Glossary · 用語
Trickle charging.
Trickle charging is feeding a small continuous current to a fully charged battery to compensate for self-discharge. Modern MacBooks don’t trickle-charge. Once the cell is full, charging stops, and resumes only when capacity drops several percent.
Old laptops trickle-charged continuously, which contributed measurably to battery wear over years of always-plugged use. Apple’s charge controller cuts charging at the top of the curve and waits for natural drop before resuming.
That waiting window is why a plugged-in MacBook routinely shows “Not Charging” at 96-100% even with the adapter connected. The behavior is intentional. It’s also why Optimized Battery Charging can extend the window deliberately. Once you’re near full, the system is already holding by default.