MBAir M1: Mixed Battery Warnings + Diagnostics Error PPT012

Hi everyone, I have a strange issue/non issue, not sure which yet, with my M1 MacBook Air's battery. I'll preface by saying the battery performance has been great, and I haven't noticed any lowering of battery charge or anything like that.


However, sometimes, on my Lock Screen, this warning icon will appear on the battery in my menu bar, as if the battery needs to be serviced:



This only happens at the Lock Screen; anywhere else in the system, the battery icon will be normal. Then, if I go into System Settings, it'll report the battery health as normal, despite having 80% of its capacity:



What's even more bizarre is that if I run Apple Diagnostics, it will show error message PPT012, claiming there may be a problem with the power port (ignore the dusty screen):



Yet...PPT012 doesn't even exist on Apple's diagnostic code reference. So I have no idea what to do here.

I did notice that the battery has exceeded 1000 cycles, and other people online have said that's about the maximum number of cycles before the battery starts wearing out. And that's fair; I've had this computer since December of 2020 and never had to replace any parts. It has run smoothly for its entire life, more than I can say for any other computer I've owned.



So what should I do? Do I ignore this warning for now, is this indicative of another underlying issue, or is it time to replace the battery?


MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

Posted on Jan 30, 2025 07:54 PM

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2 replies

Jan 31, 2025 07:16 AM in response to TeamShazrock

At 80% capacity and over 1000 cycles, the battery is at the ragged edge of when Apple says it should be replaced, if not over it, which is probably why you're getting that battery error indicator. As to the PPT012 error code, that may indeed indicate a problem with the charging circuitry, though I can't say with certainty. I would suggest taking the Mac to an Apple Store or authorized service center for evaluation and recommendation.


Regards.

Jan 31, 2025 09:55 PM in response to TeamShazrock

Ignore the battery information shown on the lock screen as it may be incorrect. While this may have improved with macOS 14.x Sonoma, I'm not sure it is perfect yet.


My guess is that the 1,000 charge cycles is triggering the diagnostic failure....or perhaps it has actually detected a hardware fault with the battery. Sometimes these battery issues can be intermittent as can the "Service Recommended" battery condition....at least until the issue becomes worse/more pronounced.


Traditionally once the Battery's Maximum Capacity dropped below 80%, it would trigger a "Service Recommended" condition and the diagnostics would alert as well. However, with more recent versions of macOS I'm not seeing this occur until the Maximum Capacity drops much lower and remains at the lower capacity for a while. The Maximum Capacity can fluctuate up & down by 5% or even more when the battery is failing. It also doesn't help the situation when the Maximum Capacity reported by macOS is actually several percentage points higher than the actual Maximum Capacity.


I think Apple has messed up the battery health reporting aspect of macOS a couple years ago. Unfortunately this is becoming more & more common with Apple.


Since your battery is over 1,000 charging cycles it is worn out and with the Maximum Capacity at 80% it is close to needing replaced just for that alone. Combined, I would say it is time to have the battery replaced.

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MBAir M1: Mixed Battery Warnings + Diagnostics Error PPT012

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