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Comment by crazygringo | Hacker News Reader

I'm baffled as to why new iPhones and iPads have a settings toggle to only ever charge to max 80%, but Apple hasn't brought the same setting to new Macs, so you still need a third party tool like this. Especially after unifying the Settings app!

Also this tool (or Al Dente) still isn't perfect -- if you shut your Mac off for any reason while keeping it plugged in, it will immediately charge back up to 100%. The third party charge limit only limits charging when the Mac is on or sleeping, not off entirely. (Granted, not many people turn their Macs entirely off these days.) So while I love the third party solutions, a native Apple solution would be even more reliable (plus the built-in Apple solution on iOS automatically charges to 100% occasionally just to keep the battery level accurate -- it's pretty smart).

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system settings -> battery -> battery health (i)

choose "Optimized Battery Charging". seems to be exactly what you're looking for

Not the same. If your charging pattern is unpredictable, that setting will be absolutely useless.

I have it turned off on my MacBook Pro, but on for my phone and iPad. my 4 year old macbook pro's battery is doing great, my iPad is still holding on (but it spends a lot of time unplugged or powered down), but my poor phone is hurting badly (4-6 hours of charge per day, claiming it's at 80% battery life).

my MacBook Pro still thinks its battery is awesome, even plugged in all the time.

No, that's a completely different feature.

Which is also on iOS.

That delays charging to 100%, but still always charges to 100% in the end. I'm talking about never charging beyond 80%.

> I'm baffled as to why new iPhones and iPads have a settings toggle to only ever charge to max 80%, but Apple hasn't brought the same setting to new Macs,

It’s called “optimized battery charging” and it’s been in macOS for a long time.

"Optimized battery charging" isn't on 100% of the time, unlike the Charge Limit feature on iPhone 15 and up [1].

[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/108055

>I'm baffled as to why new iPhones and iPads have a settings toggle to only ever charge to max 80%, but Apple hasn't brought the same setting to new Macs

Because that would affect their battery life ratings, making them close to most other laptops.

I don't follow. It wouldn't change ratings at all. It's an optional toggle that defaults to off. For this reason it doesn't affect battery life ratings on phones or tablets either.

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