If you start experiencing battery life issues after installing the macOS Monterey beta and you want to avoid reverting to macOS Big Sur, there are some solutions you can try.
Excessive battery drain is a common problem in Apple’s beta software, so it wasn’t surprising to see macOS Monterey beta users complaining about it. Unfortunately, it can be a little tricky to fix and in some cases may require a fix in Apple’s new beta.
In this guide, we’ll show you some potential fixes for bad macOS Monterey beta battery life. The fixes we’ve listed here have worked for us and many others in the past, and there’s a good chance that one of them will work for you.
Restart your Mac
If your Mac’s battery begins to drain quickly for no apparent reason, the first thing you’ll want to do is restart your computer. A reboot can terminate rogue processes and has the potential to increase your Mac’s battery life.
We recommend restarting your Mac before taking other steps.
Install Latest macOS Monterey Beta
Apple will periodically release new macOS Monterey beta software. While the company didn’t reveal battery life fixes in a new beta’s changelog, the new software may alleviate your problems.
If you’re running the old macOS Monterey beta software, try moving your Mac to the latest update.
Control Your Apps
Apps, especially third-party apps, often spiral out of control in macOS beta software. Remember, this is pre-release software, so many apps are not optimized for the new OS.
There’s a good chance that one or more of your apps is causing your Mac’s battery to drain fast, so you’ll want to check for the issue.
The first thing you can do is click on the Battery symbol in the upper right corner of your screen. This will show you the apps that are using a significant amount of energy on your Mac.
If you notice an app that shouldn’t be there, you’ll want to investigate further. You may need to update, uninstall the app, or if you can’t find a fix and the app is required, exit the macOS Monterey beta.
You’ll find the Battery section in your Mac’s System Preferences. Here you will see a Usage History feature. Usage History gives you detailed information about your Mac’s battery life in the last 24 hours or the last 10 days.
It’s split into Battery Level and Display In Use so you can see how your Mac’s battery is performing. If readings are off, you may want to exit the beta.
Reset PRAM and NVRAM
This next step is a bit more involved, but can fix battery life issues.
Try resetting the PRAM and NVRAM on your MacBook. This resets some of your Mac’s settings, but does not delete your Mac’s data.
After doing that you will have to adjust the speaker, screen resolution and some other settings but there is a chance it will fix your battery life issues.
Here’s how to do this:
- Shut down your Mac.
- Open your MacBook.
- Press and hold Command, Option, P, R keys at the same time right after the boot sound.
- Keep it pressed until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound again.
If you have a 2016 MacBook Pro or newer, you should press and hold these keys for 20 seconds as soon as you turn on your MacBook Pro.
Migrate to macOS Big Sur
If you can’t find a manual fix and/or don’t want to wait for Apple’s next macOS Monterey beta, you can revert to the old macOS software.
For more information on downgrading macOS, check out our step-by-step guides.
