Hot Swap Your MacBook's Battery
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Owners of Apple's MacBooks have the ability to hot swap their batteries without using a power adapter.
Imagine that you're a blogger and you've worked all day in the local park blogging about squirrel mating rituals and the various trees, when suddenly your MacBook warns you that you have less than 30 minutes of power left in your battery. If you want to continue working before the MacBook eventually falls asleep on its own, follow these easy steps.
1. Save and close: Save any open files in open applications. To be extra cautious, close the files you just saved. It is okay to leave the applications themselves running, and you could even leave the files open, but just in case, to prevent loss or damage to the open data file, we recommend that you close the file(s) before proceeding.
2. Sleep, that's where I'm a viking: If your Macbook is not asleep, tuck it in by pressing ctrl+eject and selecting Sleep, or tapping the power button and selecting Sleep, or closing the MacBook's lid. Keep an eye on the sleep indicator light at the front of your MacBook.
When this light pulsates, it's safe to pull the battery
When you first put your MacBook to sleep, the LED light at the front of your machine glows solid. During that time, the MacBook is writing your machine's RAM contents to the hard dive. Once the LED begins to pulsate, it's safe to proceed to the next step.
Note: At this point your MacBook is in Safe Sleep mode. Mac OS X has saved the contents of the RAM (Random Access Memory) to the computer's hard drive. When you remove the battery, the sleep light will go out and the computer will power off. This is normal, do not panic.
3. Swap that battery: Remove the drained battery and replace it with the fresh battery.
4. It's alive!: Open the lid and tap the power button to wake the MacBook up. The Macbook will start up from Safe Sleep mode, the screen will initially be gray and then will show you your desktop with a gray tint and a progress bar.
Once the progress bar finishes, you're ready to rock.
Once the progress bar is finished your system resumes where it left off when you put it to sleep. This means any open applications, etc. will be open as you left them. Your MacBook is now wide awake and ready to go!
Note: We recommend practicing this how-to a few times. If you press the power button too long you'll restart the MacBook.
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ibi12
April 23, 2010 at 9:22am
I still use it and I have a backup just in case. However my question is, this seems like a compatible replacement. Would you suggest it? internet faxing
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November 10, 2009 at 11:53pm
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mckeeverm
March 28, 2009 at 9:13am
I have an aluminum Macbook and have tried this a couple times with no luck. Is there some option that needs to be set in System Preferences that I have missed or something? Or does this just apply to Macbook Pros?
sandralee09
February 27, 2009 at 3:12pm
does this mean that i have to have another battery as a spare for when this happens?
DavidMF
February 25, 2009 at 9:38am
Isn't easier to use the cord? I just ask because then you would have to buy multiple batteries, and then lug them around with you and then recharge them anyway when they die... I'm a noobie so maybe I'm missing something.
MacGeorgeHB
February 13, 2009 at 1:12am
Didn't know about this. Thought I had to keep hooked up to the power supply. It's helpful to know this when I am traveling. One less cord to have to use. Thanks.
MacAddict4Life
February 05, 2009 at 2:11pm
TiBooks had hot-swappable batteries, no Safe Sleep involved. Safe sleep was introduced either on the final Aluminum PowerBooks, or on early MacBooks/MacBook Pros, I'm not sure which. But TiBooks, if you are fast enough, don't do the Safe Sleep and wake up quickly from a normal sleep. If you are too slow, then TiBooks loose power.
Ben
February 05, 2009 at 12:46pm
I know that my 1 GHz TiBook has this feature. Most PowerBook G4's do [I'm pretty sure all of the aluminum PowerBook G4's do]. iBooks do not support this feature.
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