If you start to experience battery life issues after installing macOS Monterey beta and want to avoid downgrading to macOS Big Sur, there are some solutions you can try.
Battery over-discharge is a common issue in Apple’s beta software, so it wasn’t surprising to see macOS Monterey beta users complaining about it. Unfortunately, this can be a bit difficult to fix and in some cases it may require a fix in a new beta from Apple.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through some potential fixes for macOS Monterey bad beta battery life. The fixes we’ve listed here have worked for us, and many others, in the past and there’s a good chance one of them will work for you.
Restart your Mac
If your Mac’s battery starts to drain quickly for no apparent reason, the first thing to do is restart your computer. Restarting can terminate malicious processes and it has the potential to improve your Mac’s battery life.
We recommend that you restart your Mac before taking any further action.
Install the latest beta of macOS Monterey
Apple will periodically release new beta software for macOS Monterey. And while the company might not list battery life fixes in the changelog for a new beta, new software might alleviate your issues.
If you’re using older macOS Monterey beta software, try moving your Mac to the latest update.
Check your apps
Apps, especially third-party apps, often go haywire on macOS beta software. Keep in mind that this is preview software, so many applications are not optimized for the new operating system.
There’s a good chance that one or more of your apps is causing your Mac’s battery to drain quickly, so you’ll need to check if there are any issues.
The first thing you can do is click on the battery symbol at the top right corner of your screen. This will show you which apps are consuming a lot of power on your Mac.
If you notice an app that shouldn’t be there, you’ll want to dig deeper. You may need to update the app, uninstall it, or if you can’t find a solution and the app is essential, quit macOS Monterey beta.
In your Mac’s System Preferences, you’ll find the Battery section. Here you will notice a usage history feature. Usage history gives you details of your Mac’s battery life over the past 24 hours or the past 10 days.
It is divided into battery level and screen usage so that you can see your Mac’s battery performance. If the readings are far away, you might want to exit the beta.
Reset PRAM and NVRAM
This next step is a bit more complex, but it may fix battery life issues.
Try to reset PRAM and NVRAM on your MacBook. This resets some of your Mac’s settings, but doesn’t delete data from your Mac.
You will then need to configure the speakerphone, screen resolution, and other settings, but this may resolve battery life issues.
Here’s how to do it:
- Shut down your Mac.
- Turn on your MacBook.
- Press and hold Command, Option, P, R at the same time right after the startup sound.
- Hold until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound again.
If you have the 2016 or newer MacBook Pro, you should hold these keys as soon as you turn on your MacBook Pro and hold them for 20 seconds.
Downgrade to macOS Big Sur
If you can’t find a manual fix and / or don’t want to wait for Apple’s next macOS Monterey beta, you can downgrade to older macOS software.
To learn more about downgrading macOS, see our walkthrough.