Apple is bringing a very useful battery feature to its laptops. If you have ever plugged in your MacBook and wondered why the battery percentage is barely moving, the latest software update will finally explain what is happening. The new macOS Tahoe 26.4 update introduces a dedicated warning that pops up when you connect a power adapter that is not strong enough to charge the machine properly.
How the new slow charging alert works
Finding out your laptop is barely charging is always a bad surprise. With this new feature, the battery menu in the top corner of the screen will explicitly tell you if the connected cable or power brick is delivering a slow charge. This change appeared recently when Apple updated all of its 26.4 beta builds across iPhone, Mac, and more.
It takes the guesswork out of troubleshooting your power accessories. If you see the warning, you will know exactly why the battery is draining while you work instead of filling up.
More battery controls are coming to the Mac
This charger warning is just one piece of a much larger focus on battery health. When Apple releases macOS Tahoe 26.4 with Safari compact tabs, battery charge limits, and more, users will have more control over how the machine manages power. For example, the new charge limit options allow you to stop the battery from filling up all the way to 100 percent.Â
Keeping the battery at a lower level when it is plugged in all day helps the internal cells last much longer over the life of the laptop.
