Improving MacBook battery performance

A quick post on improving battery performance for MacBooks, more for self-reference really, but hopefully others might find it useful.

My battery performance had been pretty poor lately, lasting just a few hours once fully charged. The system was also fairly sluggish and just launching an app would cause the app icon to bounce up and down a few times in the dock before launching. A few tips from the Apple website iMore really helped make my battery last longer and the system much snappier.

Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)

This will help with system performance and some battery management issues. For MacBooks with non-removable batteries:

  • Close or force-quit all apps and shut the computer down.
  • Plug in the power adapter.
  • Press the Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
  • Release all keys and the power button together at the same time.
  • Press the power button once more to boot up.

Clear dock settings and reset dock

A quick tip over at iMore will help improve responsiveness:

  • Open up the Terminal app.
  • Type in cd ~/Library/Preferences/ then press enter.
  • Then type rm com.apple.desktop.plist and press enter.
  • Finally, type killall Dock and hit enter again.

Some handy help articles from Apple