Updated MacBook Air to macOS Sonoma, now battery drains quickly

Question

Level 1

4 points

Updated MacBook Air to macOS Sonoma, now battery drains quickly

After Sonoma update my 2018 i5 MBA drains to 1% even when all apps are closed overnight and MBA on sleep. This never happened before the update to Sonoma - nothing else has changed at all.

Activity monitor shows key power users on my MBA overnight are Spotlight and Finder? I left MBA on charger for days after install so all indexing updates should be finished? and no other apps open (Avira and Dropbox, G.Drive are in background but not draining battery)?

I have reinstalled Sonoma (Started Mac in macOS Recovery (hold Command-R during startup) and Choose “Reinstall macOS” - this didnt work
Turned off App Nap
Turned off Screen Time
Changed desktop background to a flat black colour
And many many other tweaks

Nothing has worked.

Only option left is to Downgrade OS - why should I have to do this?

Why hasn't Apple fixed this. There are 1000s of people complaining of the same issue?

Posted on Jan 11, 2025 2:53 AM

Reply

Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

62,168 points

Jan 11, 2025 5:24 PM in response to Frisson411

Uninstall Avira by following the developer's instructions. If you have any other anti-virus software, cleaning/optimizer apps, or third party security software installed, then uninstall them as well by following their developers' instructions. These types os apps are not needed on a Mac and will usually cause more problems than they solve because they interfere with the normal operation of macOS. macOS already has great built in security especially when the user also does their part by practicing safe computing habits as outlined in this excellent article which I think everyone should read & practice:

Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community

Other options are to Shutdown the laptop or leave the power adapter connected.

Reply

Answer 2

Frisson411 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 18, 2025 2:49 PM in response to Frisson411

MBA also spontaneously reboots - just did it 2mins ago. This is even with lid closed and nothing running and in sleep mode? This is very weird. Sonoma seems to be the worst update I have ever had on my laptop - seriously thinking of downgrading as Sonoma is nothing but trouble...

Reply

Answer 3

HWTech

Level 9

62,168 points

Jan 18, 2025 7:56 PM in response to Frisson411

Have you uninstalled Avira yet? If not, then it does not surprise me that your laptop is crashing. If you do nothing, then nothing will change.

Plus if you still have problems after uninstalling Avira by following the Avira developer's instructions, then post a complete EtreCheck report here so we can examine it for clues in order to try to help you get your system stabilized.

Reply