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Questions tagged [battery]

Concerning devices that store electrical power which can be used to run various devices in the absence of external power.

1724 questions
150
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12 answers

Should I disconnect my MacBook Pro's power cord when the battery is fully charged?

My friend told me that I need to disconnect the power cord when the battery is fully charged. Otherwise, I will shorten the life of the battery. Other people say you should drain it once a month or point out that for long term storage, you should…
Moon
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16 answers

Can I manually limit the %CPU used by a process?

I would like to limit the amount of CPU time dedicated to certain processes (e.g. Firefox, Safari, ...). I can't understand why such programs, even when not used (nothing loading, no animations, running in the background, ...), are so resource…
Pietro
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78
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12 answers

Can I use 45/60/85W MagSafe era MacBook chargers interchangeably?

I have a 13" Macbook Pro that came with a 60W power adapter and a 15" Macbook Pro that came with a 85W power adapter. There seems to be disagreement in the Apple forums. Can I use either adapter with any portable Mac?
AlanKley
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74
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10 answers

What are the best practices for battery longevity?

How do you maximize the cycle count of your battery? There seems to be a debate between: Leave plugged in 24/7 but do a full cycle once a month Charge to ~100%, drain to ~10%, repeat. NOTE: Taking your battery out is bad Which method is better and…
Evan
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71
votes
8 answers

Is charging my iPhone all night harmful?

I normally charge my iPhone all night to get 100% power. Does this harm my phone's battery? Update [Oct 1, 2017]: Thanks for all your great answers. I noticed there is a related video which addressed my question well.
wayne
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59
votes
8 answers

I am missing the option to see the remaining battery life as time in the menubar?

In previous versions of OS X the battery indicator in the menubar included options to show the remaining battery life as percentage or time (or nothing). In Mountain Lion, there's only an option to show the percentage?!?! How can I get the missing…
gentmatt
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57
votes
5 answers

Can I tell my Mac to charge to 80% only?

I leave my MacBook plugged in for days at a time, so the battery stays charged to 100%. Despite Apple claims to the contrary*, I believe that the battery's capacity would be better preserved if I could keep it at an 80% state-of-charge. Is there any…
Doug
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51
votes
5 answers

Why is it better for an iPhone’s battery to NOT close down apps?

I know apparently it’s not a good idea to close apps on your iPhone to save on battery. I’ve read questions and answers like Does force closing apps have any benefit on iOS devices? but it still doesn’t quite gel with me. Sometimes I have found over…
F.C
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49
votes
6 answers

Is the Macbook 12 inch's USB-C charger interchangeable with other USB-C chargers or devices?

If there is only the Macbook 12 inch USB-C charger nearby, can it be used to charge other USB-C devices, such as any Android phones that also use USB-C? (will it be "too powerful" and damage other devices?) Vice versa, if there is a Quick Charge 2.0…
nonopolarity
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45
votes
12 answers

How do I debug an out-of-control "kernel_task" process?

Just recently I noticed my battery life having a pretty significant drop and the "kernel_task" process using quite a bit of CPU (a constant 1-6% on my 2.8ghz dual-core i7, 2010 MBP). Obviously I think the kernel_task's CPU usage is contributing to…
Ricket
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41
votes
7 answers

iPhone 7 won't charge from my MacBook Pro

My iPhone 7 which I recently bought doesn't charge with my MacBook Pro Retina 2015. It always shows for one second that it recharges but then something like lost connection and then again. and goes on and on, both ports... Strange thing is that my…
Dominik Bucher
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41
votes
3 answers

Get low battery notifications for mouse earlier

Is it possible to tweak the % that I get warning of low battery for my Magic Mouse 2? I currently only get it at 2% at which point it's very close to dying so I have to stop what I'm doing and plug it in. A reminder about 10-15% would allow me to…
DEfusion
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36
votes
5 answers

Check the battery level of connected bluetooth headphones from the command line

I am trying to check the battery level of my wireless headphones from the command line. I came across a few discussions, and it seems all I need to do is enter the following: ioreg -c 'deviceName' |grep -i batterypercent I tried this command using…
0xPingo
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35
votes
4 answers

Difference between autopoweroff and standby in pmset

I just got a new Retina MacBook Pro 15". After getting some downloads interrupted due to the computer going to sleep (even on AC power), I started looking at the man page for the pmset command. I did solve my original problem with sleeping but a few…
swineone
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34
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3 answers

Can I safely charge my iPhone 4 overnight on a regular basis?

First time caller, long time listener: I've seen this question asked on a few other sites but with no "definitive" answers. The Apple website on iPhone batteries is ambiguous, at best, and the closest it comes to answering the question is saying…
Donnniegoat
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