MacBook Air 2020 battery drain in Sleep Mode

Question

MacBook Air 2020 battery drain in Sleep Mode

I have a MacBook Air from 2020 (13" Retina, 1.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7). It works fine when connected to power, but even with the lid closed, it loses battery charge in just a few hours. The "battery" setting claims "normal health" for the battery, and I disabled all the "while sleeping" activities without power and set everything to preserve the battery as much as possible. The diagnostic timeline (attached) looks rather crazy - for one, why can't it show the proper times for when things actually happened? (I had the MacBook connected to a charger until about 10 p.m., not 3 a.m.!), but the battery DID lose all charge until 8 in the morning. (It recharged back to 100% in less than 2 hours - not 1 hour - which may indicate that its capacity is severely lowered - then why does the diagnostic claim "normal health"?) Note that after removing the charger, the battery charge stays nearly constant for a while, and then it goes into a rapid, near constant-rate decline. What kind of activity could be happening after midnight, and how do I stop it? Any advice?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.2

Posted on Dec 25, 2024 07:11 AM

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Answer 1

pana23

Level 1

12 points

Jan 2, 2025 07:27 PM in response to Sebastian Kuhn

I've got the same issue immediately after clean installing 15.2. I had used the public beta for several months before and I wanted to install the final product. Then I found the laptop MBA Silicon that could not start while opening the lid. Screen black. Thought it was the logic board or something usual for MBs. Fortunately, it was empty and I left it almost fully charged. Of course it is shown the rapid decline in the Battery tab, within a few hours and no screen use of any app and further more the Monitor Activity shows a very high power usage from Messages. If this is repeated then I'll just go back to public beta and work with that or wait until the next patch from them. It should be round the corner.

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Answer 2

Dec 26, 2024 05:37 AM in response to Sebastian Kuhn

Update with additional information: First off, I am running the most up-to-date MacOS, Sequoia 15.2.

Over last night, I tried a desperate remedy: Setting the MacBook Air to Sleep Mode explicitly by selecting this from the Apple menu. Mind you, Apple Help states "To put your Mac to sleep, do any of the following: ... On a Mac laptop, close the display" which is what I have done in the past. Strangely, this made the difference - after closing the laptop lid, the MacBook Air indeed didn't lose hardly ANY battery charge (86% in the morning). However, no joy: When I woke it up from sleep this morning, in was in a totally discombobulated state - the CLOCK hadn't advanced since putting it to sleep (!) and didn't re-sync itself even after waking, the battery timeline didn't show anything since I set it to sleep, and it had forgotten all login credentials in Mail etc. The only fix was to restart the computer, after which it is working normally again, but with total amnesia about the period it was in sleep. Obviously, this totally defeats the purpose of "Sleep" - getting up and running in much shorter time than a restart. So I am left with the only option of just shutting down while disconnected from power when not in use for an extended period, and starting back up once I am ready to work again. Truly bizarre and not at all how all other Macs I am aware of are (or have been) working.

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Answer 3

pana23

Level 1

12 points

Jan 2, 2025 07:40 PM in response to pana23

The backlight of the keyboard was set automatically to never turn off after inactivity, once the macOS clean installation was concluded. That also might be a factor. Normally, when I shut the laptop lid, not necessary functions should be automatically turned off. Why would the keyboard backlight be turned on when the lid is closed? Or even when the laptop is inactive for more than x minutes.

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MacBook Air 2020 battery drain in Sleep Mode

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