Calibrating Your MacBook Battery 43

Trick

Calibrating Your MacBook Battery

Hey

MacBook laptop batteries die. Until we find a battery material that can keep its capacity for the length of its life we will have to do with getting the most out of out Lithium ion friends. You will probably know that over time Lithium and its chemical friends slowly but surely lose there hold on the electron world and reduce in the amount of electrical capacity they hold. I don’t no the in’s and out’s but I know its not that good. That is where battery calibration comes in. Calibration helps your battery stay in tip top shape and will hopefully keep its charge longer.

Calibration is easy. It only takes a couple of steps done in the right order (more difficult than it sounds).

1) Charge your battery all the way up. Kind of obvious. You want to get your battery to its peak.

2) Keep your battery charged at full for a couple of hours. Usually by keeping it plugged in. This is so it knows what full charge is like.

3) Use your computer until it runs down. Take it out of a binary jog, get those CPU cycles working. I recommend just using it normally and nothing to intensive.

4) Remember to save your work before it goes to sleep. Vital step, forgot to do this before mine died.

5) Turn your computer off or left it sleep for 5 hours or longer. After a hard day of computering it needs its rest, wouldn’t you.

6) Reconnect the battery and charge er’ all the way up.

7) Repeat once or every couple of months. Or in my case every day because I don’t bring my power adapter with me. Do this with other batteries if you have bought some.

Although calibrating your battery is a bit boring it is a very good way to keep it in tip top shape. I think the internals work out how much time over CPU it has used for a given battery. As a result it can adjust how it works. All I know is that it improves performance. Currently (and this makes me sad) I have had 109 charges for a 66% battery health, lasting approximately under 2 hours with normal to semi intensive work. You can find out your battery health through my favourite widget iStat menus. If you feel inclined, leave a comment below with your battery stats and we can see how the MacBook batteries are slowly leading to their battery grave.

If you are looking for a new battery since you old one has got to a point it has become worthless, I recommend looking on Amazon, they usually have some great deals if you look hard enough. Most of the time they are cheaper than an Apple Store.


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43 Responses to “Calibrating Your MacBook Battery”

  1. 1

    I certainly hope the battery doesn’t die as fast as it seems to be… I bought my MacBook in Nov07 and the Battery Health Monitor says I already “used up” 48% of my battery life, after 191 charge cycles (though when fully charged it still goes for in between 3 and 4 hours with normal use) . That means that within some 5 months I’d have to buy a new battery! I almost always charge and ‘drain’ the battery completely, which is supposed to be the way it has to be done. I’ll sure take into account your post to try to extend my battery’s life!

    Comment By Pirate Pinion on March 14th, at 12:28 am

  2. 2

    I hope they don’t die as quick as they seem to. Hopefully they will last a bit longer.

    Comment By James Powell on March 14th, at 8:15 am

  3. 3

    On my MacBook Pro I only have 4 cycles. I’ve had it for 10 months and my battery still holds a 100% charge. Using CoconutBattery it claims to have it’s full original battery capacity…actually its higher than original..doesn’t make sense there.

    Anyway, I get a good 2.5-3 hours out of my battery.

    Comment By John Mahlman IV on March 14th, at 3:23 pm

  4. 4

    2 years 356 cycles 66% left on my battery ;)

    when discharging, your mac will be in sleep mode. don’t forget to restart it in mode “target” (press “t” when booting) and wait :) still enough power for 8 or 10 min. battery completely discharged ;)

    Comment By zed on August 28th, at 9:08 pm

  5. 5

    Nice one zed. I wish I got that battery life. Mine is used constantly so it is slowly dieing.

    Comment By admin on August 28th, at 11:32 pm

  6. 6

    My battery is brand new with 3 load cycles and at 100% battery life it holds a charge for 2 hours

    Comment By christopher Shefferly on October 4th, at 8:44 pm

  7. 7

    Thats pretty good. I wish mine had that.

