Contents

How to List Battery Status Across All Macs

Using Kolide, you can easily view and query Mac Battery Status across your fleet.

Introduction

Portable macOS devices such as MacBooks can report diagnostic data about the identity and state of their internal battery. This can include details such as charge cycles, charge percentage, and overall health.

What Mac Battery Status Data Can Kolide Collect?

Kolide's endpoint agent bundles in osquery to efficiently collect Mac Battery Status from Macs in your fleet. Once collected, Kolide will parse, clean up, and centrally store this data in Inventory for your team to view, query, or export via API.

Kolide meticulously documents every piece of data returned so you can understand the results.

Mac Battery Status Schema

Column	Type	Description
id	Primary Key	Unique identifier for the object
device_id	Foreign Key	Device associated with the entry
device_name	Text	Display name of the device associated with the entry
amperage	Integer	The battery's current amperage in mA
charged	Boolean	`true` if the battery is currently completely charged; `false` otherwise
charging	Boolean	`true` if the battery is currently being charged by a power source; `false` otherwise
condition	Enum::Text	A description of the battery's condition Can be one of the following: `Normal` - Indicates the condition of the battery is within normal tolerances `Check Battery` - Indicates that the battery should be inspected by a licensed Mac repair service `Permanent Failure` - Indicates the battery needs replacement
current_capacity	Integer	The battery's current charged capacity in mAh
cycle_count	Integer	The number of charge/discharge cycles
designed_capacity	Integer	The battery's designed capacity in mAh
health	Enum::Text	A description of the battery's health Can be one of the following: `Good` - Describes a well-performing battery `Fair` - Describes a functional battery with limited capacity `Poor` - Describes a functional battery that's not capable of providing power
manufacture_date	Date	The date the battery was manufactured
manufacturer	Text	The battery manufacturer's name Note on data collection: Due to a bug in the macOS battery API, occasionally this value will be overwritten with `NULL`
max_capacity	Integer	The battery's actual capacity when it is fully charged in mAh
minutes_to_full_charge	Integer	The number of minutes until the battery is fully charged. Special Values: `-1` - The system is currently calculating the value
minutes_until_empty	Integer	The number of minutes until the battery is fully depleted. Special Values: `-1` - The system is currently calculating the value
model	Text	The battery's model number
percent_remaining	Integer	The percentage of battery remaining before it is drained
serial	Text	The battery's unique serial number
state	Enum::Text	A description of the battery's current charging state or status Can be one of the following: `AC Power` - Indicates the battery is connected to an external power source `Battery Power` - Indicates that the battery is drawing internal power `Off Line` - Indicates the battery is off-line or no longer connected
voltage	Integer	The battery's current voltage in mV
collected_at	Timestamp	Time the row of data was first collected in the database
updated_at	Timestamp	Time the row of data was last changed in the database

What Can You Do With This Information?

Kolide enables you to write your own queries against the data the agent collects. This allows you to build your own reports and API endpoints. For example, you can:

Look for Mac batteries whose health check reports needed service

Kolide SQL

SELECT 
    device_name, 
    model AS battery_model, 
    health, 
    serial AS battery_serial, 
    cycle_count 
FROM mac_batteries 
WHERE health != 'Good'

Example Results

health	cycle_count	device_name	battery_model	battery_serial
Check Battery	227	eradicator	bq20z451	D868267A5WWJ65H3Q
Check Battery	418	georges-macbook	bq20z451	F5D80135MBWGQT7AC

Why Should I Collect Mac Battery Status?

This information is collected to determine batteries which are potentially in need of service or likely due for replacement. Serial numbers are also cataloged for administrators to cross reference with Apple recall notices.

End-User Privacy Consideration

Kolide practices Honest Security. We believe that data should be collected from end-user devices transparently and with privacy in mind.

When you use Kolide to list Mac Battery Status data from end-user devices, Kolide gives the people using those devices insight into exactly what data is collected, the privacy implications, and who on the IT team can see the data. This all happens in our end-user privacy center which can be accessed directly by employees.