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Over the past year, Apple has introduced battery health management to its devices like iPhone, AirPods, Apple Watch, and Mac – it got it done last April. Follow the instructions on how to enable / disable Optimized Battery Charging and Battery Health Management on Intel Macs and M1s.
Apple’s new battery health management feature debuted for Mac with Catalina 10.15.5. Here’s how Apple describes it:
Battery health management is designed to improve battery life by reducing the rate at which it ages chemically. The feature does this by monitoring the battery’s temperature history and charging patterns.
Based on the measurements it collects, managing battery health can temporarily reduce the maximum battery charge. This happens as needed to ensure the battery is charged to an optimized level for use, reducing battery wear and tear and slowing down its chemical aging.
Apple has two supporting documents, one for Intel Macs and one for Apple Silicon Macs. The description above is exactly the same for both, but the Apple Silicon guide does not include steps to disable the feature.
Interestingly, when it comes to Apple’s specifics, the optimized battery charging feature is the main aspect of battery health management. Interestingly, it’s only called “Optimized Battery Charging” on the iPhone. But when it got to Catalina, it was labeled “Battery Health Management” and could be turned on / off.
With macOS Big Sur, Intel Macs have retained the “Battery Health Management” option and also have an option to disable “Optimized Battery Charging.” And they seem to work separately for now (eg, Turning off battery health management doesn’t automatically turn off optimized battery charging).
However, on the M1 Mac, the option to disable battery health management is gone, but users can still disable optimized battery charging. In a nutshell, it seems there may be more to managing battery health on Mac than just optimized charging, but that’s the main aspect according to Apple (and the most minor aspects cannot or need not be disabled on M1 Mac) .
How to enable / disable optimized battery charging on Mac (and battery health management)
- Battery health management and optimized charging in macOS are on by default in macOS Big Sur
- You can shutdown on both Intel Macs and M1 Macs, you can shutdown optimized load
- Note that it is best to keep these features enabled, but if you want your Mac to load 100% fasters possible, follow below
Here’s how it all works on Intel Macs in Big Sur, M1 Macs in Big Sur, and Intel Macs in Catalina 10.15.5 and later:
Intel Macs with Big Sur: Enable / Disable Optimized Battery Charging
- Open system preferences
- Choose battery at the bottom
- You can disable optimized battery charging with the checkbox (option to completely shut down or “Shut down until tomorrow”)
- Click on “Battery Status …” near the bottom
- And you will also have the option to disable battery health management
- Click “Shutdown” to confirm the change
Here’s what this looks like:
Mac M1: enable / disable optimized battery charging
- Follow the same steps
- System Preferences> Battery> Optimized Battery Charging
- You can “Deactivate until tomorrow” or deactivate it permanently
- However, if you click on “Battery Status …”, you will see the battery status, but you will not have the option to disable “Battery Status Management”.
Mac with Catalina (at least 10.15.5)
- Head to System Preferences> Power Saving
- Now click on Battery Status …
- You can uncheck the battery status management
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