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My MacBook Pro 2020 M1 is showing some issues related to battery.

Earlier, its battery health started falling abnormally from 95 to 85 percent while charge cycle counts being 124 only.

Now it wont open up without being plugged in and the fans also start when turned on.

The battery shows a cross icon.

It seems this is repeated issue with some M1 MacBooks which Apple hasn't identified yet.

If someone else has found a solution to this issue please help.

Update: My MBP is somehow healing ? I mean earlier it won't last a second without being plugged in. Now it lasts for nearly 25 minutes. Coconut battery app shows the battery health is about 3.1 % now which was earlier reduced to 0 % (My MBP system stats still show my battery health as 85%). Could this be a software or minor hardware issue?

I took it to the Apple Service Centre and the guys told me that I'll need to get the complete keyboar (which comes with battery) replaced for this and that will set me back by 510$ which is pretty high in my opinion in India.

Rudraksh
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  • I'd agree that the battery needs replacing. 124 cycles suggests that you've had it plugged in most of its life; though the OS normally pauses charging at 80% to reduce the detrimental effect of being permanently 100%. Unless there's some other factor in the usage -- heat, certainly; extreme workload, possibly; running it down to 0%, definitely -- I'm afraid it's just bad luck that it has had a short life. You can expect one replacement within 4 years or so. Hopefully, the replacement will see you through for much longer. – benwiggy Jan 08 '23 at 13:17

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That battery is dead.

Earlier, its battery health started falling abnormally from 95 to 85 percent while charge cycle counts being 124 only.

First, battery count is just a convenient convention for users to gauge the longevity of a battery. It “should” last 1000 cycles assuming you fully charge and discharge the battery every time. A certain number charge cycles is not a hard and fast (nor guaranteed) number.

The fact that you saw a massive drop in capacity was a clear sign that your battery was rapidly failing. It’s a chemical reaction and there’s no certainty as to the life span or rate of deterioration.

You can expect 3 to 5 years life out of a battery. It can fail much sooner or much later; the average lifespan is within 3 to 5 years. Given that you are barely pushing the three year mark, it’s clear your battery is dying prematurely of the median battery life expectation.

The important question is, are you still covered by AppleCare?

Given that your particular model is pushing 3 years old even with a low cycle count, it’s not unexpected that your battery needs to be replaced. So, if you have an AppleCare plan, your battery is covered. If not, you’re on your own for the repair.

It seems this is repeated issue with some M1 MacBooks which Apple hasn't identified yet.

Not really. Based on the above information, this is not unusual and not considered a defect to identify. I highly doubt Apple will do a recall or implement a service program for this. Looking at that site, there’s only one MacBook battery recall and it’s for overheating, not for lifespan or capacity.

