MacBook – rMBP high battery drain, doesn’t seem to sleep after HS upgrade

batteryhigh sierramacbook proNetworksleep-wake

I have a 2015 A1502 13" Retina MBP, originally running Sierra. Since upgrading it to High Sierra, it doesn't seem to sleep properly. Before, I could leave it in sleep mode on its battery for over a week and still come back to a decent amount of charge. Now it seems to only turn the display off – after leaving it unplugged for 24 hours (wifi off), I opened it today to find the battery at 25%. Power Nap is disabled. I do have Caffeine installed but that's also switched off.

I tried pinging it after closing the lid and continue to get a response from the Thunderbolt ethernet adapter long after it should be inactive, even with Wake For Network Access switched off. Ping follows a pattern, about 25 successful with sub-millisecond responses, then drops several, then the next successful packet takes >2ms, then back to normal <1ms for 2-3 packets, then back up to 2ms. Both computers are cabled at this point. On the other hand, it doesn't respond to SSH while in Sleep mode (as expected).

I don't think it's anything to do with the ethernet adapter as I also see the battery drain when the computer is completely unplugged. Obviously with no indicator lights or moving parts on the computer I cannot tell whether it's active or not, just relying on the screen to tell me.

I have a 2014 15" Retina at home and the battery on this is astonishing, managing 2 weeks in sleep mode and still usable when I come back to it. It's running Sierra. I'm very hesitant to upgrade it to HS in case I lose this ability. Is this a known issue with HS?

Best Answer

With power issues, you should first try an SMC reset.

  1. Shutdown your MacBook Pro,
  2. Connect the power adapter to the Mac,
  3. On the MacBook Pro’s keyboard, hold down the Shift+Control+Option keys and the Power button at the same time,
  4. Release all keys and the power button at the same time – the little light on the MagSafe adapter may change colors briefly to indicate the SMC has reset
  5. Boot your Mac as usual.