3 Ways to Fix the Service Battery Warning on Mac

Maria Krisette Capati 13th May 2015

Are you in the quest of solving the mysterious Service Battery Warning on your precious Mac? There
are different reasons why you see this on the battery status menu icon once you hover and click it; if
you check the of cial Apple support community page, the concerns and complaints are likely related
to software updates (some Yosemite and Mavericks users claimed so), a bug, poor battery
management and maintenance, strange battery performance, or simply the need to replace the
battery itself.

Note: this battery problem could have arisen from several factors, and is a case-to-case basis. If the
warning isnt solved after executing the rst two DIY solutions, better go to the Apple center for
advanced diagnostic solutions as the ultimate option.

Before we move forward, lets have a rundown of the three battery conditions to detect if you need a
service. On the battery status menu, youll see one of the following:

Normal this means your battery functions well and normally.

Replace Soon the battery is still working but has the potential to lose its ability to charge.

Replace Now or Service Battery needs to be serviced.

Here are the three ways to x it:

Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)

You can try resetting the SMC if your MacBook comes with a non-removable battery (e.g. Mac
computers 2009 and up)
1. To reset the SMC, shut down the computer.

2. Plug in the power adapter or MagSafe to your computer and power outlet.

3. On the keyboard, press Shift + Ctrl + Option keys and the power button simultaneously.

4. Release the three keys plus the power button at the same time.

5. Afterward, press the power button to turn on the computer. Check the battery status menu to see if
the Service Battery warning disappeared.

Normally, resetting the SMC should do the trick. However, if nothing happens, you may want to try the
next one.

Recalibrate the battery

This method will take you hours. However, if you really want to get rid of the warning, follow the steps
below. Apple also suggests users do this as a way to take care of the battery performance every few
months. However, the intervals are dependent on how often we use the computer.

1. Charge your battery up to 100% and make sure that the MagSafe light ring charging jack shows the
green light, which indicates full-charge.
2. Once it is fully charged, continue using the computer while the MagSafe is still plugged into the
power source; do this for two hours. Afterward, unplug the cord and use it until it runs out of battery
power, and youll see the low battery warning on the battery status menu. The Mac will sleep
automatically without any warning. Once it sleeps, simply turn it off.

3. Wait for ve hours or more and then connect the Mac to the power adapter or MagSafe and charge
it. This will calibrate your battery.

Note: in the authors case, the battery status goes back to Good (for the mean time) and the Service
Battery warning disappeared (screenshot on 717 loadcycles).

Lastly, if still nothing happens, heres the ultimate option:

Go to the Authorized Apple Service Provider
If the Service Battery warning isnt solved, perhaps your battery needs to be replaced. Apple says that
MacBook batteries have a maximum of 1000 load cycle counts. You can check the cycle counts of
your battery by downloading the CoconutBattery app, which is free!

Authors case: The Service Battery warning just came out ve months after an authorized Apple
Service Provider xed my battery issue I had the habit of charging my devices via USB and plugging
them into the MacBook, which had caused an irregular ow of the power, draining the battery faster.
When I recalibrated my computer, the warning disappeared. However, after a few weeks, it showed
again, and as of this writing my computer has the warning. Perhaps recalibrating the battery again
will help.

Let us know if you experience the Service Battery warning, and feel free to chime in with your
thoughts and suggestions.

Is this article useful? Yes No


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18 comments
Hal
Only 432 charges on my mbp, and have had the message for 1.5+ years. Also I only can hold 74% of
my batteries original capacity.

Oct 1, 2015 at 6:58 pm

Avi
The rst option Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) did the job for me..Thanks !

Oct 14, 2015 at 1:33 am

Andre
Avi how old was your macbook pro (battery)?.

Nov 6, 2015 at 3:07 am

Boris Filipovic
Reseting SMC did the job for me also (service battery message). Will see hot long it will last. Just an
observationI was developing apps for iPhone and had iPhone connected on usb so I was also
charging iPhone. I read somewhere that this causes bigger battery drain (doh lol) and that system
thinks that battery is kaput. So it is false-positive. Lets hope that this was the case in this situation.

