MacBook Pro M4 is constantly depleting its battery after update to Golden Gate

Hardware
1

My MacBook Pro M4 does not like Golden Gate. Fortunately, it is not my main machine.

I installed Golden Gate a week ago. Since then, I have been noticing an expected battery drain (Siri AI (useless for me), new OS, indexing) that has increased in comparison to Tahoe. This is expected, I know. The thing is that this does not stop, even after more than a week. It has gotten so much worse that the MacBook’s battery is being depleted even while sleeping to zero within hours. It is so bad that it even struggles to get beyond the point of being able to boot when connected to a charger. Eventually, it works, but it is a struggle.

Battery health still is at 100%, but I do not expect it to stay this way if this behavior does not change soon.

I do not want to do the time-consuming debugging things (checking Activity Monitor, stuck processes, creating a new user); I tend to opt for the “Windows” way: a clean install and getting over the current lemon install.

Should I revert to Tahoe? Should I give Golden Gate another try? What is the recommended way to revert to Tahoe on an Apple Silicon Mac? I have read that Apple Silicon Macs tend to offer the latest OS in Recovery Assistant instead of the OS the Mac came with.

2

If you have a lot of data on your M4, what you are experiencing could be normal. Is there some reason you are not leaving your Mac connected to power?

“Depending on the amount of data on your device, Spotlight indexing can take hours or even days. Incremental updates after that are much faster. Indexing completes more quickly when:

  • Your device is not in use.
  • Your device is connected to power.
  • Your device is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi or Ethernet, in case email or other data needs to be downloaded for indexing.“
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3

It is my way of preserving battery health. And I am using the MB on the couch and on the go. Usually, I only do connect it to power, when the battery level is between 20 to 40 %. :slight_smile: There are weeks when the MB only needs to be connected to power once a week. My desktop Mac is my main Mac (Mac mini).

But you have a point for sure. I should let it do its thing for a few days, connected to power. Maybe, I am not patient enough. :slight_smile:

Thank you for answering!

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