If you want to get more hours out of your Mac system, here’s what you need to do. Keep scrolling to find out how you can improve your system’s battery life by making a few adjustments to some settings.
But first, you need to check the battery health of your Mac system. If your system has been rapidly draining energy because the battery needs to be replaced, there’s nothing much you can do. So instead, you need to take your system to the service center and get the battery replaced. First, click on the battery icon in the menu bar to check the battery health report. Then, click on Battery Preferences > select the Battery tab and click Battery Health. The current condition of your Mac’s battery will be shown to you, and if you have questions regarding what the status means, you can click Learn More.
If your battery doesn’t need to be replaced, you can try out the following tips to extend battery life.
- Stop using Chrome and switch to Safari
If you have been using Google Chrome as your main browser, it is time to switch to Apple’s Safari. While Chrome is a great web browser, it has a reputation for being a resource hog. It takes up precious memory and also eats into the battery life.
When Apple calculates the estimated battery life of MacBooks, they consider Safari as the default web browser. So, try switching and notice the difference.
- Use the shutdown timer
Macs can preserve energy by dimming the screen and showing the screen saver if they notice a few minutes of inactivity. Eventually, the system will turn off and go to sleep. So, your Mac will doze off when there are no tasks to perform. However, there might be times when you are playing music or a video, but you are not in front of the screen for a long time. In such cases, your Mac will continue to be awake. You need to consider setting a power schedule for such situations, and you can instruct your system to shut down automatically.
If you wonder how to use shutdown timer on your Mac, the steps are pretty straightforward. First, you can use the in-built shutdown timer found within Energy Saver.
- Dim the screen
One of the biggest drains on battery resources is powering the display. You can extend battery life by lowering the brightness of your system’s display. Bring it down to a level that’s comfortable for your eyes. You can even tweak the settings to automatically dim the display when your system is running low on battery. Navigate to the System Preferences app and click on Battery to make these changes.
- Turn off the keyboard backlight
A backlit keyboard is a fantastic option if you are typing in the dark, but it can quickly drain your battery. It would be wise to turn off the keyboard backlight after a few minutes of inactivity so that when you have stepped away from your system, the backlights don’t continue to drain your system’s energy. Head to System Preferences > click Keyboard and check the box for Turn Keyboard Backlight Off After {X seconds or minutes) of Inactivity.
- Close apps you’re not using
One of the best ways to preserve battery and use your system for a long time is to close all the apps and programs you are not using anymore. You can do so by pressing Command + Q, or you can go to the menu bar, select the program’s name, and click Quit.
You can go to the Activity Monitor to check how much energy each open app is using. Then, you can close the ones that are taking up the maximum resources.
- Switch off Bluetooth when you don’t need it
When you leave your desk, you will not be carrying around a Bluetooth speaker or mouse. When there’s nothing connected, it doesn’t make sense to have the Bluetooth turned on because it can drain your system’s energy. You can conserve battery by turning off Bluetooth. First, go to the Control Center by clicking on its icon in the menu bar and click Bluetooth. Then, slide the toggle switch to the Off position.
- Update the macOS software
You need to stay current with the software updates for the best possible battery life. Go to System Preferences to check if there is any update available. Click on Software Update and install the updates if you see any new updates pending and ready to be installed. You can also check the Automatically Keep My Mac Up to Date box by going to the Advanced setting so that you don’t have to check for updates manually.
These can help extend the battery life of your Mac and help you get the maximum juice out of your system. So, make these changes and experience the difference.
