Service Battery: Don’t panic, you can keep using your Mac, but you really should take the machine in and get it services.Replace Now: You can keep using the battery, but don’t expect too much time between charges, and you should look to replacing it.

Replace Soon: The battery works but needs replacing.Option-click the battery icon in the menu bar, and you will see one of these statements: You can also get a general sense of battery health using the battery icon. This tells you your current cycle count and lets you know the condition of your battery.In the right-hand window in the next pane look for Health Information.NB: Hold down the Option key when you press About This Mac to open the System Report directly.Press this button, and a new window appears offering all kinds of hardware-related information about your Mac – choose the Power section.At the bottom left of that window you’ll find a button called ‘ System Report’.General information about your system will appear in a small window.How to check the battery cycle count on MacsĪpple makes it easy to check the battery cycle count on Macs you just need to follow these instructions: That way you know why what you are buying seems to be a bargain and can plan in advance for a battery replacement. This is why you need to know how to find the battery cycle count data, particularly if you are about to purchase a second-hand Mac notebook. They usually work way beyond that number (it’s kind of notional), but you may experience increasingly low battery life between charges until you end up with a notebook you have to plug into power to use. The company also says: “Your battery is designed to retain up to 80 percent of its original capacity at 1,000 complete charge cycles.'

The batteries used inside Macs are built to handle a number of battery cycles.Īpple advises that once your battery has used up all these cycles, it should be considered as needing replacement.

That’s when I remembered this little-known, but really quite useful (and mercifully short), Mac tip that helps you get some kind of insight into your Mac’s battery health. That’s when I thought it might be worth sharing this little tip, given lots of people will be selling Macs to get hold of a new MacBook Air. A friend of mine was considering purchasing an old(ish) MacBook Pro and wanted to check the battery life as they arranged the deal.

Check mac air battery