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How to fix your MacBook's Bluetooth battery drain with macOS Monterey 12.2.1
After a month of user complaints, Apple has released macOS Monterey 12.2.1 with a fix for a bug that was draining MacBook batteries at an alarming rate.
Has your MacBook been sucking down battery at an alarming rate when it’s in sleep mode? Apple has just released a fix for the power loss with the latest macOS Monterey 12.2.1 update.
Per Apple, the battery issue is only for Intel-based MacBooks.
“macOS 12.2.1 provides important security updates and fixes an issue for Intel-based Mac computers that may cause the battery to drain during sleep when connected to Bluetooth peripherals.”
That means M1-based MacBook Air/Pro and M1 Pro/Max-based are unaffected.
The battery drain complaints first started surfacing in January after Apple released macOS Monterey 12.2. One user on the r/mac subreddit documented their 16-inch Intel-based MacBook Pro chewing through power when it was in a sleep state.
How to download the update
Easy. The same way you download any update for macOS.
- Click the Apple logo in the upper left of the menu bar.
- Go to “About This Mac” which will open up System Preferences’ “Software Update” panel.
- The macOS Montery 12.2.1 update will show up if you’re connected to the internet.
- Obviously, you need to be running macOS Monterey first to see the update. If you’re not on Monterey, you can update it via the Mac App Store. (Make sure you back up your files just in case anything goes wrong; you can use macOS’s built-in Time Machine or a separate third-party app).
The update didn’t fix my MacBook’s battery drain
It’s always tough to pinpoint what is causing battery drain since everyone’s got different apps installed and whatnot. The macOS Montery 12.2.1 update is specifically for a bug related to Bluetooth connectivity when an Intel MacBook is in sleep mode.
Before the update’s release, one developer took matters into their own hands by creating FluTooth. It might be something to look into if the macOS Monterey 12.2.1 update doesn’t work. From the developer Jordi:
FluTooth is a simple Mac utility that turns off Bluetooth when you close your MacBook, and turns it back on when you open it again.
It seemed to solve the battery drain problem I was having, hopefully it does the same for you! Let me know if this doesn't solve the problem for you, so I can add more things to the app to try to find the cause!
The free app does require the use of the Shortcuts app so if you’re not comfortable with that, you might want to try a different solution like reinstalling macOS or uninstalling any apps that might be eating up resources (you can check for that in the Activity Monitor app).
