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New battery not charging.

I have a late-2013 MBP retina 15"; which has seen very heavy usage through its life, up until last year.

The battery, of course, had slowly degraded, and then finally, would only hold a charge for a few minutes; so I was using it plugged-in.

I did buy a 3rd party replacement battery on amazon probably around 2020, but I didn't install it and let it sit.

I went through a lot of third-party adapters, and apparently one of them was bad, and my magsafe port got burnt-out (actually, still functioned, but two of the pins became blackened and stopped connecting).

So I bought a replacement macsafe port from ifixit, several months ago.

I was afraid of opening this laptop up, because of it's reputation for being very complicated, so I set it aside for about a year.

This weekend, I cracked it open, (and while ungluing the old battery was pretty frustrating; overall, I didn't think this was a hard job; the old original imacs were much harder to disassemble). I replaced the battery and the magsafe port. I did many SMC and PRAM resets, as is tradition.

The apple-branded charger, is 85W.

The light turns green, then amber.

The system boots, when plugged in, and operates "normally" (degraded performance). The battery is 0%, and will not charge.

After reading several of the other posts, I am seeing that either this battery is defective, or the logic board is defective. Because it's operating normally otherwise, I want to rule out the logic board. I have read about "battery calibration" procedures, and I tried turning it on with the battery unplugged, and the charger unplugged: does absolutely nothing. I'm wondering if there's some persistent bad-state in the battery controller or something that was set when the previous battery was degraded, "needed maintenance", etc, that I need to reset, that isn't getting reset with the SMC? Or if the battery just got too flat while it was shelved for 6 years, and the controller's just refusing to try to charge it? I kind of don't want to have to buy a brand new battery if I don't have to.

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Hi Neil,

It is very likely that the battery itself is the issue. There are numerous knockoff/incompatible batteries sold online. Also, storing the battery for a long period of time can certainly cause it do degrade; however, you would likely still see some charging, even if it is minimal.

The easiest method is definitely just replacing the battery.. Thankfully, iFixit does sell the correct part.

If you don't want to go that route right away, try downloading a battery health app, like Coconut Battery. However, if the app does not detect the battery, or says the health is low, I think your best aveneu is to just replace the cells entirely

Replace a 8700 mAh battery compatible with MacBook Pro 15" Retina (Late 2013/Mid 2014). 98 Watt Hours (Wh), 11.26 Volts (V). Image

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MacBook Pro 15" Retina (Late 2013-Mid 2014) Battery

$89.99

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Coconut Battery says:

Battery Information:

Manufacturer: Simplo

Manufacture date: (blank)

Age: (blank)

Loadcycles: 1

Serial: 0123456789ABC (lol)

macOS battery status: Poor

Battery temperature: 74.2 ºF

Power adapter: 85 Watts

And then in the main window:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

Model: MacBookPro11,3

Manufacture Date: 2014-05-05

Current Charge: 0 mAh

Full Charge Capacity: 8575 mAh

0%

Design Capacity: 8440 mAh

100%

Manufacture date: (blank)

Cycle Count: 1

macOS Battery Status: Poor

Battery temperature: 74.2ºF

Charging with: 0 Watts

Power Adapter: Connected.

So it sure seems like the controller is "talking to" the battery, but it's choosing not to charge it?

Is there a more detailed diagnostic tool somwhere?

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CoconutBattery is one of the most detailed/best apps that is free. If the battery health is "Poor" then it is possible that the computer is choosing not to charge the battery. Since this is clearly an aftermarket battery (with its questionable serial # lol), I think your best best would be to replace it. Even if the battery worked well in 2020, waiting 6 years before regulary charging it likely permenantly damaged its capacity. ):

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neilprestemon will be eternally grateful.
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