MacOS battery health management on irregular schedule

Hardware
21

Does Aldente stop the battery from charging even if the device has been shutdown and left plugged in?

22

I own and like the AlDente app but have questions about it. I have occasionally run into behavior I can’t explain, for example, a charge level I had set changing seemingly by itself or battery charging running past the level I thought I had set. My guess is this has to do with the developer’s need to use non-public APIs and the fact that Apple itself has been unwilling or unable to explain how its own optimized charging system works. I also worry that setting battery related values writes and re-writes to non-volatile memory which may ultimately have undesirable side effects in the long term.

At the moment AlDente is not running on my MacBook Air and I rely on Marcel Bresink’s Battery Monitor app to verbally announce my battery level so that I can take appropriate action.

2 Likes
23

I think not. Shutdown affects the app’s ability to stay in control.

Please see the FAQ - AppHouseKitchen especially this question Why does my MacBook still continue charging? (during sleep/shut down).

1 Like
24

See:

Feature Explanation: Stop charging when powered off/app closed

Feature Explanation: Stop charging when sleeping

cc: @karlnyhus

25

Using Al Dente has noticeably slowed my battery degradation. I guess there could be some downside I’m not aware of, but so far, so good.

I did run into this issue after the latest Ventura update, but their instructions fixed it:

AlDente stops working after macOS update!

Unfortunately, AlDente temporarily does not work after a macOS update for a small number of users.

To get AlDente to work again, please try the following steps which have worked for many users before:

  1. Unplug and discharge your MacBook to less than your current charge limit in AlDente
  2. Turn off your MacBook and close the lid for a couple of minutes
  3. Unplug the power brick from the outlet and wait a couple of minutes
  4. Turn on your MacBook and plug it in again
  5. Check if it stops charging at the charge limit set in AlDente

We are aware of this bug for a while now but were so far not able to fix it. However, we will keep trying.

26

Thanks for the links. I did not look far enough to see that App House Kitchen had come up with a solution for sleeping and powering down a Mac.

1 Like
27

I’ve been using Energiza app and been happy with it. I remove Al Dente as it was more complex to setup.