    Comment By admin on October 4th, at 8:47 pm

  8. 8

    ive my macbook for about 18months, last night i read this article and check my stats – 582 cycles – 89% battery life. I re-calibrated and left it off. just check now and the health is down to 85%!! wtf?? that is within 12 hours… i hope this calibration technique does not fatigue the battery in some way. 4% in a day seems a bit ridiculous seeming as before that i only lost 11% in a year and a half. anyhoo its still holds 3 – 4 hrs chrge even with airport on etc…

    Comment By tom on October 24th, at 3:44 pm

  9. 9

    Battery life goes up and down. What you saw previously was an uncalibrated figure, which was displayed wrong. When you calibrated your battery it re-calculated the figure, hence the jump. I have a really poor battery health, since I always use my battery and constantly charge it.

    Comment By admin on October 24th, at 3:57 pm

  10. 10

    Macbook is 2.5 yrs old. I use it infrequently. I noticed yesterday the power indicator was showing ‘Finishing Charge’ for about an hour whilst on charge (percentage was stuck at 99%. Downloaded iStat and it showed a health of 90%.

    Did the calibration procedure, put it on charge this morning at 0730 and at 1030 (3hrs) it’s still saying it needs a further 2.5hrs to charge and the battery health has dropped to 69% (charge is at 74 %).

    The charge holds for 2-3 hours.

    At £99 for a new battery I’m really hoping mine isn’t on it’s way out just yet.

    Comment By Tim on November 18th, at 12:06 pm

  11. 11

    Oh and I forgot to mention it only has 68 cycles.

    Comment By Tim on November 18th, at 12:07 pm

  12. 12

    Definitely helps… I almost never use my power cord during the day, and I have 390 cycles for 99% battery health. My battery lasts about 3 hours still. Woot!

    Comment By Brett on December 7th, at 5:37 am

  13. 13

    You should mention on all your pages that Li-Ion and all batteries contain harmful chemicals such as mercury and should not be thrown out but rather disposed of at your local battery recycling centre or hazardous waste drop-off (in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, it is at any City fire station…)

    The Environment is Important to All of Us!

    Comment By David Khan on December 26th, at 12:43 am

  14. 14

    My computer is 6-7 years old (upgraded the operating system to panther). It’s left on all day, every day and about 1-2 years ago I got a new battery. The original capacity is 4,400 mAh but is now at 3,197 mAh (73%). Coconut battery doesn’t work so I have to use Battery Health Monitor.

    Comment By Arthur on December 28th, at 10:30 am

  15. 15

    119 charges for a 97% battery health

    good charges 4 every1

    Comment By Ricardo Lopes on January 12th, at 1:27 am

  16. 16

    My battery lasts 1 hour at full charge =.=
    1. turn off bluetooth
    2. never open dashboard, if u do, type in terminal (Case sensetive): killall Dock
    3. go to activity monitor, end all language processes, and end all “applespell” applications, kill all the ituneshelper if u dont use itunes a lot, also end speech synthesis server (if u dont need ur computer to speak)
    now my computer lasts 4 hourz!!

    (btw, just reset ram if your coconut battery says 104% or something)

    Comment By SIlverclaw on January 15th, at 9:55 am

  17. 17

    Nice advice #4, Zed! I’m going to do that from now on.

    Comment By drCronex on February 25th, at 3:13 am

  18. 18

    Oh and great advice in #16, go SIlverclaw! I’m going to try some of those. My professional level work requires a lot of power.

    Comment By drCronex on February 25th, at 3:21 am

  19. 19

    I have 398 cycles..
    still at 98% health

    Comment By eman on March 4th, at 4:45 am

  20. 20

    My battery cycles – 100

    Health as per istat – 100%
    Health as per Battery Health Monitor – 104% !!!!!

