MacMost Now 206: Monitor Your MacBook Battery

You can use the Mac's System Profiler to closely monitor your MacBook battery. You can view the charge capacity, current charge, age and current power use. You can use this to make adjustments to your behavior to get more life out of a charge.

Comments: 9 Responses to “MacMost Now 206: Monitor Your MacBook Battery”

    andrew
    14 years ago

    regarding battery life i know this question might have pop up somewhere before but once and for all should i leave the macbook pro plugged in all the time or should i unplugged it as soon as i get full charge and plugged it again when battery power gets low. thanks

      14 years ago

      Keep it plugged in.

        andrew
        14 years ago

        thanks for the advise... much obliged

        Dan
        13 years ago

        I disagree, sorry - asked someone on the Apple genius bar the same question and he said to charge and discharge it, or else the battery cells weaken, which decreases battery life. he said, though, that if you use it a lot, 3 times a week is enough to drain and refill the battery.

          13 years ago

          What you are talking about is calibrating your battery for longer life. While I agree that doing this every once in a while is a good thing, doing it 3 times per week for no reason is NOT. That would run it through needless "cycles" and it won't last as long. Apple recommends doing it once every one or two months (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/9036.html). Of course for most MacBook users they do it once a month through natural use, so it isn't necessary to do anything special.
          I maintain that "calibrating" the battery once a month vs. natural use, where it might get drained once a month or more anyway, is about the same, give or take a few percent. But people stress about getting every bit of life out of a battery way too much.

    Julia
    13 years ago

    All macs ? or just mac pro? I have a macbook and i was wondering the same thing

      13 years ago

      My advise would be the same for MacBook and MacBook Pro.

    Bobby
    13 years ago

    Can u make a video on "How to improve your battery life?"...typo....tips and tricks or only tips on how to improve your battery???Thank you and looking forward for that.

      13 years ago

      Besides the info in this video, I'm not sure there is much to say. I'm not a big believer in many of the techniques people use to extend battery life. I see people wasting tons of time and effort trying to get 1 or 2 percent more. I think people should let the hardware and software in their MacBooks handle it, and they should use their Macs to optimize their time and energy, not the battery's time and energy.

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