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MacBook Air 13", Early 2015
macOS Monterey 12.4 (21F79)

I recently got the battery replaced. I am observing a difference in charging status depending on where I look. I never bothered to check these with the previous battery.

When the light on Magsafe power adapter goes from amber to green, the battery status on the Menu Bar says 100% charged. But if I look at System Information > Power, it shows:

Fully Charged: No
Charging: Yes
State of Charge (%): 100%

coconutBattery app reports:

Current Charge: 6871 mAh
Full Charge Capacity: 7151 mAh
Charge level: 96.1%
Design Capacity: 7150 mAh
macOS Battery Status: Good

What can cause this problem? Does it look like a hardware or a software issue?

Full Details from System Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: XYZ
Manufacturer: SMP
Device Name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code: 0
PCB Lot Code: 0
Firmware Version: 511
Hardware Revision: 000a
Cell Revision: 1200

Charge Information:
Fully Charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 7151
State of Charge (%): 100

Health Information:
Cycle Count: 9
Condition: Normal

AC Charger Information:
Connected: Yes
ID: 0x07a1
Wattage (W): 45
Family: 0x00ba
Serial Number: 0xXYZ
Charging: Yes

Edit 1: I did the following:

  1. Allowed the battery to drain all the way.
  2. It stayed at 1% for some time and then the MacBook turned off on its own.
  3. I let it be that way for 8-9 hours.
  4. Charged the battery to 100%.
  5. Switched on the MacBook. It restored the apps and open windows (does that mean it just went to deep sleep?).

The original problem that I reported above is still seen.

Edit 2: As the battery level goes lower, the difference between values shown in Menu Bar and System Information keeps reducing. For example, when Menu Bar first shows 100%, the difference is around 4%. When the battery level reduces to around 25%, the two values shown are pretty much the same. Not sure what this really means.

Improve this question
8
  • 1
    Did you do a full charge + discharge cycle after battery change? To my knowledge, MacBooks use some FuelGauge chip from TI to estimate their state of charge. Those BQsomething chips need to get to know a new battery by meeting an upper and lower charge limit. Before that, they can give strange, even contradicting results, especially considering that the OS declares the battery as full while it continues to charge very slowly.
    – Philippos
    Jun 10, 2022 at 13:33
  • @Philippos I have updated the post with details of what I tried with full charge + discharge cycle. But the problem is still there. Anything else that I can try?
    – oyenamit
    Jun 11, 2022 at 20:03
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    What is the problem, other than slightly inconsistent data? Is the battery performing within your expectations?
    – benwiggy
    Jun 11, 2022 at 20:15
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    Was this battery replaced by a shop, or was it DIY? If the former, then you could take it back and ask them to check it.
    – benwiggy
    Jun 12, 2022 at 7:47
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    Reinstalling the OS is over-rated as a fix for anything: the bit that gets re-installed is read-only, and secured. Chances are that nothing there has changed. It's everything EXCEPT the OS that causes problems: pref files, caches, configs, and user software. At best, you could try an SMC reset support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201295 But really I'd just file this as an inconsequential oddity and move on.
    – benwiggy
    Jun 12, 2022 at 14:43

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Coconut Battery tells you that the current Charging capacity is 96.1% of the Design Capacity.

System Information is showing you that the battery is 100% full -- whatever its current capacity may be.

There is perhaps some confusion caused by the term "Full Charge Capacity", and what that means.

The laptop's power management will vary the full charge level somewhat across a number of cycles, as a means of preserving the life of the battery. So after a few more cycles, you may find that the Current Capacity is higher than 96.1%.

Apps that provide detailed information can be useful for trouble-shooting, but they just as often provide more information for you to worry about.

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1
  • I used coconutBattery only to further check the state of the battery and its charge. But what really bothered me initially was what System Information was reporting: Fully Charged: No, Charging: Yes, State of Charge: 100%. Is that really normal?
    – oyenamit
    Jun 10, 2022 at 13:16

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