    And i do caliberate my mac battery

    Comment By Aman on March 20th, at 9:58 am

  21. 21

    I must be lucky…. I have had my MacBookPro for about 8 months now.
    It has 245 cycles on the battery, and its at 90%…get a good 3 hours life out of the battery under normal usage…4 or 5 if I’m just running word and taking notes in class.

    Comment By Dan Pritschow on April 25th, at 8:44 pm

  22. 22

    I’ve had my MacBook for about 2-1/2yrs. My battery has 675 cycles on it, and my battery health is at 51%. I don’t know if this is below average, average, or above average for a MacBook battery.

    Comment By Dave G on June 25th, at 12:09 am

  23. 23

    570 cycles
    100% health
    2 yr old battery

    just make sure that the battery is down to its last ten minutes (most of the time) before you charge and let it charge completely over night…

    Comment By Scott on July 24th, at 5:57 am

  24. 24

    My MacBook is 21 months old, has 50 charge cycles, and a 97% battery capacity.

    It appears that the number of cycles, not the age, is the determining factor re. remaining capacity…

    - Janke

    Comment By Janke on October 23rd, at 5:40 pm

  25. 25

    Full charge capacity (mAh): 4327 (85%)
    Cycle count: 701
    Condition: Good

    Comment By sean on November 20th, at 6:09 am

  26. 26

    mine is 669 cycles 32 months old and health is 87%

    In the cycle 650 it was 99% health, now it doesn’t

    Calibrate it once in every while

    Comment By Alejandro Flores on January 6th, at 5:33 am

  27. 27

    It seems as if many people who had great battery lives did a calibration and the battery capacity dropped like crazy. Doesn’t that indicate that calibrating hurts the battery?
    I have a 23month old laptop, with 98% remaining, and I seldom if ever calibrate. I even have two chargers, one in the office and in my bed room, so I always have it on the juice, so to speak.
    Can anyone analyse what is happening with my battery then?

    Comment By Jonathan on January 16th, at 12:06 am

  28. 28

    @Jonathan, people haven’t lost battery power when they calibrate, they are only showing what battery power they should have. The value before calibration is usually wrong, hence the move.

    Comment By admin on January 16th, at 12:07 am

  29. 29

    Curently at 59% but shuts down when 15 minutes of charge left (So I have to remind myself to hook up to a charger when 20 minutes left) with 490 Loadcycles

    A used ‘curently’ couse te past few monts it bouncing between 28% and 74%

    Comment By Ed on March 27th, at 7:57 am

  30. 30

    Macbook, 369 charges, 92% health, runs for 2.5 hours at semi-intensive use on a full charge.

    Comment By Ben on April 12th, at 3:31 am

  31. 31

    Its simple. There is nothing that harms a battery more than completely discharging it. I never let charge go lower than 15%, and my battery has 300 cycles, 97% health.

    Used to calibrate regularly with my previous macbook, and the battery died within a year.

    Comment By des on June 6th, at 2:10 pm

  32. 32

    Check out this app Watts at http://binarytricks.com, it helps to calibrate MacBook battery

    Comment By Jesus Fidalgo on June 10th, at 11:45 pm

  33. 33

    I have never done a calibration .
    I use my Macbook as it is intended to be, plug it to power when on my desk and be on batteries when I get mobile.
    Usage is roughly 50:50 mobile/stationary.
    I barely let it drain completely.
    Current status: 399 cycles 89% health Still 3-4h battery life depending on usage.(I have one of the last black MacBook models) CoconutBattery is a nice app to track your battery over time.
    My Health status varies a little, I had 89% in April 2010 but also 97% in August, now I am back to 89%.
    I am impressed by this battery, my coworkers have Dell laptops and their battery is done after one year.(with done I mean battery life of less than 30 minutes )

    Comment By Wolfgang on September 30th, at 4:11 pm

  34. 34

    Had my MBP for about 14 months, battery says 98% capacity and i usually get about 6 hours out of it as long as i’m not using my disc drive. I also try and keep my brightness at around 50% capacity unless i absolutely need it to be brighter (ie working outside in the sun).

