Fix Your Stuff Community Store

2.3GHz, 2.6GHz, or 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz) with 6MB shared L3 cache.

536 Questions View all

Options

MacBook shuts down randomly with still battery charge left

Lately my macbook randomly shuts down when working on it. I can work on it for about 2 hours, shut it down, but when I want to start it again later the same day, it will start and immediately after login turn back off. When I try restarting at that point the dead battery sign comes on. I know the battery is not dead, because when I plug the laptop back in, the battery is still at 40% or higher.

I don't know what I have to do, I need my macbook on the go. I'm a repairing guy, but I need tips on where to start looking.

Than again I started looking online, and found out that there is a graphics card return program. Could my macbook be considered under this program with the problems i'm having?

Update (10/09/2016)

Block Image

This is how it looks right now after my first discharge and charge

Update (10/10/2016)

Block Image

@danj I've done another discharge, and this is the result after.

Maybe i should indeed take the battery off and try that to give the reset.

What tutorial should i follow to do this?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Yes No
Score 5
5 Comments

Yes your machine may have this issue but it usually exhibits video or power up issues:

https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro...

This can only be confirmed by taking it to an ASP or Apple store for the test.

by

I suspect you didn't get the system to reset the SMC. Try again.

The other option here is to open the system up so you can disconnect the battery. But you need to hold the button a good minute as well so the system circuits are discharged.

by

Ok, do I just follow the tutorial to disconnect the battery than? What button are you talking about?

by

Follow this guide:Battery and Trackpad. Disassembling MacBook Pro 15" Retina 2012-2015. Go up to Step4, that should do it.

by

I hаd a similar іѕѕuе when my Mac was consistently shutting down..

Fіnаllу I mаnаgеd to resolve thе problem.

Follow thіѕ guide hеrе: https://smarturl.it/MacShutsBattery

This should be helpful

by

Add a comment

15 Answers

Filter by:
Most Helpful Newest Oldest
Chosen Solution

Options

First you should get an app that can help you see the battery condition. Here's a free one: CoconutBattery.

As to why your system is shutting down while it has still lots of power is often a messed up SMC. What happens it the SMC holds a high and low watermark (the batteries charge) so it can go into power save mode so you don't loose what you are working on. I would reset it following this Apple T/N: Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac. Then after your system is fully charged let it fully discharge at least two times this will reset the low water mark to be at the correct level.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 10

13 Comments:

The problem is though that every time I want to discharge it completely, it goes into power save mode to early and I need the power adapter to start it up again. Would this still be the watermark?

by

As I said you need to do this at least twice and yes a discharged battery will act that way. You need to have Coconut running to see what it set to just after restarting with the MagSafe adapter reconnected. How about posting a screen shot of Coconut here so we can see whats up.

by

I have followed these steps twice now and I think I've finally done it correctly. I was having the same issues but I don't think I was following the instructions carefully. Once I reset the smc I then reset the NVRAM or PRAM according to the link above and LET IT DRAIN TWICE. My Mac just died again for the second time at around 16%. So I plugged in the charger when I realized that my computer was on sleep and the battery percentage was at 0!

by

So, i am facing a similar kind of problem. The MacBook just turns off at around 20% mark. when i try to switch it on, it shows low battery sign. However, when I plug in the power cord, it shows 20%+ battery. I have followed @Dan's method and that mark have dropped to 8%. Going to drain the battery second time now. Hopefully, it will correct the issue. Will post the result here. Thanks!

by

This worked for me, my battery used to die at 30 percent, now it shuts off at around 1 percent. Thank you @danj .

by

Show 8 more comments

Add a comment

Options

Hi Guys.

I had the same problem with my battery, showing 40% and shutting down. I did everything as suggested so, in the end I contacted Apple support as my MacBook Pro still had Apple cover. They did everything over the phone but could not solve the problem. So, they arrange an appointment at one of their stores. One of the Tech guys there did a system check and came back five minutes later and said it’s the battery even though all the checks showed the battery was ok. He showed me a graph on his test system, if your battery is ok it shows a white dot in a green box and it should move from top left to bottom right. But the white dot in my test , was showing it was moving vertically down in the green box. He said it shows the battery will fail, and that’s why you are getting the problems. If the dot is in the green box the system will always say the battery is ok but it’s not. They changed the battery and have had no problems since.

