My work with macOS Big Sur was running incredibly smoothly until a week ago when unexpected battery drain turned out to be a proverbial nightmare for my MacBook. Offering around 7 hours of continuous battery life, the laptop would run out of steam in 2 to 3 hours. So, after we just fixed the macOS Big Sur battery drain issue, I would like to share some actionable tips to fix the issue and improve macOS Big Sur Battery life. If you are dealing with the same issue, they can come in handy to get rid of the problem.
Tips to Fix Battery Drain on macOS Big Sur
Causes of Battery Drain Issue Occurs
A battery life issue on your Mac running macOS Big Sur can have multiple causes. For example, it could be due to outdated apps, cluttered storage, worn-out battery, or hungry apps that keep running in the background without any restrictions. Ah yes, who can rule out the possibility of a software bug, given how common it has become these days? Therefore, you should look at this issue from several angles.
What are the Solutions to Fix the Problem?
You will have to take on every usual suspect as many things can cause a battery drain. For example, you will need to clean your Mac, delete old apps, take control of power-hungry apps, update software, and even replace the battery if necessary.
Now that you know the task at hand, let’s get started with the troubleshooting guide!
1. Track Criminals Using Activity Monitor
The first thing you need to do to fix battery life problems on your MacBook is to find the culprits. And by culprits I mean apps that kill the battery.
With Activity Monitor, it’s easy to find the apps that consume the most battery. It can also let you detect bad guys running in the background without any restrictions. So, per Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor to find the apps that take up the most resources.
To make your task of catching problematic apps a little easier, Activity Monitor lets you check the real status via different tabs like below. CPU, Memory, Disk, Network and Energy.
Pay special attention to the Energy tab, as it can play an important role in detecting problems. Make sure you look closely Energy Impact because it provides a relative measure of the current energy consumption of each application. The lower the energy effect, the better.
2. Customize Battery Settings to Maximize macOS Big Sur Battery Life
With macOS Big Sur, Apple introduced smart battery settings that you can use to increase your Mac’s battery life. From letting you check the usage history of the last 24 hours and 10 days, to enabling a nap when running on battery power, to scheduling the Mac to start or wake up at the time you want, new battery settings can play a crucial role in boosting the battery life on your device.
To get started, start Choose System Preferences and Battery. Alternatively, you can click the battery menu in the upper-right corner of the screen and select Battery Preferences. Now, you should see four options in the sidebar: Usage History, Battery, Power Adapter and Program. Then take a close look at how the battery is used and customize the battery settings to suit your needs.
3. Make the Most of Dark Mode
dark mode It has much more than meets the eye. With the dark theme, it makes the content look soothing to the eyes, thus preventing the eyes from burning or straining. Pretty looks aside, it’s also known to be power efficient. That’s why you should never enable it to help your laptop last longer between charges.
With macOS Big Sur, you can enable/disable Dark Mode directly from the control center. All you have to do is click on it to activate it. control center button in the upper right corner of the screen. Next, click the View button and select Dark Mode.
4. Force Quit the Apps You Use
While it may seem trivial to many, forcing apps to close when you use them can play a good role in extending your Mac’s battery life. The longer the apps stay open, the more battery they kill. Besides consuming plenty of unnecessary battery, they tend to slow down the device.
There are two ways to force close apps on your Mac. Simply control-click the application and select it. check out on the menu. Or, click on apple menu select it in the upper left corner of the screen and forced departure. After that, select apps/apps and forced departure.
5. Prefer Apple Safari to Google Chrome
While Google Chrome is probably the most feature-rich and popular browser among the platforms, it doesn’t score well when it comes to productivity. It doesn’t brand the browser as resource hungry for nothing. Not only does it consume plenty of resources, it also consumes a lot of battery.
If you use Chrome full time on your Mac, this may be your most important piece. I recommend using Safari – full time, to prevent the browser from eating up a lot of battery.
The Apple browser has greatly improved lately. Besides being by far the best in terms of security and privacy, the web browser has added a few key features to enhance the browsing experience. Plus, it’s no longer a hump when it comes to stretches. So even if you like to use extensions, Safari will come in handy.
When it comes to extending battery life, you can count on Safari to consume much less battery than Chrome. It also sounds pretty fast on Mac and offers seamless syncing between iDevices – which is a big plus if you’re in the Apple ecosystem.
6. Update Apps on Your Mac
Legacy apps tend to create a lot of problems. Besides slowing down your MacBooks, they also kill a large portion of the battery. Even from a security standpoint, legacy apps are vulnerable to hacking. Therefore, it is recommended to keep apps updated to the latest version.
You can navigate to app store -> click profile in the bottom left corner of the sidebar -> updates. Now, click Update All To update all the apps installed on your Mac.
What if you installed apps from outside the Mac App Store? Well, the process of updating apps installed from outside the App Store is just as easy. All you have to do is open the application you want to update and click its menu in the upper left corner of the screen. After that, click on Check for updates and then update the app as usual.
7. Deploy Your Mac
Along with the app cache, junk files need to be cleared from time to time. And if frequent deletion of useless files isn’t one of your virtues, there’s a good chance your MacBook is cluttered. Considering how problematic a cluttered storage is in terms of both slowing down the laptop and triggering unexpected battery drain, you should get rid of all junk files asap.
Fortunately, macOS comes with an efficient storage cleaner that you can use to monitor all files flocking in storage and delete them with ease. Simply click apple menu select it in the upper left corner of the screen and About This Mac. Be sure to store tab is selected. Next, click overcome. After that, empty the trash and reduce the clutter by reviewing the files. Also, optimize storage to prevent junk files from clogging up storage space.
8. Go to Software Update
If you’ve been following the latest macOS updates, you’d already know that a software bug is at the center of several major issues. So, if none of the solutions mentioned above fixed the macOS Big Sur battery drain issues, the problem is most likely caused by a stable bug.
Set course to System Preferences -> Software Update. Now, download and install the latest version of macOS Big Sur as usual. Battery life issues should be resolved once your Mac is updated to the latest version.
- Note:
- If the battery continues to drain even after the software update, it would be appropriate to check the battery charge cycle. It is worth noting that when a battery wears out, its performance is significantly reduced.
- The battery can retain up to 80% of its original charge capacity at the maximum number of cycles. For best performance, be sure to replace the battery when you reach the maximum number of cycles.
- hold that Choice press and then Apple menu in the upper left corner of the screen. After that, choose System information. Next, select Strength It is located under the Hardware section of the System Information window. The current number of cycles is shown below. Battery Information episode.
Extend the Battery Life of Your Mac Running macOS Big Sur
I hope you have solved the problem and your MacBook is starting to offer better battery life. As outlined above, the issue is often triggered by more than one issue. So make sure you take control of every usual suspect.
I would also recommend making the most of the battery settings as they can be of great help in maximizing the battery life of your portable Mac. Also, never forget to use Activity Monitor to catch more energy-consuming apps.
In my case, the problem was caused by a number of power-hungry apps. Once I blocked them from escaping, my MacBook’s battery life improved. Do you have any feedback? Make sure you send it across.