    Comment By Chris on November 21st, at 3:42 am

  35. 35

    My MacBook 1,1 is 4 year old/young and daily in use.
    Full charge capacity (mAh): 4468 (89%)
    Cycle count: 1016

    Comment By Andreas on November 25th, at 7:53 pm

  36. 36

    I’ve had my Macbook Pro for 3 years (got it when I started college).

    I am very cautious and have always taken care of it since it is the most expensive thing I own besides my car!
    I don’t tend to use it without the power adapter so I haven’t let it die very much. I use it daily for about 5 hours max, and the rest of the time it’s off (sometimes still charging).

    Being so cautious, I just don’t understand why my battery simply just doesn’t work anymore. I can only use my Macbook for 20 minutes tops, if I’m lucky, when it’s unplugged. Then it dies (even when it says I have 30 minutes remaining).

    Full charge capacity (mAh): 254
    Health Information:
    Cycle count: 215
    Condition: Check battery

    I have iStat and it tells me my battery health is 4%. REALLY?! If anyone could explain any possible explanations other than just a faulty battery, I would love some input.

    Comment By Binita on November 29th, at 11:18 am

  37. 37

    my batterry cycles showing
    5%(20)
    how is it

    Comment By saad on December 4th, at 11:51 am

  38. 38

    My macbook is 3.5 years old and at 1760 charge cycles. Battery health varies between 82% and 89% depending on use and calibration. I’ve noticed a slow decline over the past few months, as in, I used to get up to 92 or 93% health, but otherwise it’s still working marvelously.

    At the moment, I’m unplugged, at 83% power, and it estimates I have over 3 hrs of charge left.

    Comment By gossy on January 17th, at 12:50 am

  39. 39

    cycles 59
    battery health 91%

    Why is it so low i have only had it for 2 months! help please!

    Comment By NB on March 26th, at 2:09 pm

  40. 40

    1006 cycles….84% health!!!!!!!

    Comment By Robert on June 23rd, at 4:02 am

  41. 41

    Hey… I bought my mac like three months ago and i use a lot, all day actually… but the thing is… it used to last 6 hours easy, and now it barely lasts 4! and i’ve had like 60 load cycles… right now my battery has 98% charge and it says it will last for only 3:58 hours. I hate that because i really need a long lasting battery. I tried calibrating it already… it didn’t work. I downloaded coconut battery and it says that my battery already lost 7% of it’s original capacity. Could you help me?

    Comment By Nanda on September 12th, at 12:05 am

  42. 42

    The battery in my 07 13″ macbook finally died. After almost 5 years of pretty much non stop use with over 1k cycles. But it turns out i was calibrating it without knowing it. Just like most rechargable batteries its always good to let them charge and discharge fully

    Comment By Mike on October 25th, at 5:19 pm

  43. 43

    Wow, I suppose I don’t feel so badly about my MacBook Pro’s battery health now! It’s about 3 years old, 525 cycles, and after an unfortunate incident last night involving children I was babysitting and a glass of water, my battery’s health went from 93% to 87%. (I consider that low, even though I use my MacBook quite heavily.)
    So I decided to callibrate it again, because last time I did, the health went from 89% to 92%. (It is now happily enjoying Step #5!)

    Another tip my friend gave me was to shut it down, especially when you’re transporting it. (I live in a city that is extremely hot in the summer time, super cold in the winter.) And lately I haven’t been leaving the adapter in so long after it fully charges. I’ve read that just kills it. (So in response to Jonathan, that may be what is happening to yours.)

    Also, I’ve read that using Private Browsing mode on your browser helps, as well as lowering the brightness of the screen and illumination of the keyboard. (I keep both fairly low as it is.)

    Other than that, just treat your baby well. Use it the way you’re supposed to, maintain it, and you should enjoy a long and happy life with your MacBook!

    Comment By Alyson on December 21st, at 12:37 am

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