MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4 Pro) Battery Drain with minimal usage

Question

Level 1

11 points

MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4 Pro) Battery Drain with minimal usage

Hello everyone,

I’ve noticed that my MacBook Pro 14-inch with M4 Pro is experiencing significant battery drain even under minimal load, and I wanted to share my observations and gather feedback from others who might be facing similar issues.

Current Settings and Usage

Device Specifics: MacBook Pro 14-inch with M4 Pro, 24GB, 512GB SSD, macOS 15.2.
Display Brightness: 10 clicks from base (Automatically Adjust Brightness and True Tone are OFF).
Keyboard Brightness: Two clicks from base (Adjust Keyboard Brightness in Low Light is ON).
Energy Mode: Automatic.
Background Activity:
- No desktop widgets.
- No external devices connected.
- Connected to WiFi on WPA-3.
- iCloud is ON (Photos and Home are OFF).
- Apple Intelligence, Siri, and Spotlight Indexing are OFF for most features.
Apps in Use:
- Safari (up to 10 tabs, no profiles yet).
- Mail App, Passwords App, Notes, Messages.
Activity Monitor: No anomalies detected.
Battery Cycles: 12.
Setup: Device was set up as new, and content was manually migrated to avoid bringing over potential issues.

Battery Performance

Despite the minimal usage and optimized settings, the battery lasts only 4 to 6 hours.

Additional Note

I had a similar issue with my first purchase of this MacBook model and returned it, thinking it might be a unit-specific problem. However, this replacement device has shown the exact same behavior.

Data Points for Comparison

Previous Device: My 2015 MacBook Pro lasted 3-4 hours with 550 cycles under similar usage, even with all development tools running.
M3 Pro in the Family: Handles a much heavier workload (40 Chrome tabs, Safari, Parallels, VS Code, MS Office) and lasts close to 15 hours.
M2 Pro for Work: Used purely for development (with VPN, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Zoom, and other official software) and lasts around 8 hours.

Current Actions

I am already working with Apple Support and assisting them in running tests to diagnose the issue.

Please click "me too" if you have similar issue and add the details on your problem.

Thank you for your time!

[Edited by Moderator]

Posted on Jan 18, 2025 4:57 PM

Reply

Answer 1

nkv76 Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 22, 2025 5:44 PM in response to leviyehonatan

I have shared data with Apple support and there has been very little progress. I suggest to take it to Apple Store and get a definitive answer from them and check on a resolution. I plan to do the same

Reply

Answer 2

nkv76 Author

Level 1

11 points

Feb 8, 2025 5:43 PM in response to leviyehonatan

I worked with Apple Support extensively on this case and provided all the data and per Apple they have mentioned that the battery is performing as intended. Based on the behavior and data, I plan to return this product.

Reply

Answer 3

Allan Jones

Level 9

74,006 points

Jan 18, 2025 5:23 PM in response to nkv76

Is any anti-virus software or so-called "cleaning" apps installed? They too oftern reduce battery runtime. So will "cloud" backup schemes that have to "phone home" a lot.

Regardless of the browser used, there are some web pages today, whether complex or just poorly coded, that will cause heavy workload even when running in the background. Use Activity Monitor to see if any web pages show in the list of processes using a lot of CPU, RAM, or energy.

View information about Mac processes in Activity Monitor - Apple Support

⚠️ Change Activity Monitor's "View" option to "All Processes" to get the full picture. Gluttonous web sites will appear in AM's lists as their URL.

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 22, 2025 1:14 AM in response to nkv76

i am having the same issue, i am thinking to return my pc, i have applecare? what could be the problem?

Reply

Answer 5

nkv76 Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 18, 2025 7:44 PM in response to Allan Jones

No anti-virus software or so-called "cleaning" apps. MacBook is setup with Apple Default Apps and no additional s/w is installed.

Parameters of the websites are the same across all Macs and none of them are social media websites that use web socket connections and are chatty.

Activity Monitor is already set to All Processes and all the processes are native Apple processes that include WindowServer (which is core Apple process for rendering) and kernel tasks and rest of all the processes have minimum consumption.

Reply

Answer 6

4Flipp

Level 1

12 points

Jan 30, 2025 8:57 PM in response to nkv76

I had the M4 Max back in November and December but decided to return it for one with more memory. The one I had initially had a long battery life of around 18-20 hours, but this new one only gives me about 4-6 hours, as you mentioned. I received this one about 3-4 weeks ago. I'm wondering if it's OS related, but I plan to stop by the Genius bar to ask them if I can't get the battery calibrations to work.

Reply

Quick Links

MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4 Pro) Battery Drain with minimal usage