5 Ways to Make Your Mac Battery Last Longer

Jun 24, 2022

We use our Apple devices for so much. We use them for work, for school, for gaming, and overall productivity. They send us reminders that help us make it to our events on time and provide us a way to join important virtual meetings.

We demand a lot from our devices. We want them to do it all and do it quickly. Sometimes, I think we expect too much from our devices, forgetting that technology is ever-advancing and imperfect. Macs are no different.

No matter how long our Mac batteries last, it's never long enough. There's always more to do than there is time in a day, and every battery is limited. In this guide, I give five simple tricks that will help your Mac battery last longer so that you can do more.

Note: The following steps were done on a MacBook with an M1 chip, so some of the steps below may vary. Also know that using these tricks in combination with one another is significantly more effective than using only one of them.

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There's a reason the display brightness is in the "Battery" section of your Mac's System Preferences. It only takes a minute to reduce your Mac display brightness, so that you can get a little more battery life.

If you aren't familiar with this System Preference, every time you stop using your Mac for the timeframe chosen, your display will sleep so that you can save some of your battery.

While having your display brightness set to 1 minute is a bit much, often causing too much of a disruption in your workday, I wouldn't go over 3 to 5 minutes. The longer your display brightness is set, the more battery life it uses.

How to reduce your Mac's display brightness

Click the Apple Logo in the upper left-hand corner
Select "System Preferences"
Click "Battery"
Make sure "Battery" is selected on the left-hand side
Move the toggle to 3 or 5 minutes maximum

Hard disks running unnecessarily will drain battery life significantly. By allowing your Mac's hard disks to sleep when you aren't using it, you can save and use your battery when you need it the most.

How to put hard disks to sleep when possible

Click the Apple logo in the upper left-hand corner
Open "System Preferences"
Select "Battery"
Click "Power Adapter"
Click the box next to "put hard disks to sleep when possible"

Like with Mac display brightness, reducing your Mac's keyboard brightness can make sure that your Mac's battery is used for the most important things.

Small changes like this one can make a big impact, specially when used in combination with one another. So, consider reducing your Mac's keyboard brightness.

How to reduce your Mac's keyboard brightness

Unlock your Mac
Click the Control Center in the upper right-hand corner of the task bar
Click "Keyboard Brightness"
Reduce the brightness using the toggle

Many new Mac users close the open windows on their Mac without quitting the app. Often, they even keep multiple apps open or have several tabs open in Safari. Sometimes, it's just a bad habit of forgetting to close windows and quit apps. Whatever the case, this common mistake quickly drains your Mac's battery.

Once you are done using an app, or no longer want to use that app, quit it properly so that it isn't using up all your battery for the day.

How to quit apps you aren't using

Check out your dock and see if there is a dot below the app in the dock. If there is, continue with these steps.
Right-click the app in your dock (for a MacBook, a right-click is a two-finger click)
Select "Quit"

If an app won't close, consider force quitting the app.

When you aren't using Bluetooth, or if you are someone who never does, consider turning off Bluetooth. Bluetooth will use up your Mac battery when searching and connecting to nearby devices.

By turning off Bluetooth, you can make your Mac battery work for you, saving it for all the things you need to do.