Michael

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 4

3 Comments:

Michael, I have this same issue with same feedback from Apple. Odd thing is Hibernate off and still randomly shuts down. Plug in tap the power button and remove the power cable (so back on battery) and it restarts out of Hibernate ok.

Appreciate you have resolved your particular situation with a replaced battery (might end up the samr), however, for others some extra info.

My battery shows Normal with 820 cycles!, late 2013 MBP retina 15". Odd thing is a friend has an early 2012 with ony 500 cycles and reports battery needs a service!

My battery test came up with an error code (cant find it right now) that Apple says battery needs a service - and yet macOS does not reflect that...

by

Hello! Did apple charge you anything? I have the same problem and I have to take it to an apple store because the support team via cell phone told me that was all left to do. My MacBook Pro 2019 is 1 month old so I’m still in the 1 year warranty, so my question is will they charge me something?

by

How long does it take to change it

by

Add a comment

Options

Dan, does it matter at what battery charge level you should do the SMC reset? That is, should it be done when the battery is low or when it's fully charged?

And the other question - should the magsafe be plugged into the computer while doing the SMC reset? The Apple support instructions do not specifically point out this detail.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0

2 Comments:

Sorry for not seeing this question sooner. Here's another guide: Calibrating Your MacBook, Air, or Pro Battery which outlines the steps a bit better.

by

Calibration worked well for my cause; absolutely recommend it, esp if battery shows as "normal", and if SMC/PRAM reset did not make a significant difference.

by

Add a comment

Options

How do you check the low-water mark? Is it one of the measurements in coconutbattery?

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0

1 Comment:

The value is held in the SMC and is dependent on the health of your battery. You have access to three areas the 'Design Capacity', 'Cycle Count' & 'Battery Status' within CoconutBattery which is what you have to work with

by

Add a comment

Options

Hi

I am seeing this strange behaviour where my MacBook 2015 shuts off with 75% battery remaining. I have tried resetting the SMC three times but to no avail. I must admit I haven’t been able to drain down the battery as it shuts off after 75% and I can’t check the status without connecting to ac source again. The coconut battery status shows a discrepancy of nearly 5% between the OS status and the reading on the coconut app. Also it shows a design capacity of 44% does it mean the battery is in poor health?

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0

1 Comment:

The design capacity is getting low - I would replace the battery soon.

by

Add a comment

Options

Hi,

Even I have the same issue with my Mac, experiencing sudden shut down. Then the apple service center asked for the battery replacement.

I bought a battery from Amazon and replaced it, but still with in 20 min it asked me to replace the battery again. Then I completely removed the OS and installed fresh, then the issue got rectified and never had an issue there after.

I didn’t put the old battery again because it is a very time taking and hectic process. If any one facing the similar issue please try to install the OS, if the issue is not resolved then only go for replacing the battery.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0

1 Comment:

Replacing your battery does not require you to re-install your OS!

It sounds like you have either a messed up OS as well as needing a new battery.

Old and misbehaving apps or Malware and Viruses would then be the likely things that need to be checked out.

by

Add a comment

Options

I have had my laptop Mac AIr 2013 repaired in Kathmandu, I reside in Nepal...

It used to shut me down when playing I-tunes, and then had to restart it and still had 65% of the battery going, so how cold it does that.

SO, in Kathmandu they said the battery was faulty, maybe it was not...I bought it only 2 years ago...now after the repair, last month, my 'new battery' made in Singapore, is continuing to shut me down.

Just now and with 75%. the technician said I can bring it to their store here, I wonder if he knows about what you are explaining here about it? Or have they simply not changed it with a new battery?

Anything in these banana republics can happen.

What should I do? I paid 40 dollars for the Battery!

What is this coconut battery?

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0

1 Comment:

Ita an app you can use to visually see your battery health CoconutBattery

by

Add a comment

Options

Same question. I have done everything mentioned above multiple times. It keeps shutting off at 60% charge. Coco shows battery in green with 90% design capacity. How can I drain it further if it keeps shutting off?

