How to Check the Number of Charge Cycles on Your Mac
Understanding Battery Charge Cycles
The lithium-ion batteries inside most MacBook models are designed to retain 80% of their original capacity after 1,000 charge cycles. You have performed one charge cycle once you have discharged 100% of your battery’s capacity. You can view the cycle count limit for your Mac’s battery by visiting Apple’s battery support page. For example, if you consume 50% of your battery’s capacity before charging it back up to 100%, you have completed only half of a charge cycle. It’s a great idea to top off your Mac’s battery whenever you can to reduce the number of charge cycles. A couple of battery-related terms you need to know about in addition to “charge cycle” are:
How to Check Battery Health on Mac
To check the battery health on your MacBook:
Status Indicators for Battery Health on Mac
Mac batteries are consumable components that will become less effective as they age. Your Mac will display one of two battery status indicators: Normal: Your Mac notebook’s battery is functioning normally. Service Recommended: The battery inside your Mac laptop is unable to hold a charge equivalent to its original capacity, or it is not functioning properly. You may also see a “Service Now” status at this point instead of “Service Recommended.” Take your Mac to an Apple-authorized service provider or Apple Store to get its battery serviced or replaced. You can fix a battery service warning using a few simple steps.
How to Make Battery Percentage Visible in the Menu Bar
To monitor your battery more effectively, you can add a percentage indicator next to the battery icon in the menu bar. To do so:
How to Conserve Battery Life on Your Mac
To activate various power-saving measures on your Mac, first visit “System Preferences -> Battery -> Battery.” Check or uncheck the box to the left of each setting as discussed here.
Slightly dim the display while on battery power: check this box to conserve energy by immediately dimming screen brightness to 75% when you unplug your computer from power.Enable Power Nap while on battery power: leave this setting unchecked to prevent your Mac from using battery power to fetch iCloud, Mail, and other data during its sleep state.Automatic graphics switching: check this box to allow some MacBook Pro models to save battery life by dynamically switching between multiple graphics processors.Low power mode: check this box to slightly throttle performance on your Mac and increase overall battery life.
Image credit: Luke Southern via Unsplash All screenshots taken by Brahm Shank
