Apple’s MacBook is loved for its good battery life, a feature that gets improved with every new model. The latest versions of MacBook can run up to 10-12 hours which is awesome! That said, your battery life will naturally fade slowly over time. But as a Mac user, you can do your best to prolong your battery life with best hygiene practices like using your device on a proper surface. There are other ways to prolong your MacBook’s battery life. Let us look into some of them:
1. Enable Auto-brightness
If your Mac’s display is on high brightness, it will tend to drain your battery faster. The good thing is that the macOS has features that allow you to adjust brightness automatically to take care of your eye and battery health. Enable auto-brightness by Opening the System Preference, Display, and then from the Brighten Menu, select Automatically Adjust Brightness. This setting will prompt your Mac OS to adjust your MacBook’s brightness depending on your surrounding environment. Your screen will be deemed in a low light environment and brighten when you are in an ambient light area.
2. Turn off the keyboard backlight
The Keyboard backlight illuminates those symbols and letters on MacBook’s keys to make them visible in dark environments. It is a waste of energy if your backlights are on during the day or when not using your Mac. The MacOS has an option through which your keyboard backlight turns off after a specified time of inactivity. Enable this setting by opening the System Preference and Keyboard. Enable the turn keyboard backlight and choose after how long this should happen. Moreover, you can disable the backlight entirely by pressing and holding the F5 key until your screen’s brightness indicator reduces to zero. You can also open the System Preferences, Keyboard and then uncheck ‘Adjust Keyboard brightens in the low light’
3. Use the Energy Saver Option
You must have noticed that if you do not use your Mac for a few minutes the device will turn to Sleep Mode. It is a great way to cut on energy consumption when you aren’t using your device without killing your active apps. However, as much as sleep mode saves on battery, it can interfere with activities, mostly if it sleeps in the middle of a task or just randomly. Thus, we would advise that you schedule or turn off sleep mode mac to save battery life without hurting your experience. It is a great way to boost productivity rather than having your Mac sleep randomly when you are using it.
Turn off sleep mode by Opening the System Preferences and then Launch Energy saver, Click on Schedule, Check the ‘Startup or Wake’ box, and then from the drop-down, select Sleep, Restart, or Shutdown. Select the frequency and time as required, then click OK to activate. Moreover, you can Schedule turn off through Mac tools like Terminal and Lingo.
4. Manage your Bluetooth
Bluetooth is an excellent feature in the MacBook that enables you to connect to other devices like phones, headphones, or speakers. However, many do forget to turn it off when not in use, which impacts the life of your battery. So, start switching your Bluetooth off when you are not using it.
5. Close the unnecessary applications
There is another critical aspect that most Mac users do not know; when you click the ‘X’ mark on the menu bar, MacOS does not quit the app, but rather it still keeps running in the background. That said, close any app by double-clicking on the app icon at the dock, then select the Quit option. Do not leave an application running when you are not using it; it drains your battery energy.
6. Manage your startup items
Every time you boot your Mac, some applications open and run in the background. If you are not using these applications, they consume your battery energy unnecessarily. You can remove these applications from the start-up items by Opening the System Preferences, Users and Groups, Username, and then Login Items. Select the unnecessary start-up applications and tap on the Minus button to remove them from the start-up item list.
7. Keep an eye on power-hungry applications
Use the Activity monitor to take a look at your applications’ CPU and energy usage. If you notice that a particular application has a very high spike in energy, it will help if you closed that application. Close it by highlighting it with your mouse and then click on the ‘X’ sign in the upper left-hand corner of your Activity Monitor. You can replace the power-hungry applications with other third-party options that are far more lightweight.
8. Disable your CPU turbo boost
Turbo Boost technology in MacBook is intended to boost the CPU for better performance of your device. The downside is that even though the performance of your device is improved, your battery life is compromised. Unfortunately, you cannot disable the Turbo Boost feature directly; you need a third-party application like Turbo Boost. The application increases battery life to 30-50% longer by reducing the CPU usage by 60%. Consequently, it trades off a bit of performance of your Mac to boost its battery life. Through the app, you can see fan speed, battery temperature, and CPU load in real-time.
9. Update your MacOS to the latest version
Apple will often release newer versions of macOS to improve the user experience and fix performance issues. We would advise that you install the latest Mac OS version as they come with better battery-related features built to increase your MacBook’s battery life. Open the System Preferences, Software Update, then download and install the latest version of OS.
10. Disconnect dongles that are not in use
If you are not using USB connected devices like a flash disk, disconnect it to prevent power drain. The same applies to USB power cords not connected to your tablet or phone; they still drain the battery.
With frequent use, your battery life tends to wane out naturally. It is up to you to ensure that you try as much as you can to extend its life. The secret is to manage your power consumption and use your device in an environment friendly to your battery.
[Image via: Google Images]