Update (07/26/2019)

Here is CoconutBattery Pic

Block Image

Power adapter connected at point of picture b/c I have to plug it back to to turn the computer back on. Showed same prior to laptop turning off. If I try to turn it back on without cord, it just shows the low battery symbol.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0

3 Comments:

Post a snapshot of CoconutBattery here for us to see.

by

The charging logic has issues. I suspect the MOSFET gate is not switching.

Basically, it's like your hallway or stairway light where you have two switches one at each end of the hallway or stairs. Thes are three position switches so you can turn off the light when you get to the other side. This same approach is being done here with the MOSFET's so when one side fails the battery is unable to feed the logic board.

You'll need to find someone locally who has the tools and skills to fix your logic board or you'll need to replace it.

by

Hi, I have a brand new mac book air m1 bought a week ago. But it keeps shutting down at 60-65%. I have used it for 5 hour 30 mins and for each hour it was loosing 5% so after 5.5 hrs it reached 63% and shut down. Please tell me is there any thing to do so that the battery behaves normal like going all the way to 20% at least instead of shutting down at 60-65%

by

Add a comment

Options

I took this up with Apple who ran a log gathering app and the result is that my SMC is faulty, and confirmed as a manufacturer fault! So advice is to go a Genius bar and get them to run overnight tests, or in first instance contact Apple and request an escalation to the tech support team.

If you have been having heating problems with the fans running more than you expect, then you may also have a known GPU heat sink problem - Graphics Processor Unit, where the heatsink material was useless and dried up so no heat transfer and this would over heat the motherboard, and in my experience this could have a detrimental effect on the SMC as well.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0
Add a comment

Options

Hi guys.

I’ve changed my MBP battery and i have the same issue.

When the charge reaches 30% then it directly goes to 7% and few minutes later the MBP shutdown. I know that the battery is faulty, but i want to ask you: is this a kind of battery that get old first than a normal one?

I mean, even if it drops from 30 to 7 %, now the battery lasts at least 5 hours. But after 5 cycles, the maximum capacity dropped significantly. So i’ve to consider if i can keep this faulty battery (since i use the MBP mainly at home under charge) or if i have to replace it cause it won’t last long anyway.

Thank you all.

Block Image

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0

2 Comments:

Now it drops to 2% just when I was still on 50%, but it could have happened at 45 or 42%. SO today it happened again after last night and my battery is now gone from 98 to 92 % and still I get the good health battery sign. But I am not always having my eyes on the battery but on my screen, I keep getting shocked. I was told that working with battery on charge you also diminish the life of your battery. I was also told from the onset that I should not run my battery down but start charging at 35%. It has happened that I worked on it until 20% or 12...I noticed it too late. My previous battery did the same...I am thinking the same of just working only on charge. Mine is not a Pro but Mac Air, so batteries are the same or not? This is my third battery that does this in and after a few months of use. The first was an original. Since I live in Sri Lanka I cannot find a lithium battery here, new, Apple rep says in Colombo.

by

I would have to buy it in Singapore. I was told in Nepal for the first replacement that it was a new battery and made in Nepal. But Apple in COlombo told me they had no registration of battery replacement from Kathmandu. SO, what does that mean? Then in Colombo 5 months ago they replaced it with a battery from a broken Mac Air. I had no options.

by

Add a comment

Options

Hi

I had the same issue and after exhaustive tests by me I managed to get Apple to agree that the MBP had a faulty SMC which is an inherant problem with a range of built MBPs.

Mine is a late 2013 Retina 15”. If yours is around the same period you can get Apple to check. In the UK we have a 6 year warranty cover so if yours is late 2014 and still same issue then you are covered.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0
Add a comment

Options

I had the same problem with a macbook air, and managed to solve it with these hints.

