AlDente not working on Mac: what to check

When AlDente is not working, the Mac is usually doing one of five things: charging past the limit while awake, charging to 100% while asleep or shut down, refusing to charge at all, ignoring a limit below 80%, or quietly dropping Pro features. Each has a different cause. A frequent cause since macOS Tahoe 26.4 is a conflict with the charge controls Apple added to macOS itself, and the vendor's own advice for that is short: set the macOS Charge Limit to 100% and turn off Optimized Battery Charging. Another documented cause is a macOS update, for which AppHouseKitchen documents a five-step reset. Everything below comes from the AlDente FAQ, the release notes on GitHub and Apple's support pages, all checked on 18 October 2026.

Name the symptom before changing anything

Changing three settings at once makes it impossible to tell which one helped. Match what the Mac is doing to one row, try that fix, and then watch one full charge.

What the Mac does	Most likely cause	First thing to try
Charges past the limit while awake and plugged in	macOS Charge Limit or Optimized Battery Charging competing with AlDente	macOS Charge Limit to 100%, Optimized Battery Charging off
Stopped respecting the limit right after a macOS update	Known post-update issue the vendor has not fixed yet	The five-step reset below
Reaches 100% overnight or while shut down	Expected behavior in AlDente Free	Pro sleep features, or accept it
Does not charge at all	Charging left paused after install, uninstall or a crash	Restart sequence for Apple silicon, SMC reset for Intel
A limit under 80% does nothing	New toggle required since version 1.39	Enable it in Charge Settings
Pro features disappeared	License not validated online for 30 days	Go online and reactivate

Two quick checks rule out a lot. First, open the AlDente menu and confirm the version. The current release is 1.39.4, published on 23 September 2026. Second, confirm the macOS version. The FAQ says AlDente 1.38 and later supports macOS 12 Monterey through macOS 27 Golden Gate, that macOS 11 Big Sur is supported only up to 1.37.3, and that beta versions of macOS are not officially supported. A Mac running a developer beta is outside the supported range, whatever else is going on.

Conflicts with the charge controls built into macOS

Since macOS Tahoe 26.4, macOS has two charging features of its own, and either can make AlDente look broken.

Apple's page on Optimized Battery Charging and Charge Limit describes them. Optimized Battery Charging uses on-device learning to delay charging past 80% when the Mac expects to stay plugged in, and shows "Charging On Hold" in the battery menu. Charge Limit requires macOS Tahoe 26.4 or later and a Mac with Apple silicon. It accepts a value between 80% and 100%, charges to within a few percentage points of it, and resumes charging if the level drops more than 5% while connected. Apple also notes that with either feature, the Mac will occasionally charge to 100% to keep its battery estimates accurate.

That last sentence explains many reports of AlDente "suddenly" letting the Mac reach 100%. If the macOS controls are active, macOS itself may decide to complete a full charge.

AppHouseKitchen's recommendation is to let AlDente be the only thing in charge:

1. Open System Settings and click Battery in the sidebar.
2. Click the info button next to Charging.
3. Set Charge Limit to 100%.
4. Turn off Optimized Battery Charging.
5. Click Done, then set the limit inside AlDente.

The FAQ adds that the macOS charge limit does not stay in effect while the MacBook is turned off, and that the team has reverse-engineered the new macOS limit and is evaluating how to integrate it. Until that happens, two limiters on one Mac is the setup most likely to produce confusing results.

There is also a choice to make here. If 80% is low enough, the built-in Charge Limit on an Apple silicon MacBook does the basic job without any third-party app. AlDente becomes necessary when the target is below 80%, or when features such as Heat Protection, Sailing Mode or Calibration Mode matter.

After a macOS update: the documented reset

The FAQ is candid about this one. A small number of users find that AlDente stops working after a macOS update, the team has known about it for a while, and it has not been fixed yet. The steps that have worked for many users are:

1. Unplug the MacBook and let it discharge below the current AlDente charge limit.
2. Shut the MacBook down and close the lid for a couple of minutes.
3. Unplug the power adapter from the wall outlet and wait a couple of minutes.
4. Turn the MacBook on and plug it in again.
5. Watch whether it stops charging at the limit set in AlDente.

Before doing that, update AlDente. Version 1.39 rebuilt charge control for macOS 27 support and improved reliability on earlier macOS versions and Intel MacBooks, including after downgrading from the macOS 27 beta. Version 1.39.1 fixed a charge limit bug on some MacBooks with macOS 15 and below. Version 1.39.2 fixed the charge limit on some Intel MacBooks. Version 1.39.4 fixed Sailing Mode and "Stop Charging When App Closed" on macOS 26 and macOS 15. If the installed version is older than any of these, the update alone may solve the problem.

