macOS Catalina 10.15.5 Beta Brings New Battery Health Management Feature
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Posted April 16, 2020 at 6:10pm by iClarified
Apple has introduced a new Battery Health Management feature in macOS Catalina 10.15.5 beta, reports Jason Snell.
This is a new approach to how MacBook batteries are charged and discharged. Apple says it should reduce the rate at which MacBook batteries chemically age, extending their long-term lifespan. Unfortunately, it's only available on Mac notebooks with Thunderbolt 3 ports.
The feature works by analyzing the temperature of the battery over time, as well as the charging pattern the laptop has experienced—in other words, does the laptop frequently get drained most of the way and then recharged fully, or is it mostly kept full and plugged in? In the latter case, Battery Health Management is more likely to stop a bit short of full capacity in order to extend the battery’s long-term lifespan. (All charging data is kept private on the MacBook unless the Mac has been opted in to share anonymous analytics data with Apple.)
Charging a battery to 100% and leaving it there for an extended period of time can reduce the battery's usable life. Apple has basically decided to be less aggressive at fully charging batteries in certain circumstances.
If you want to disable the feature you can uncheck the Battery Health Management box in the Energy Saver section of the System Preferences app.