Calibrating the MacBook battery: Instructions

To use the battery in your MacBook as efficiently as possible, you need to calibrate it from time to time. You can read here how it works.

Calibrate the MacBook battery in just a few steps

You should calibrate a battery the first time you use it and then at regular intervals of a few months - this is the only way your MacBook can determine the battery time and percentage display and keep its maximum capacity as long as possible. If you use your MacBook primarily with the power adapter, it is recommended to calibrate the battery even once a month. But: Apple notebooks with an integrated battery do not need to be calibrated.

• Connect your MacBook to the power socket using the power adapter until the battery is fully charged and the LED on your MagSafe connector lights up green. During this time, you can work with your Mac as usual.
• The battery must then remain fully charged for at least two hours. You can continue to work on your Mac now, but under no circumstances should you unplug it.
• After two hours, disconnect your MacBook from the mains and continue working until you are informed by a warning message about the low state of charge of your battery.
• Save any documents you've just opened and keep working until your MacBook goes to sleep.
• Now you have to leave your MacBook in sleep mode for at least five hours. In this way, the last energy reserves of the battery are used up.
• In the last step you have to fully charge the battery of your MacBook again. The same applies here: you can work with your Mac as normal, but you must not interrupt the charging process. As soon as the LED on the MacSafe connector lights up green again, the calibration is complete.

If you interrupt the calibration for any reason, you have to start all over again.