If the reset does not help, a clean reinstall is the next step, and the order matters. AppHouseKitchen's uninstall guide uses the app's own removal: open AlDente Settings, General, click "Remove AlDente", choose what to delete and confirm with the account password. Dragging the app to the Trash skips that step and can leave charging in a paused state, which leads straight to the next symptom.

It charges to 100% while asleep or shut down

This report is often not a fault at all. While a MacBook sleeps, apps cannot run, so AlDente cannot change how it charges. The FAQ states that AlDente Free cannot control charging during sleep or shutdown, so closing the lid lets the Mac charge to 100%.

AlDente Pro has three features aimed at this, described on the features page:

• Stop Charging when Sleeping pauses charging just before the Mac sleeps, so the battery stays at whatever level it had at that moment.
• Disable Sleep until Charge Limit keeps the Mac awake until it reaches the limit, then lets it sleep. It is under Settings, Battery Care, Sleep Behavior.
• Stop Charging when App Closed keeps the charge limit active after the app is quit. The features page notes it is available only on Apple silicon MacBooks and that the limit resets when the MacBook is powered off.

A side effect people mistake for a bug: AlDente may grey out the Sleep option or block sleep during Calibration Mode, during Discharge in clamshell mode, and while Disable Sleep until Charge Limit is active. That is listed in the FAQ as intended.

For a Mac that is shut down overnight with Free, there is no setting that stops it reaching 100%. The realistic options are Pro, the macOS Charge Limit (which also does not apply while the Mac is off), or unplugging at night.

It will not charge at all, or will not go below 80%

A MacBook that refuses to charge after AlDente was installed, uninstalled or crashed is almost always stuck in a paused charging state. The FAQ gives two fixes.

Apple silicon MacBooks

Keep the MacBook plugged in. Shut it down, close the lid, wait 2 minutes, and turn it on again. Charging should resume.

Intel MacBooks

Follow Apple's guide to resetting the SMC, which is the step the AlDente FAQ points Intel users to. The FAQ adds that this state often follows a problem during installing or uninstalling, which is why its uninstall guide matters.

Limits below 80% doing nothing

Since version 1.39, charge limits below 80% require turning on a toggle in Charge Settings, which the release notes say gives the best results with Apple's new charge control systems. If the slider sits at 60% and the Mac keeps going to 80%, this toggle is the first thing to check. Version 1.39.2 made sub-80% limits available again on Intel MacBooks without the extra toggle.

Charging stops while the Mac is working hard

Heat Protection, a Pro feature, halts charging when the battery temperature rises past a set threshold. The features page explains that heavy CPU or GPU use combined with fast charging can push battery temperatures above 40°C quickly. If charging pauses during an export or a game and resumes once the Mac cools down, that is Heat Protection doing its job, not a fault. Turning it off makes the symptom go away, but it also removes the protection.

Sailing Mode looks idle

Sailing Mode is not meant to discharge the battery. It lets the adapter power the Mac and only resumes charging once the level falls below the interval. If the percentage does not move, that is the feature working. Active discharge is a separate feature called Discharge, and Discharge in clamshell mode is Pro only.

Pro features vanished, or one setup misbehaves

Three less obvious causes are worth checking before contacting support.

The license went offline

The FAQ says AlDente Pro must validate its license online at least once every 30 days. After more than 30 days offline, the license becomes inactive and the app falls back to the free version. Going back online and reactivating restores Pro. A Mac that has been in a drawer, or that lives on an isolated network, will hit this.

The activation limit

One license key can be active on up to three macOS user accounts at the same time, either on one Mac or across up to three Macs. A fourth activation fails. Moving to a new MacBook means deactivating first: AlDente Settings, General, Manage License, Deactivate. If the old Mac is gone, the FAQ points to Paddle, the merchant of record, to release the key.

Thunderbolt docks

The FAQ notes that some third-party Thunderbolt docks are incompatible with some AlDente features, mainly but not only OWC docks, and that some of these cause disconnects during Discharge. Testing with the power adapter connected directly to the MacBook separates a dock problem from an AlDente problem quickly.

Costs and the exact split between Free and Pro are on the vendor's pricing page. The Free column there lists only Charge Limiter and Discharge, which is useful context when deciding whether a missing behavior is a fault or a feature that was never included.

What to change first

Set the macOS Charge Limit to 100%, turn off Optimized Battery Charging, update AlDente to 1.39.4, and watch one charge. If the AlDente icon tends to get lost among other icons, a menu bar manager can keep it hidden and bring it out only when the battery drops below a chosen level. Koffret does this with a battery condition, and the FAQ covers the permissions it needs.