Everybody wants a longer-lasting battery. Make your MacBook’s battery last longer with these OS X and macOS Sierra power tricks, which should put a stop to fast-draining laptop annoyances:
Use software update
Apple routinely offers patches and enhancements to Mac OS X and macOS Sierra that improve battery life. Click on Apple > Software Update.
Use energy saver system preferences
Open System Preferences (Apple > System Preferences) and click on Energy Saver. Click on Battery and adjust the slider next to ‘Turn display off after…’ Tick ‘Put hard disks to sleep when possible’, and activate ‘Slightly dim the display while on battery power’ too if you can deal with that.
Dim your screen
Press the F1 key and move the screen brightness down. You can also control this in System Preferences.
Turn off Bluetooth
Click the Bluetooth icon in the Menu bar and choose Turn Bluetooth Off, or open System Preferences > Bluetooth and click Turn Bluetooth Off.
Turn off Wi-Fi
This is a bit more extreme as you won’t be able to use wireless Internet. But if you’re not using the Internet or email, make sure you turn Wi-Fi off. Click AirPort in the Menu bar and choose Turn Wi-Fi off.
Mute sound
Tap the Mute Sound button to get rid of any extraneous alerts and noise. You can turn sound on and off as you need to.
Eject a CD/DVD
If you have one of the older MacBooks with a SuperDrive, then make sure you eject CDs and DVDs that aren’t in use. They will occasionally spin and drain the battery.
Remove peripherals
Disconnect any SD Cards, external drives, or 4G modems. They all draw power from the MacBook. Removing CD/DVDs and peripherals will help your MacBook run for just a little longer.
Avoid graphically intensive apps
Don’t use any games, 3D graphics or video editing apps if you can help it.
Shut down any unused apps
Quit any apps that you aren’t using.
Check which apps are using most power
Mac OS X informs you if any apps are using significant amounts of power in the Battery menu. Click on battery in the menu bar and check under Apps Using Significant Energy. Google Chrome is a prime culprit here; quit hungry apps and use a low-energy app instead.
You can also get more detailed information on energy usage using the Activity Monitor app.
Click Go > Utilities and open the Activity Monitor app.
Now, click on the Energy Tab and Energy Impact header to view the apps and processes taking up the most power on your Mac.
The Energy Impact area of Activity Monitor is a good way to choose apps based on the amount of battery life they take up.
Check for runaway processes
A common way that batteries get drained quickly is if you have a “runaway process.” A process could be an app, or another feature of Mac OS X and macOS Sierra, and sometimes they go awry and cause the processor to work overtime.
You can use Activity Monitor to check that you haven’t got any of these runaway processes.
Open Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities), select the CPU, select All Processes, select the CPU column, look for any application that is taking up more than 70 per cent of the CPU (and doing so consistently).
If it’s a programme like Safari, Mail or Google Chrome, you should first try to quit the programme normally. If it’s not a regular app, or is not responding, you can select the process in Activity Monitor and press the Quit icon (in the top-left of Activity Monitor).
Invert colours
Use invert colours to save battery life. It takes less battery to display black pixels than white ones.
Change your desktop to a solid white (use System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop > Solid Colours and choose White). Now click Accessibility and Invert Colours. This runs your Mac in mostly black and white mode.
If you can stand the pain of working in such a stark environment (it’s designed for people with limited vision) then this is a good way to get more from your Mac’s battery.
Turn off notifications
Click on System Preference > Notifications and limit the apps that can check for notifications.
Turn off Mail’s auto check mode
Open Mail > Preferences and change the Check for New Messages tab to Manual.
Turn off Spotlight
Open Spotlight preferences, select the Privacy tab, and drag your Mac’s hard drive to the Privacy list.
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