My Retina MacBook Pro is currently on 4% battery power, but when I plug it in, the battery icon up the top shows the plug icon instead of the lightning bolt icon inside it to say it's charging and stays on the same 4%. How can I fix this so that my laptop charges fully?
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This happens to me too. I clean the connectors, especially the area around the pins on the computer case. This is a very small area; last time I used a heavy paper stock card and cleaned out any dust or debris that might have been there. Problem solved! This has happened to my computer a few times and the solution is always getting either the power connector pins clean, or the metal areas immediately adjacent cleaned. It could be a grounding issue.
The same happened to me after disconnecting my MacBook Pro Retina (late 2013) and then exhausting the battery on a Netflix marathon.
I left my MacBook unplugged for several days and then it began charging again.
The message indicates that the charger is not giving as much energy as is required for your computer not to lose charge when working normally. If you use the computer lightly, or you suspend it, or shut it down, you will get a slow recharge.
The cause for the low charge can be either a dirty Magsafe/USB-C socket, a faulty power supply, a misconfigured System Management Controller (SMC) —as indicated elsewhere—, or a self-resetting fuse in the power supply.
In this last case, removing the power supply from the wall socket and waiting a couple of minutes can resolve it.
If the issue is the SMC, you can follow the method indicated by Apple in their support document about "How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac".
And if the issue is a dirty socket, you can try to use a compressed air can, or something like that, to blow away the dirt.
I have had charging problems with my early 2013 (13 inch) MacBook Pro with retina display. I replaced several charging adapters and have had the charging port on the computer replaced. All replacements and the repair were more or less temporary. I believe the problem is that the computer requires high current to charge, particularly when the battery is at a low charge level. The current appears to be passing through only two pins of the five pins on at the magnetic connection. Once the pins heat up, they tarnish and then are not able to conduct current well, causing them to heat even more. The problem eventually will prevent current from passing through the connection and stop the computer from charging. I just had the power adaptor replace and before using it, I vigorously rubbed a white pencil eraser over the pins (which are actually dimples) on the computer power socket. I will continue to inspect the pins on both the adaptor and the computer and clean them as needed with a white pencil eraser.
I think the connection is a design flaw, particularly with the retina displays, which needs more charging current than the standard displays. Apple has changed their charger connections on the newer MacBook Pros, but they don't admit that there is a problem with the Mag Safe connection.
