This tool makes it possible to keep a chronically plugged in Apple Silicon Macbook at 80% battery, since that will prolong the longevity of the battery. It is free and open-source and will remain that way.
Want to know if this tool does anything or is just a placebo? Read this excellent article. TL;DR: keep your battery cool, keep it at 80% when plugged in, and discharge it as shallowly as feasible.
This is an app for Apple Silicon Macs. It will not work on Intel macs. Do you have an older Mac? Consider the free version of the Al Dente software package. It is a good alternative and has a premium version with many more features.
- Option 1: install the app through brew with
brew install battery - Option 2: download the app dmg version here
- Option 3: install ONLY the command line interface (see section below)
When installing via brew or dmg, opening the macOS app is required to complete the installation.
The first time you open the app, it will ask for your administator password so it can install the needed components. Please note that the app:
- Discharges your battery until it reaches 80%, even when plugged in
- Disables charging when your battery is above 80% charged
- Enables charging when your battery is under 80% charged
- Keeps the limit engaged even after rebooting
- Keeps the limit engaged even after closing the tray app
- Also automatically installs the
batterycommand line tool. If you want a custom charging percentage, the CLI is the only way to do that.
Do you have questions, comments, or feature requests? Open an issue here or Tweet at me.
If you don't know what a "command line" is, ignore this section. You don't need it.
The GUI app uses a command line tool under the hood. Installing the GUI automatically installs the CLI as well. You can also separately install the CLI.
The CLI is used for managing the battery charging status for Apple Silicon Macbooks. Can be used to enable/disable the Macbook from charging the battery when plugged into power.
One-line installation:
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/actuallymentor/battery/main/setup.sh | bashThis will:
- Download the precompiled
smctool in this repo (built from the hholtmann/smcFanControl repository) - Install
smcto/usr/local/bin - Install
batteryto/usr/local/bin
Example usage:
# This will enable charging when your battery dips under 80, and disable it when it exceeds 80
battery maintain 80After running a command like battery charging off you can verify the change visually by looking at the battery icon:
After running battery charging on you will see it change to this:
For help, run battery without parameters:
Battery CLI utility v1.0.1
Usage:
battery status
output battery SMC status, % and time remaining
battery maintain LEVEL[1-100,stop]
reboot-persistent battery level maintenance: turn off charging above, and on below a certain value
eg: battery maintain 80
eg: battery maintain stop
battery charging SETTING[on/off]
manually set the battery to (not) charge
eg: battery charging on
battery adapter SETTING[on/off]
manually set the adapter to (not) charge even when plugged in
eg: battery adapter off
battery charge LEVEL[1-100]
charge the battery to a certain percentage, and disable charging when that percentage is reached
eg: battery charge 90
battery discharge LEVEL[1-100]
block power input from the adapter until battery falls to this level
eg: battery discharge 90
battery visudo
ensure you don't need to call battery with sudo
This is already used in the setup script, so you should't need it.
battery update
update the battery utility to the latest version
battery reinstall
reinstall the battery utility to the latest version (reruns the installation script)
battery uninstall
enable charging, remove the smc tool, and the battery script
I was looking at the Al Dente software package for battery limiting, but I found the license too limiting for a poweruser like myself.
I would actually have preferred using Al Dente, but decided to create a command-line utility to replace it as a side-project on holiday. A colleague mentioned they would like a GUI, so I spend a few evenings setting up an Electron app. And voila, here we are.
If you used one of the earlier versions of the battery utility, you may run into path/permission issues. This is not your fault but mine. To fix it:
sudo rm -rf ~/.battery
binfolder=/usr/local/bin
sudo rm -v "$binfolder/smc" "$binfolder/battery"
Then reopen the app and things should work. If not, open an issue and I'll try to help you fix it.
This tool calls a number of urls, blocking all of them will only break auto-updates.
unidentifiedanalytics.web.appis a self-made app that tracks app installations, I use it to see if enough people use the app to justify spending time on it. It tracks only how many unique ip addresses open the app.icanhazip.comis used to see if there is an internet connectiongithub.comis used both as a liveness check and as the source of updates for the underlying command-line utilityelectronjs.orghosts the update server for the GUI
All urls are called over https and so not leak data. Unidentified Analytics keeps track of unique ip addresses that open the app, but nothing else.
Optimized Charging, a feature that is built into MacOS, aims to ensure the longevity and health of your battery. It does so by "delaying charging the battery past 80% when it predicts that you’ll be plugged in for an extended period of time, and aims to charge the battery before you unplug," as explained in Apple's user guide.
Additionally, Optimized Charging uses machine learning to decide when the battery should be held at 80%, and when it should become fully charged. If your Mac is not plugged in on a regular schedule, optimized charging will not work as intended.
This app is a similar alternative to Optimized Charging, giving the user control over when it is activated, what percentage the battery should be held at, and more.
Do you know how to code? Open a pull-request for a feature with the label help wanted (PR welcome).
Do you have an awesome feature idea? Add a feature request
Do you just want to keep me motivated to update the app? Tweet at me