I reset the SMC, and made a OS installation USB stick. When booting using the stick, my mac didn’t shut down immediately, and I was able to run the battery down. I had to reboot a few times when the battery was low. After charging back to 100% my mac is now all well.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0
Add a comment

Options

I have a new battery, my MBP mid 2012 poweroff on 65%, and when connect the power battery is 1%, I repeat the process 4 times, but not result, poweroff on 60-65%.. Please helppp. Thanks. Ricardo

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0
Add a comment

Options

03/18/2021:

I solved my issue by doing the following:

  1. UNPLUG THE MACBOOK AND LEAVE IT UNPLUGGED UNTIL STEP 9
  2. Use it until until it dies
  3. Hold shift+control+option+power for 10 seconds (resets the SMC)
  4. Turn on the MacBook
  5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 until it stays dead (I had to do this 5 times before it was officially dead)
  6. Hold shift+control+option+power for 10 seconds (resets the SMC)
  7. LEAVE THE MACBOOK ALONE FOR A MINIMUM OF 5 HOURS!!!
  8. Attempt to turn on the MacBook, IF IT DOES NOT TURN ON PROCEED TO STEP 9
  9. Plug in the MacBook and let it fully charge to 100% , disable anything that prevents this from happening
  10. Use an app like Coconut Battery to see if things match. If not, try this one more time.

I knew steps 2 through 5 worked because my MacBook would shut off at 62% BUT after the third reset it finally jumped to 6% and I was able to run it unplugged for a ridiculously time. This worked for my 2017 MacBook Pro 13” (two thunderbolt ports) that only had 152 charges on the battery. I used to leave it plugged in pretty much all of its life.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0

1 Comment:

Well, that seems like no fun at all! ;-)

But why would I be getting this shutdown on low battery behavior on a brand new (one week old) MBA M1?!

by

Add a comment

Options

I have a similar problem:

I own a mid 2014 15” MBP with the original battery (it now has about 1100 cycles, with 70% health, as displayed by Coconut Battery)

However the battery didn’t present any problem besides reduced battery life (I can get at most 3 hrs), which is not a big deal for me.

Since a couple of weeks ago, though, my mac started to have a strange behaviour when I turn it on and the battery is lower than 50%: it boots up, I enter the password and it loads correctly, but after 20 seconds it shuts off, displaying the “dead battery” sign. The best part is that as soon as I plug it in, the mac suddenly turns on and gets back to the point I had left it before shutdown (no request of password, no loading screens…) and I can unplug it and it will work normally, with no problem whatsoever.

I can’t really understand whether this is a hardware or a software problem!

This is what I tried so far:

SMC reset

PRAM reset

Safe mode mode (the problem persists)

Repaired the disk in Disk Utility (Recovery mode)

Any suggestions to try and address the problem?

Is battery calibration even a thing on MacBooks?

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0

4 Comments:

Hi Davide, did you manage to solve the issue? Have exactly the same one

by

Not 100% sure but I think this is still a battery issue on these specific models, A1398, they need a lot of energy and these batteries cant cope when they get old on these models, if you try to use any macbook models without battery, you will notice the macbook being really slow if you are even able to boot it fully into MacOS, the A1398 2015 models will not fully boot into MacOS without battery at all, it will start booting then restart into a bootloop, not a good design. Its even worse for any macbook if you use a non apple battery, I refurb machines and I have tried all kinds of replacement brands out there, all with varying issues but non work flawlessly like an apple brand, there was 1 brand that came close and has a cycle max capacity of 500," FLOUREON" this brand was the only brand that was nearly as good as original apple and worked well for a few years holding its capacity really well, better then any other replacement brands by far, but it looks like they have stopped making batteries for macbooks.

by

Hi Guys, the battery Apple replaced for me under the extended warranty at the time I would have had to pay over £400 sterling and it has started switching my Mac off like before. So went on Duracell web put serial numbet in and got myself a new battery from Duracell it's an Exstreme Series X Lion-ion Polymer Battery. May take about 2hrs to replace.

by

I have this exact issue too o my 2019 MacBook Pro 13 inch. This only happens when I shut my laptop down and start it again without plugging it in. I can shut it down at say 70% battery, but when I start it again, it will show 1% and then go to sleep. When I plug it in it wakes up and will be at 70% or so. I recently replaced the battery thinking that will resolve the issue but it has not. I will follow the calibration steps and SMC reset to see if that works.

by

Add a comment

Add your answer

Xander Gerreman will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 132

Past 7 Days: 661

Past 30 Days: 3,195

All Time: 320,159