Apple silicon is known for its efficiency, resulting in long periods of MacBook use and sleep without needing to return to the charger. Lately, however, it seems MacBooks of all kinds are draining fast; you might open your fully charged MacBook to find it completely dead, with no clear explanation why. Not only do we know why this issue is happening, we now know how to fix it.
The fault, it seems, lies in macOS 12.2. The update, which Apple released on Jan. 26, inadvertently included a battery-draining bug. On both Apple silicon and Intel-based machines, Bluetooth devices frequently wake up your MacBook, causing excessive battery drain when your Mac should be conserving energy in sleep mode. You could charge your MacBook to 100%, unplug it, go to sleep, and wake up with a dead battery, all because your AirPods, Magic Mouse, or other connected Bluetooth devices wanted to keep the party going all night.
Until now, the best advice was to disable Bluetooth while your Mac was asleep, which is a bit annoying to need to worry about every time you close your laptop. Luckily, that annoyance is no longer necessary; Apple released macOS 12.2.1 today (Feb. 10). Aside from patching security updates, 12.2.1 has one new change: It squashes the bug responsible for this Bluetooth-battery-draining headache.
How to stop your MacBook’s battery from draining overnight
To download and install macOS 12.2.1, open System Preferences, then click Software Update. Allow your Mac to load, then click Update Now. If you have “Automatically keep my Mac up to date” enabled, this update will install on its own in due time. This update is available to all Macs eligible with macOS Monterey, but this particular patch only affects MacBooks (since iMacs, Mac minis, and Mac Pros don’t have batteries).
Of course, this resolution assumes the only thing wrong with your MacBook’s battery was the bug caused by macOS 12.2. If you find, after updating your Mac, your battery is still draining overnight, you’ll want to continue troubleshooting the problem. You might simply need a new battery for your machine, which, depending on your model, could be a free upgrade through Apple.
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