MacOS – MacBook Pro not loading although power adapter is connected

batterychargingmacbook promacospower

I own a new MacBook Pro (bought three weeks ago).

Since I don't want to exhaust the 1000 expected full charge cycles this battery is rated at, I connect the MacBook with the power adapter when I'm working at home so I don't draw down the charge when AC power is available.

  • I connected my MacBook when it had almost 100 percent and since then it says that the power adapter is connected but the battery is not charging.
  • Now I have 80 percent left and the battery is still not charging.
  • I disconnected and connected the power, now it's charging.

I'm still worried if everything is okay. Are there are situations where the MacBook does not charge for good reasons or to explain why I didn't get the charge before 80% capacity?

Best Answer

Yes - the system management controller polls the battery infrequently, so when the first plug it in, sometimes the cable has some lint or just that the battery doesn't need charge. I wouldn't worry at all and I wouldn't keep the battery always full. In my experience, that causes them to fail far more often than ones that get exhausted due to 1000 cycles (or less) and then the battery being flagged as faulty.

Apple certainly doesn't initiate a charge when the battery is nearly full, so we would need to see the detailed power status to know if you're expected to charge.

Here's what that command shows when you have a fully charged MacBook and disconnect the power and reconnect the power - no charge happens, just a back on AC power message:

me@mac ~> pmset -g pslog
Logging IORegisterForSystemPower sleep/wake messages
pmset is in logging mode now. Hit ctrl-c to exit.
2019-01-26 11:03:35 -0600 IOPSNotificationCreateRunLoopSource
Now drawing from 'AC Power'
 -InternalBattery-0 (id=4194403)    100%; charged; 0:00 remaining present: true
2019-01-26 11:09:19 -0600 com.apple.system.powersources.timeremaining
2019-01-26 11:09:19 -0600 com.apple.system.powersources.percent
2019-01-26 11:09:19 -0600 IOPSNotificationCreateRunLoopSource
Now drawing from 'Battery Power'
 -InternalBattery-0 (id=4194403)    100%; discharging; (no estimate) present: true
2019-01-26 11:09:19 -0600 com.apple.system.powersources.source
2019-01-26 11:09:19 -0600 com.apple.system.powersources
2019-01-26 11:09:19 -0600 com.apple.system.powersources
2019-01-26 11:09:43 -0600 com.apple.system.powersources
2019-01-26 11:09:43 -0600 com.apple.system.powersources.timeremaining
2019-01-26 11:09:43 -0600 com.apple.system.powersources.percent
2019-01-26 11:09:43 -0600 IOPSNotificationCreateRunLoopSource
Now drawing from 'AC Power'
 -InternalBattery-0 (id=4194403)    100%; charged; 0:00 remaining present: true
2019-01-26 11:09:43 -0600 com.apple.system.powersources.source
2019-01-26 11:09:43 -0600 com.apple.system.powersources
2019-01-26 11:09:43 -0600 com.apple.system.powersources

Feel free to ask a follow on question if you want to post your power stats or have a question about system information and reporting battery health and full charge cycles. Just @ me in the comments with a link to the new question and I'll see it.

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