How to Know if Macbook Is Charging

How to tell if MacBook is charging?

To tell if your MacBook is charging, look for the lightning bolt at the battery icon in the menu bar. An amber light on the MagSafe means your laptop is charging, while a green light indicates it’s fully charged. Check the Battery section in System Settings for detailed charging status.

Now, I suggest you test these simple ways to check if a MacBook is charging and avoid unexpected “dead battery” issues.

1. Check battery icon

In my expert’s opinion, the easiest method to see if your MacBook isn’t charging is to look at the Battery icon in your Mac’s menu. When the cable is plugged in, you’ll see a lightning bolt icon in the battery symbol. You can hold on to charging by clicking on the icon.

A warning on the part of the MacKeeper team: On some of the latest macOS versions, the Battery icon is hidden from the menu bar. Do the following to uncover it:

1. Open System Settings in the Apple menu.
2. Select Control Center ➙ Battery.
3. Toggle on the option called Show in Menu Bar.

Also, don’t forget to check if your Mac show battery time remaining to take this issue under control.

2. Check LED Indicator on charger

For users of older Mac models with MagSafe chargers, there’s a built-in LED indicator on it, showing the charging status. Plugging in the MagSafe connector, the LED light turns on at the point of connection.

Remember the LED Light Indicators:

• Amber or Orange colors mean that your Apple laptop is charging.
• Green color implies your Mac is fully charged.
• No colors indicate there’s no power or some connection issues.

3. View battery health

When your Mac is running, you can quickly check its battery health by getting an overview. Now, follow my instructions to check your Mac’s battery health:

1. Choose System Settings in the Apple menu.
2. Go to the left sidebar ➙ select Battery section.
3. Look at the Battery icon at the top, where you’ll see the current charging status and charging percentage.

If you’d like to dig in the topic of how to check the battery health on your MacBook deeper, I invite you to go through the link and find all the answers there.

A note from our experts: 

 

We’ve noticed that redundant processes on your Mac or memory overload lead to performance slowdowns, including charging issues. In this regard, I highly recommend you to use MacKeeper’s Memory Cleaner—a handy tool of macOS utility software developed by Clario Tech to protect your Mac. It detects and removes unnecessary background processes, frees up RAM, making your Mac perform smoothly.

 

Take these steps to fix charging issues with MacKeeper’s Memory Cleaner:

1. Download MacKeeper from our official site and launch the app.
2. Find the Memory Cleaner tool in the left sidebar ➙ click Open.
3. Wait for the results ➙ click the Clean Memory button.

4. Watch for battery percentage

One more way to avoid unexpected breakdowns is to watch how the battery behaves during charging. Pay attention to the battery percentage increase over time. If it’s increasing properly, you have nothing to worry about. If it’s stuck at the same number or drops down, you’d better read about how long does a MacBook battery last, as it might be a bad sign.

5. Use system report to check charging status

There’s a universal source of detailed technical information about your Mac’s software, hardware, and connections called System Report. It also provides detailed battery information.

Use System Report to check the charging status of your Mac in such a way:

1. In the Apple Menu, open the About This Mac section.
2. Scroll down and find System Report.
3. In the sidebar, click Power and check charge information on the right.

6. Look for charging animation on screen

While your Mac is plugged into the power charger, the charging animation appears on the screen. This symbol indicates that your Mac is receiving power. While the charging is going, the icon fills up, depicting the battery level.

7. Check MagSafe power adapter connection

If your Mac has a MagSafe adapter, it’s not a big deal to know if MacBook is charging. You can check its status with the LED Indicator Light, placed at the head of the connector:

• Amber or orange colors mean the charging is on.
• Green color means the battery is fully charged.
• No color means something is going wrong with the charging process.  

8. Listen for charging sound (for some models)

If you are 60% auditory and just 40% visual, just like me, consider listening to a charging sound as an alternative way to check if your Mac is charging. This method works if your laptop has a MagSafe charging cable or uses a USB-C port for charging. In this case, if you plug in for the charging, you’ll hear a specific sound. If your Mac is turned off, you can check whether it is charging by unplugging and plugging it again.

What to do if your MacBook isn't charging?

If your Mac isn’t charging, check if the charging cable is connected correctly, try a different cable or power adapter, verify if there are any updates available for your macOS in the System Settings, or reset the SMC by restarting your laptop (for an Intel-based Mac).

As a pro tip from me, I suggest you pay special attention to the system warning service recommended Mac battery to fix the issue on time.

Conclusion

There are many ways to check if your Mac is charging, and it’s best to choose what suits you more: check the battery icon, check the LED Indicator on the charger, view battery health, or use the system report, for example. Also, don’t hesitate to use MacKeeper’s Memory Cleaner to free up RAM, improve speed, and ensure your Mac runs smoothly and efficiently while charging, especially if you’re used to handling multiple tasks simultaneously.