Allan
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    The first M1 MBPs were introduced in November 2020, so it's 2 years 2 months at most. I'd agree it's premature. – benwiggy Jan 08 '23 at 13:09
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    I had some success with having Apple replace a battery out of warranty at no cost by being polite/extra nice to the Apple support rep I talked to. There is no guarantee but it is possible they will make an exception. It is certainly worth a try. – Steve Chambers Jan 08 '23 at 16:18
  • @rudraksh doesn’t say where they’re based, but it’s quite possible that this would be covered under warranty in a non-US market. Worth checking, before paying for a replacement. – Robin Whittleton Jan 08 '23 at 16:29
  • @benwiggy, keep in mind that the battery isn’t manufactured at the same time as the Mac. Since it’s a 3rd party product it could have been manufactured up to a year prior and only shipped upon order. They would have to ramp up stock in preparation for Apple’s release to manufacturing; that doesn’t happen overnight. If the battery isn’t 3 years old yet, it’s very close to it. – Allan Jan 08 '23 at 16:32
  • @Allan Fair point, but my 2021 MBP has 3 weeks between the battery manufacture date and the laptop order (another 3 weeks to despatch); and I bought it early in the run. JIT manufacturing is much more common than warehousing components for a year. Anyway, even if it completely died 3 years to the day of purchase, I'd still call that disappointingly below average. – benwiggy Jan 08 '23 at 18:39
  • @benwiggy, I don’t disagree with any of that. But one instance (yours) isn’t representative of the whole market. JIT manufacturing works great when production is running, but when ramping for a holiday release, the whole supply chain builds inventory. When I look at things, I assume worst case scenario. This way, there are clear expectations of the outcome and if it works out better, then it’s a more positive outcome – Allan Jan 08 '23 at 18:57
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    The definition of a "cycle" is actually not a "full discharge" because that'll immediately destroy a battery. Modern Li-Ion actually degrades rapidly when fully drained. You're supposed to use it in small bursts. The definition is really the use of 100% of the battery capacity but it isn't necessarily in one go. – Nelson Jan 09 '23 at 01:07
  • assuming you fully charge and discharge the battery every time - Hopefully you don't do that, that's the most wear-and-tear you can put on a better per minute of use (or per Wh of energy you put in/out). If you keep the charge level between 70-80% at the top and 30% at the bottom, the battery can supply about 5x more total energy over its lifetime before being worn out than 100% to 0% cycles. (Assuming normal wear, not unexpected early failure.) Deep discharge is AFAIK more harmful than charging to 100%. https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries – Peter Cordes Jan 09 '23 at 01:19
  • (Those percent charge numbers depend on what voltages the laptop shows as 100% vs. 0%; if they choose to stop charging at a less harmful voltage, then 90 to 100% isn't as bad.) – Peter Cordes Jan 09 '23 at 01:21
  • @PeterCordes, No battery in any MacBook gets discharged to 0V save leaving it untouched for long periods of time. Every battery back has a management module that will stop charging once it reaches a certain voltage and cut power once it drops below another (9V if memory serves). This idea of having to micromanage a battery’s charge level is now decades obsolete as it’s done automatically. Thus a cycle of full charge is like 95% to about 60-70% of the raw capacity. That's 100% to 0% as far as the user is concerned. – Allan Jan 09 '23 at 01:39
  • Of course 0% isn't 0V, that would make it impossible to safely recharge the battery. The question is whether it's 3.7V per cell or 3.8V per cell or what, and whether 100% is 4.2V per cell or slightly above or below that. 60% of raw capacity is a good sustainable depth of discharge (see previous link), but 95% or even 75% wears out the battery significantly faster. I think a good rule of thumb for phones is (if you don't need the capacity) to charge to 70 to 80% and plug in again at 40 to 30%. – Peter Cordes Jan 09 '23 at 01:48
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    @PeterCordes You don't need to do this. The % power display on phones and computers are all heavily managed and they simply don't show you the "real" numbers". They automatically do power cycling when near full but will simply display "100%" to you. You don't need to manually plug and unplug the charger every day. – Nelson Jan 17 '23 at 00:58
  • @Nelson: Everything I've read about batteries suggests that "100%" on a phone or laptop is at about 4.2V on the raw cells, higher than you'd like to keep them all day every day, or even as the top of your charge cycle. e.g. in the link above Most chargers for mobile phones, laptops, tablets and digital cameras charge Li-ion to 4.20V/cell. This allows maximum capacity, because the consumer wants nothing less than optimal runtime. Industry, on the other hand, is more concerned about longevity and may choose lower voltage thresholds. Satellites and electric vehicles are such examples – Peter Cordes Jan 17 '23 at 01:03
  • @Nelson: The "charger" in that case is the internal circuitry inside the device that manages the charging of the Li-ion cells. Not what people normally call the "charger", the AC to USB power supply. (You presumably realized that too since you deleted your comment.) – Peter Cordes Jan 17 '23 at 02:20
  • @Nelson: I'm not arguing that leaving the power connected is unsafe or will lead to over-charge beyond whatever the designer sets as the upper voltage. I'm saying that the chosen voltage is higher than I want to charge to since I don't need the full capacity for one discharge, and am more interested in maximizing longevity / minimizing battery wear. That's also why some new laptops have an option to only charge the battery to 50 or 60%, not 100%, while connected to AC power full-time. (I think I read something about Apple devices learning your usage patterns and adaptively charging...) – Peter Cordes Jan 17 '23 at 02:25