weeks later whether it continued to work. And by the same token, people who said it did not start working after a few weeks of usage may not return to report it finally started working.

Apple should clearly tell us how long it will likely take if all is working properly.

bakubo · Mar 10, 2023

bakubo said:
Mike Boreham said:

I believe it can take a few weeks to learn, but I gave it two months on my M1 MBA running Big Sur at the time, and it never worked for me with the Mac plugged in nearly all the time.

Click to expand...

Yes, I have read a few times in various places people complain that the Optimized Battery Charging never starts to work properly. Others though say it eventually started to work for them. It is a shame that yet more Apple software is buggy and does not get fixed. :-(

bakubo said:

So I switched to AlDente and never looked back. I have put AlDente straight on to three new macs I have had since then because of the extra control and certainty about what was actually happening. It may be that in Ventura it works but I would still go with AlDente.

I have sold my original two M1 MBAs at 25 months and 18 months of being plugged in nearly all the time. One had 100% battery condition and the other 98%.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the info and personal experience. I think I will wait until my MBP is 2-3 weeks old and see if the Optimized Battery Charging kicks in and starts working. If it doesn't then I will probably get AlDente. I read through the FAQ:

https://apphousekitchen.com/faq/

I pulled out a few interesting bits:

Unlike the common belief, it is actually way more unhealthy for a battery to always get cycled between a reasonable range (for example between 30% and 70%) than to just stay at a healthy percentage (for example 80%). This is due to even reasonable charge cycling adding a lot of charge cycles which results in more and faster battery degradation over time than just using the MacBook plugged in at a healthy percentage. However, this does not mean that you should not use your MacBook remotely. MacBooks are portable devices but if you use your MacBook in your office plugged in, it is better to just limit charging to a healthy percentage than to cycle between a certain range.

Keeping your battery at a lower percentage, such as under 80%, over weeks without doing full cycles (100%-0%-100%) can result in a disturbed battery calibration. When this happens, your Macbook might turn off with 40-50% left or it will stay at 100% for hours, and your battery capacity can drop significantly. However, this is only due to a disturbed battery calibration and not because of a faulty or degraded battery. To avoid this issue, we recommend doing at least one full cycle (0%-100%) every two weeks. Even if your battery calibration gets disturbed, doing 4-5 full cycles will recalibrate your battery and the capacity will go up again. AlDente Pro has a feature called Calibration Mode (https://apphousekitchen.com/feature-explanation-calibration-mode-2/), which will automatically do a full cycle when started.

AlDente Free can not control the charging behavior of your MacBook while it is in sleep or shut down. Therefore, it will continue to charge to 100% when you close the lid or shut it down. AlDente Pro has features called “Stop charging when sleeping” and “Stop charging when powered off” to counteract this behavior.

AlDente Free can not control the charging behavior of your MacBook while it is in sleep or shut down. Therefore, it will continue to charge to 100% when you close the lid or shut it down. AlDente Pro has features called “Stop charging when sleeping” and “Stop charging when powered off” to counteract this behavior.

AlDente has a free version, $14/year subscription version, and a $29 lifetime license version (it does not say if you get free updates for life or if you have the rebuy it each time). From what I can see there is nothing in the paid version I care about except that it can work while the computer is in sleep mode or shutdown. That is a big thing, I think. It sort of seems that without that ability the free version is sort of meaningless. Well, unless one never shuts down or go to sleep while plugged in. I generally dislike adding utility software to my computer that duplicates what Apple already provides, but if Apple does not come through and work properly then I will probably buy this one.

I cannot find anything on the AlDente website that says whether owners of the $29 lifetime license get updates after that or updates will mean buying a whole new lifetime license. Anyone know?

bakubo · Mar 10, 2023

bakubo said:
My MBP has these battery settings:

Here is some info about battery charging:

https://support.apple.com/guide/macbook-pro/charge-the-battery-apdbc13fd966/mac

Optimized Battery Charging: This feature helps to reduce the wear on your battery and improve its lifespan by learning your daily charging routine. It delays charging the battery past 80% when it predicts that you’ll be plugged in for an extended period of time, and aims to charge the battery before you unplug. In System Settings, click Battery in the sidebar, click the information button by Battery Health, then turn on Optimized Battery Charging.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212049

Much of the time this MBP is sitting on my desk connected to 2 monitors and I have it plugged in. I have noticed that the charge never goes below 100% fully charged while plugged in even though Optimized Battery Charging is turned on. I unplugged it and let it get down to about 70% and then plugged it in, but it did not stop charging at 80%. It went back up to 100%. Is there something I need to do to make Optimized Battery Charging charge to 80%?

I also found this AlDente app. Anyone using it? What do you think?

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/63002/aldente

AlDente allows you to limit your MacBook from charging above a certain percentage. This will not only decrease Battery wear but also increase longevity of your Battery.

Just an update. It has been 14 days since I bought this MBP and the battery still stays at 100%. I cannot find anywhere that officially says how long it takes for Optimized Battery Charging to start working. Some anecdotal comments said it took 14 days, others said it still wasn't working for them after 14 days. Does anyone have something from Apple that tells us? Even 14 days sounds like an excessively long time to kick in though. Is it days, weeks, months, years, or decades before it will start working?

