Batteries are one of the wearing parts of every device. The service life of the batteries has improved continuously over the years – compared to before, today’s batteries can withstand significantly more cycles. On the other hand, replacing the battery today, especially with Apple devices, is complicated and often cost-intensive: In newer MacBooks, the batteries are glued to the top case, so that they often have to be replaced.
The service life of the batteries can be increased significantly if the charging processes are optimized: For example, it is harmful to keep the battery at 100% charge level for a long period of time – it would be much more sensible to leave it at only 70 or 80% charge. This is especially important when batteries age.
macOS 10.15.5 brings optimized charging management
With an update for macOS Catalina, Apple introduced optimized battery management: As the battery ages, the battery charges less than 100% of its capacity. macOS learns when the user needs full capacity and when the MacBook is on the desk anyway and is continuously supplied with power. Unfortunately, this function is only available on newer MacBooks with USB-C – older MagSafe laptops are not included.
M1-Macs: Deactivation no longer possible
This function can still be deactivated on Intel Macs – including macOS Big Sur. However, if you search for the option on an M1 Mac, you will no longer find it in the system settings:
Why Apple no longer allows this with the new Macs is unclear. Perhaps the significantly longer battery life of the M1 Macs plays a role here: If the laptop lasts more than 10 hours anyway, 10 or 20 percent less battery charge would not make much difference – but it would significantly delay the aging of the battery.
So far, no trick is known about how to deactivate the battery management functions on M1 Macs anyway – however, this would mean a bad choice for most users anyway, since battery replacement on M1 Macs is time-consuming and expensive is.