How to check another Mac's battery

There are four ways to check the battery of a MacBook from another Mac. Find My works from anywhere and shows an icon. Screen Sharing and Terminal show the exact percentage on your own network. A battery monitor keeps the level in your menu bar. Here is each one.

The four ways

Find My

1. Open the Find My app on your Mac.
2. Click Devices.
3. Select the other Mac. A battery icon is under its name.

Both Macs must use the same Apple Account, with Find My turned on. You get an icon, not a percentage. If the other Mac is asleep or offline, the level is the last one it sent.

Screen Sharing

Turn it on once, on the other Mac.

1. Open the Apple menu and choose System Settings.
2. Click General, then Sharing.
3. Turn on Screen Sharing.

Then, on your Mac:

1. Open the Screen Sharing app.
2. Select the other Mac and sign in.
3. Read the battery in its menu bar.

To see the number, turn on the percentage on that Mac. See how to show battery percentage on a Mac.

Terminal

Turn it on once, on the other Mac.

1. Open the Apple menu and choose System Settings.
2. Click General, then Sharing.
3. Turn on Remote Login. The page shows the command to connect, for example ssh [email protected].

Then, on your Mac, open Terminal and type that command with pmset -g batt at the end.

ssh [email protected] pmset -g batt

Enter the password of that user. The answer has the percentage, and tells you if the Mac is charging.

To read the condition of the battery too, use system_profiler SPPowerDataType in place of pmset -g batt. It gives the cycle count and the maximum capacity. See how to check a MacBook’s battery cycle count.

What these ways do not give you

• Nothing stays in view. Each way means opening an app or typing a command.
• No alert. Nothing tells you that the MacBook in the other room is at 10%.
• No history. You cannot see how the level changed while you were away.
• A sleeping Mac does not answer. Screen Sharing and SSH need the other Mac awake.

Keep the other Mac’s battery in your menu bar

BatteryBud is a battery monitor for Mac. It shows your other Macs next to this Mac, when they are on the same network.

1. Install BatteryBud on both Macs.
2. On the first Mac, open Settings in BatteryBud, click Other Macs, and create a sync code.
3. On the other Mac, open the same page and join with that code.

The Macs talk to each other directly over your local network, and the connection is encrypted with the sync code. No account is needed, and the battery data does not go to a server.

Each Mac shares the devices that it reads, so the accessories of the other Mac show too. You can pin the other Mac to the menu bar with its percentage, and set a low battery alert for it. BatteryBud also records its maximum capacity and charge cycles.

There are two limits. BatteryBud must run on each Mac, and a license covers one Mac at a time, so two Macs need two licenses. The Macs must also be on the same network, so this does not work for a Mac in another building. For that, use Find My.