Oct 15, 2015 at 1:01 pm

JPL
I did the SMC Twice, and still the Service Battery message is there, i hope the second option does
the trick.
the Message only appeared after i installed Google Drive and the battery noti ed that it consumes a
considerable amount..

i have a mid-2011 macbook air, and its a real bummer if i would resort to the 3rd option since the
nearest mac center is 600km.,

and is it okay to use my Mac even though it shows the service battery message?

Thanks in adv.

Oct 28, 2015 at 1:38 am

tom
On the second option you say unplug the cord and use it until it runs out of battery power, and youll
see the low battery warning on the battery status menu. The Mac will sleep automatically without
any warning. Once it sleeps, simply turn it off.

How are you meant to turn it off once the computer has put itself to sleep because the battery is
dead?

Nov 24, 2015 at 7:33 am

Allen
Press and hold the power button until it turns off

Dec 14, 2015 at 12:55 pm

lukasz
didnt work as described. After holding power, computer woke up just like
from sleep state without booting.

Jan 13, 2016 at 1:36 am

K Raea
Loads of misinformation here. You really dont need a third party app to check the cycle count [were
these guys paid to shamelessly plug that app?]. You can just go into About This Mac > System
Information > Power > and check the cycle count there. Also not every Mac has a cycle count of
1000, depending on model and year yours may be as low as 300.

Dec 15, 2015 at 8:21 pm

AQ
I doubt they were paid since the app is free. I use CoconutBattery even though I know
how to get to the cycle count since its more informative than System Report, speci cally
it reports the design capacity of the battery, giving me a good idea whether I should
replace the battery or not.

Dec 26, 2015 at 11:26 am

KT
I have a MacBook Air less than 3 years old when I saw the service battery warning. Option 2,
recalibrating the battery, worked for me but I had to do the entire process twice and my laptop has
been good so far. Thanks.

Jan 11, 2016 at 9:23 pm

Lukasz
Hi,
I made SMC reset witout any positive resault. Step 2 I nished on sleep state. After 5 hour I connect
power, after 4 hours I powered up my Mac. Now battery is loaded 100%, has 71% designed capacity,
Service Battery state.

Could be reason I didnt powerde off after computer goes to sleep?

Is any chance to return it back to Good stste? Should I make calibration again, or buy new battery?

I have MacBookAir4,2 Intel Core i5, 1.7 GHz

Jan 12, 2016 at 7:38 am

Ben
SMC reset worked rst time! Thank you so much!

Jan 31, 2016 at 4:18 am

Tamara
I did SMC reset and after all done I went to start my computer it has a half screen showing and I
cant sign in. It got past the Apple but now wont let me sign in because it looks like there are two
screens open. What to do?

Jan 31, 2016 at 8:20 am

David
I did the Calibration routine, and after the machine went to sleep I was unsure if I actually shut it
down. I held the power button for some ten seconds or so. In any event the recalibration had no
effect on the service warning alert. Perhaps I should shut it down before it completely runs out of
power, say 2%?

Feb 3, 2016 at 4:37 am

AC
Found this article very helpful! I have a MacBook Air mid-2012 model, battery health has been
hovering in the 80s for more than a year, but just in the last week has dropped to 77%. Just noticed
the service battery warning today, but theres no telling how long its actually been there, since I use
a third-party app to track my battery stats. I calibrate regularly so I was worried about the warning,
but resetting the SMC as this article recommends did the trick and service battery is gone.

Feb 8, 2016 at 8:59 pm

Grant
Getting a new charger did it for me! I had been using a frayed 60W magsafe 2 charger (theyre junk).
I started getting the service batter message and never put two into together.

Yesterday, the exposed wire on my old charger nally shocked me, so I went and paid $80 for a new
one (ripoff considering they last like 2 years).

I just fully charged with my new magsafe and the message is gone.

Apr 8, 2016 at 1:56 pm

JF
hey david, dont know if youve solved the problem since, but the same thing happened to me, that
last part of the instructions is a little misleading.
Essentially, you just have to shut down the computer again once more.
I followed the steps exactly, and when my computer turned back on it still had the warning. but thats
because when you let the battery die like that, it doesnt actually shut down, just goes into a low-
power mode to preserve the memory.
so just follow the steps exactly, and when your computer boots back up (should still have the
warning), just shut down from the apple menu, and everything should be good when you turn it back
on, no warning!
 hope this helps,
cheers

Apr 26, 2016 at 10:55 pm

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