So I’ve got a mid-2012 MacBook Pro that I mostly use for photo editing. Lately, the MagSafe charger will power up the laptop fine, but once the battery hits about 80%, it just stops charging altogether and the battery icon switches to “Not Charging.” I’ve tried cleaning the MagSafe port and the charger connector, and even swapped in a different genuine Apple charger, but the problem persists. I’m running macOS Catalina, and I’ve checked battery health in System Report - it says “Normal" but the cycle count is around 900. I want to avoid replacing the whole battery or logic board if I can, since this machine still works great otherwise. Has anyone seen this charging cutoff behavior before? Could it be a software setting or a battery calibration issue that I can fix without hardware swaps? Also, is there a way to reset or recalibrate the battery charging thresholds on these older MacBooks?

On 02/15/2026 at 12:25 PM, ChatterboxBub said:

So I’ve got a mid-2012 MacBook Pro that I mostly use for photo editing. Lately, the MagSafe charger will power up the laptop fine, but once the battery hits about 80%, it just stops charging altogether and the battery icon switches to “Not Charging.” I’ve tried cleaning the MagSafe port and the charger connector, and even swapped in a different genuine Apple charger, but the problem persists. I’m running macOS Catalina, and I’ve checked battery health in System Report - it says “Normal" but the cycle count is around 900. I want to avoid replacing the whole battery or logic board if I can, since this machine still works great otherwise. Has anyone seen this charging cutoff behavior before? Could it be a software setting or a battery calibration issue that I can fix without hardware swaps? Also, is there a way to reset or recalibrate the battery charging thresholds on these older MacBooks?

That “Not Charging” message around 80% sounds like your MacBook is trying to protect the battery from overcharging, which is common as batteries age and cycle counts climb. Even though your System Report says “Normal,” 900 cycles is pretty high for a 2012 model, so the battery’s chemistry might be limiting charge to preserve longevity.

One trick that sometimes helps is resetting the SMC (System Management Controller). It controls power management and can get a bit wonky with older hardware. Just shut down, plug in the charger, then hold Shift + Control + Option + Power button for 10 seconds, release, and power back on. If that doesn’t fix it, you could try fully draining the battery and then charging it to 100% to recalibrate, but be cautious with deep discharges on old batteries.

If neither of those works, it’s probably the battery itself starting to fail rather than a software setting. Since

On 03/01/2026 at 6:40 AM, itsyogi said:

On 02/15/2026 at 12:25 PM, ChatterboxBub said:

So I’ve got a mid-2012 MacBook Pro that I mostly use for photo editing. Lately, the MagSafe charger will power up the laptop fine, but once the battery hits about 80%, it just stops charging altogether and the battery icon switches to “Not Charging.” I’ve tried cleaning the MagSafe port and the charger connector, and even swapped in a different genuine Apple charger, but the problem persists. I’m running macOS Catalina, and I’ve checked battery health in System Report - it says “Normal" but the cycle count is around 900. I want to avoid replacing the whole battery or logic board if I can, since this machine still works great otherwise. Has anyone seen this charging cutoff behavior before? Could it be a software setting or a battery calibration issue that I can fix without hardware swaps? Also, is there a way to reset or recalibrate the battery charging thresholds on these older MacBooks?

That “Not Charging” message around 80% sounds like your MacBook is trying to protect the battery from overcharging, which is common as batteries age and cycle counts climb. Even though your System Report says “Normal,” 900 cycles is pretty high for a 2012 model, so the battery’s chemistry might be limiting charge to preserve longevity.

One trick that sometimes helps is resetting the SMC (System Management Controller). It controls power management and can get a bit wonky with older hardware. Just shut down, plug in the charger, then hold Shift + Control + Option + Power button for 10 seconds, release, and power back on. If that doesn’t fix it, you could try fully draining the battery and then charging it to 100% to recalibrate, but be cautious with deep discharges on old batteries.

If neither of those works, it’s probably the battery itself starting to fail rather than a software setting. Since

That “Not Charging” status around 80% is classic behavior on older MacBooks when the system tries to preserve battery health by limiting charge cycles. With a cycle count near 900, your battery’s health might still show as “Normal,” but it’s probably starting to lose capacity and the SMC (System Management Controller) could be managing charging more conservatively.

You mentioned Catalina, so you might want to try resetting the SMC if you haven’t already - that often clears up weird charging quirks without hardware swaps. To reset, shut down, then hold Shift+Control+Option + Power for 10 seconds and release, then power on. Also, if you want to recalibrate, try fully charging, then running the battery down to near 0%, and charging back up uninterrupted.

If that doesn’t help, some users have found third-party tools like AlDente useful for setting custom charging thresholds on older MacBooks, which might give you