Apple has started pushing the macOS Big Sur update to all the eligible Macs after it’s the announcement of the new Macbooks this month. The update was available in beta stage since a few months, and now is being rolled out to all users as a stable version. But, as a story of every year, annual updates are a big thing which even Apple can’t get it perfect in the first try even after rigorous beta testing. Numerous users who updated to the latest macOS Big Sur update have been reporting about their Macbook showing ‘Battery Service Required’ warning in the battery icon. This issue is not unit specific, and shows up on almost every other Macbook, even if it was just a few weeks old.
The macOS Big Sur update was pushed by Apple in mid-November to all compatible macs. As everyone started updating, a lot of users started reporting about their Macbook asking for a battery service required warning. Users took it to several Reddit, Toms Hardware, Linus Tech Tips, and even on Apple forums reporting about the same. Not just that, but users have also complained about a degrade in battery life with the new update. We are yet to hear from Apple on this issue as they still have not addressed this.
Since the warning is being shown on every other Macbook that was updated, and even on Macbooks that were purchased by users just a few weeks ago, we can say that it’s just a software glitch with the new update and Apple should fix it with a patch. Regarding the battery life complaints, this is again a subjective issue as a new update takes a fair amount of time to settle down, so we would say that it’s too early to judge the battery life.
As of now, Apple has still not officially commented on either of the issues. Users in desperation who tried to fix this tried it by resetting SMC, but that did not help either. The major nuisance of this bug is that when the warning is shown, the battery percentage is hidden by macOS giving uncertainty to the user about the juice left on his/her Mac. As more and more users report this issue, Apple will have to look into this very soon and provide a fix for this. If Apple provides any solution from their side, we will make sure to keep you updated with the same so stay tuned.
