November 20, 2012 / 10 Comments
So I just bought a new Macbook Pro 13in yesterday and I am simply loving it. I was so excited about the new features, and one in particular ( Not sure if its a feature or just a bug in my Macbook Pro).
Battery not charging, Macbook Pro
Plugging in my adapter seems to halt the charging of the battery and just runs straight from the adapter. With my old Macbook Pro ( Early 2009 Model ), I would take the battery out when keeping the adapter in for long periods of time to not overcharge my battery. So at first I was excited about this, but after a while, I actually wanted the laptop to charge and couldn't figure out how.
After a ton of wrong guesses, such as putting it to sleep or closing the lid, it still wouldn't charge. Off to Google!! A lot of other people were having the same issue, the Battery Indicator would say "Battery is Not Charging", but it would also indicate that it was plugged in. There were a lot of posts suggesting reseting the SMC, but me being a stubborn one, refused to admit that my half a day old Macbook needed this.
So checking to see if my adapter was plugged in correctly, I switched the adapter around and VIOLA, it started charging. So it seems the direction in which the adapter is plugged in, changes its function. Not sure if this is common knowledge but it blew my mind. Plugging the adapter in where the wire is facing the front of the Macbook causes it to be in a "Battery Bypass" mode. The laptop doesn't draw power from the battery and instead from the adapter. If the wire is facing it the direction of the back of the laptop it enters "Battery Charge" mode, which causes the adapter to charge the battery.
TL;DR;
If your Macbook Pro ist charging and you are using a MagSafe2 Adapter. Plug the adapter in matching Fig. 4.
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AMAZING – this worked perfectly for me! I can’t explain why changing the ‘polarity’ of the MagSafe adapter made any difference, but that’s what happened! Thanks for this tip!
Glad I was able to help. I have no clue why it works either. Also not sure if it was a purposely added feature and if so, how come Apple didnt say so!
Worked, you rock. Thank you so much.
so odd.. i have been using this laptop for a year and today is the first day of this, and yes flipping it does it. i have most always turned it “cable forward” to slip into my case to charge, perhaps this is why my battery seems to have “little life” these days. so odd … well, thanks for the quick easy answer and it was the first one that popped on google
Exactly, Im not sure why it does that its really strange. It happened out the box for me and took months for you. Its very inconsistent.
Glad I could help though!
now a couple months later, “not charging” is up and flip of cable is ineffective?! Searching for an answer again …..
my laptop was cold this morning, warming it and all is back to normal charging
battery is ot charging but when we disconnect the battery the computer doesn’t work at all.
I don’t think is a feature… the solution worked, but I always plug in the same way, and then suddenly today it worked as bypass… seems somewhat random to me.
Same thing happened to me. The magsafe was flashing orange and green, not charging but sending power to computer. I fixed it by turning off adapter for 30 secs at the socket, then turn back on again. Interesting that the light stays on for a bit even with no power, must have a capacitor in there. I had left the charger on without it being connected so I wonder if it went to “sleep”.