I will wait a bit longer before trying AlDente because I hope to use the built-in MacOS functionality.

bakubo · Mar 18, 2023

bakubo said:
bakubo said:

My MBP has these battery settings:

Here is some info about battery charging:

https://support.apple.com/guide/macbook-pro/charge-the-battery-apdbc13fd966/mac

Optimized Battery Charging: This feature helps to reduce the wear on your battery and improve its lifespan by learning your daily charging routine. It delays charging the battery past 80% when it predicts that you’ll be plugged in for an extended period of time, and aims to charge the battery before you unplug. In System Settings, click Battery in the sidebar, click the information button by Battery Health, then turn on Optimized Battery Charging.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212049

Much of the time this MBP is sitting on my desk connected to 2 monitors and I have it plugged in. I have noticed that the charge never goes below 100% fully charged while plugged in even though Optimized Battery Charging is turned on. I unplugged it and let it get down to about 70% and then plugged it in, but it did not stop charging at 80%. It went back up to 100%. Is there something I need to do to make Optimized Battery Charging charge to 80%?

I also found this AlDente app. Anyone using it? What do you think?

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/63002/aldente

AlDente allows you to limit your MacBook from charging above a certain percentage. This will not only decrease Battery wear but also increase longevity of your Battery.

Click to expand...

Just an update. It has been 14 days since I bought this MBP and the battery still stays at 100%. I cannot find anywhere that officially says how long it takes for Optimized Battery Charging to start working. Some anecdotal comments said it took 14 days, others said it still wasn't working for them after 14 days. Does anyone have something from Apple that tells us? Even 14 days sounds like an excessively long time to kick in though. Is it days, weeks, months, years, or decades before it will start working?

I will wait a bit longer before trying AlDente because I hope to use the built-in MacOS functionality.

A few days later my MBP battery finally dropped down to 77-80% while plugged in. I think it took 17-18 days for me.

CAcreeks · Mar 18, 2023

bakubo said:
A few days later my MBP battery finally dropped down to 77-80% while plugged in. I think it took about 17-18 days for me.

Thanks, I'll be patient. For me, uptime on mains AC only 7 days.

I'm surprised that the power "brick", which is more like a large white brownie, is bigger for my M2 Macbook 16 than our old 2014 Macbook 15. I liked the teeny "brick" of the M1 Air.

Can the M1/M2 Macbooks with MagSafe charging also be charged by USB-C? I believe so. Eventually I'll try it with my backup phone battery charger.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212753

bakubo · Mar 18, 2023

CAcreeks said:
bakubo said:

A few days later my MBP battery finally dropped down to 77-80% while plugged in. I think it took about 17-18 days for me.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll be patient. For me, uptime on mains AC only 7 days.

I'm surprised that the power "brick", which is more like a large white brownie, is bigger for my M2 Macbook 16 than our old 2014 Macbook 15. I liked the teeny "brick" of the M1 Air.

Yes, the 140-watt GaN charger is bigger than I expected. I have read many times that the new GaN chargers are smaller, but comparing it to some of my older, non-GaN chargers I found that the GaN charger is not smaller. See these:

GaN chargers are smaller?

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/66920543

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/66934985

CAcreeks said:
Can the M1/M2 Macbooks with MagSafe charging also be charged by USB-C? I believe so. Eventually I'll try it with my backup phone battery charger.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212753

Yes, it is my understanding that the MBP can also be charged using USB-C. Probably slower than using the MagSafe though.

Tom_N · Mar 18, 2023

CAcreeks said:
Can the M1/M2 Macbooks with MagSafe charging also be charged by USB-C?

According to the Apple Support document you referenced, they can.

CAcreeks said:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212753

CAcreeks said:
CAcreeks said:

"Your Mac charges over only one port at a time, so connecting multiple power adapters to the USB-C ports and MagSafe 3 port (if present) won't result in faster charging. If you connect more than one power source, your Mac charges only from the adapter or display providing the most power."

Click to expand...

To fast-charge a 16" MacBook Pro (2021 or later), you need to use the (140 watt USB-C Power Adapter, USB-C to MagSafe 3 cable) combination.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212755

bakubo · Mar 19, 2023

CAcreeks said:
Can the M1/M2 Macbooks with MagSafe charging also be charged by USB-C? I believe so. Eventually I'll try it with my backup phone battery charger.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212753

That link says:

If your Mac has USB-C ports, you can charge your Mac with a USB-C charge cable and a USB-C power adapter or with a USB-C or Thunderbolt display that provides power.

Does that mean I can use my phone charger? Its says: Output: 5V 2A.

I suppose we all have several of these types of chargers. The one for my tablet says: Output: 5V 1.8A. I also have one for a camera that has in-body charging. It says: Output: 5V 0.5A. I have used my phone charger with my tablet and vice versa. Also, I have used the camera charger. Is that okay or should I always use the charger that came with the device? I have noticed that sometimes in hotel rooms they have a generic charger in the desk drawer and cords with several types of connectors for various devices. I have not used one of those though.

Will my phone charger actually work for my 16" MBP too? Of course, I realize it would be slower to charge than the MagSafe big 140-watt GaN charger that it came with.

Optimized Battery Charging or AlDente

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