MacBook battery health: where to check it and what it means

To check your MacBook's battery health, open System Settings and click Battery. Next to Battery Health you will see one of two words: Normal or Service Recommended. Click the info button beside it for more detail, including the battery's maximum capacity on Macs that show it and the Optimized Battery Charging switch. For the cycle count, open System Information and look under Power.

Normal means the battery is working as expected. Service Recommended means it holds noticeably less charge than it did when new, or isn't working quite normally. The Mac is still fine to use, you just get fewer hours between charges. The rest of this post covers where each number lives, what wears a battery out, and when a replacement is worth it.

Where to see your battery's health

In System Settings

1. Choose Apple menu > System Settings.
2. Click Battery in the sidebar.
3. Find Battery Health. It reads Normal or Service Recommended.
4. Click the small info button next to it.

The panel that opens shows the battery's condition and, on Macs that report it, its Maximum Capacity. macOS describes that figure as a measure of the battery's capacity relative to when it was new: the lower it is, the fewer hours you get between charges. The same panel holds the switch for Optimized Battery Charging. These steps match recent versions of macOS; older versions kept battery settings in a different place.

The cycle count, in System Information

1. Hold the Option key and click the Apple menu, then choose System Information.
2. In the sidebar, under Hardware, click Power.
3. Under Health Information, read Cycle Count and Condition.

In Terminal

If you prefer Terminal, this prints the same two lines:

system_profiler SPPowerDataType | grep -E "Cycle Count|Condition"

What Normal and Service Recommended mean

Normal means the battery is behaving as a battery of its age should. Every battery loses some capacity as it gets older, so a Normal battery can still last noticeably less than it did on day one.

Service Recommended means macOS has decided the battery's capacity is significantly reduced, or that it isn't functioning normally. It is a recommendation, not an emergency. You can keep using the Mac as usual, on battery or plugged in. What you lose is runtime.

A few things are worth knowing about the label:

• It is about condition, not a cycle number. A battery that has spent a lot of time hot can reach Service Recommended well before its rated cycle count, while another passes that count and still reads Normal.
• It may show in the battery menu too. Click the battery icon in the menu bar and you may see it there.
• Older versions of macOS used more labels, such as Replace Soon and Replace Now. Today there are just the two.

What a cycle count tells you

A charge cycle is a full battery's worth of use, but not necessarily all in one go. Use half the battery today, recharge, use half again tomorrow, and that adds up to one cycle. Topping up from three quarters to full doesn't cost you a whole cycle.

Apple rates each MacBook battery for a maximum number of cycles, and for recent models that figure is 1,000. Reaching it doesn't mean the battery stops working. It means the battery has done the work it was designed for and will hold less charge from then on.

Treat the cycle count as background. The condition and how long the Mac actually lasts on battery tell you more.

What wears a battery out

The Battery Health panel itself makes the point: Mac batteries, like all rechargeable batteries, are consumable parts that become less effective as they age. Some wear is unavoidable. Some you can slow down.

• Age and use. Lithium-ion batteries lose capacity over time and with each cycle. Nothing stops this completely.
• Heat. This is the one you can do the most about. Apple advises avoiding ambient temperatures above 95° F (35° C), which can permanently reduce battery capacity. Don't leave a MacBook in a hot car or in direct sun on a windowsill, and don't charge it under a duvet or on a cushion where it can't shed heat.
• Sitting full for long stretches. A battery held at a full charge for long periods, especially while warm, ages faster. That is the problem Optimized Battery Charging is designed to solve.
• Storing it empty. If you are putting a MacBook away for months, leave it about half charged and shut it down, rather than storing it flat or full.

What matters less than people think: leaving it plugged in at your desk, which macOS manages for you, and running it down to empty to "calibrate" it, which modern Macs don't need. MacBook charging myths goes through the rest of the folklore.

Optimized Battery Charging

With Optimized Battery Charging on, your Mac learns from your daily charging routine. When it expects you to stay plugged in for a while, it waits to finish charging past 80 percent until you are likely to need the battery. Less time at a full charge means slower aging.

• Where it lives: System Settings > Battery, then the info button next to Battery Health. It is normally on.
• What you'll see: the battery menu may say Charging On Hold. If you are about to leave and want a full battery, choose Charge to Full Now from the same menu.
• Turning it off: if you switch it off, macOS offers Turn Off Until Tomorrow as an alternative, which is handy before a long day away from a charger.

On some Intel-based MacBooks you may also see battery health management, which reduces maximum capacity as the battery ages to extend its life.

Two other habits help: keep macOS up to date, since Apple refines battery management in updates, and plug in when the battery gets low rather than letting the Mac shut itself down (more on when to plug in).

A nudge when the battery runs low

That last habit is the one Notchpals helps with. It doesn't read your battery's health or cycle count, and it doesn't change how your Mac charges. On the battery side, its Tech care characters watch only the charge level. Juice, a battery who faints dramatically at twenty percent, peeks out of the notch when your MacBook drops below 20 and isn't charging.

JuiceDon't cry for me. Well, cry a little. Then plug me in, please.

If the charge keeps falling, it comes back below 8, and when you plug in after a warning, it celebrates. There is never a battery line while the Mac is charging or full. On a battery that reads Service Recommended, you will simply meet Juice earlier in the day than you used to, which is a fair everyday measure of how much capacity is left.

When it is time for a new battery

Replace the battery when one of these is true:

• It reads Service Recommended and the Mac no longer lasts long enough on battery for your day.
• The Mac shuts down suddenly while the battery still shows charge.
• The case no longer sits flat, the trackpad feels raised or hard to click, or a gap appears along the bottom. These can be signs of a swollen battery. Stop using the Mac, shut it down, and take it to Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider soon. Don't press on it or try to open it.

Battery service is done by Apple or an authorized provider, and it is worth making a Time Machine backup before you hand the Mac over. Until then, a battery with Service Recommended is simply a battery that needs the charger a little more often.