Check AirPods and Accessory Battery Levels on Mac
On an iPhone the answer is a widget away. On a Mac, checking whether your AirPods, Magic Mouse, or Magic Keyboard is about to die means knowing where macOS decided to put that information, and it is not where most people look first.
No Battery item in System Settings lists accessories. The levels exist, spread across the Bluetooth menu, Control Center, and a Notification Center widget, and each of those shows a slightly different set of devices.
Short answer: click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar and hover the device, or add
the Batteries widget to Notification Center. From the command line, pmset -g accps
lists connected accessories that report a battery level.
The three places macOS shows it
Bluetooth menu. If the Bluetooth icon is in your menu bar, click it and the connected devices are listed with their battery percentage. If the icon is not there, turn it on in System Settings > Control Center > Bluetooth and set it to show in the menu bar.
Control Center. Open Control Center and click Bluetooth. The same devices appear with their levels, without needing the separate menu bar icon.
Notification Center Batteries widget. Click the date in the menu bar to open Notification Center, scroll to the bottom, click Edit Widgets, and add Batteries. This is the closest thing to the iPhone experience: a persistent panel showing the Mac's own battery alongside every connected accessory.
For AirPods specifically, the levels appear while they are connected and playing to the Mac. If they are in the case or connected to another device, the Mac has nothing to report and they will not be listed.
From the command line
pmset is the power management tool, and its accessory subcommand lists battery-reporting
devices:
pmset -g accps
On a Mac with nothing connected, the output covers just the built-in battery:
Now drawing from 'AC Power'
-InternalBattery-0 (id=22282339) 79%; AC attached; not charging present: true
Connected accessories that report a level join that list. This is the same data the menu surfaces, read from the same place, so it is useful mainly for scripting or for checking several Macs at once.
To confirm what is actually connected in the first place:
system_profiler SPBluetoothDataType
That prints the controller, then a Connected section and a Not Connected section, each device with its address, vendor, product id, firmware version, and minor type (Headphones, Keyboard, Mouse). Battery keys appear only under connected devices, so check there before deciding a device reports no level at all.
Why a device shows no battery level
Not every Bluetooth accessory reports one, and none of these cases is a fault:
| Situation | What is happening |
|---|---|
| Device is paired but not connected | macOS has no live session to read a level from |
| Third-party headphones | Battery reporting over Bluetooth is optional; many brands do not implement it |
| AirPods in the case | The case relays levels to iOS; the Mac sees no connected audio device |
| Device connected to another Apple device | Only the device holding the connection can read it |
| Older or generic accessories | No battery service in their Bluetooth profile at all |
When a third-party headset never shows a level, the device is not publishing one. No app on the Mac can invent it.
AirPods and the case
This is the difference people notice most when moving from iPhone to Mac. On iOS, opening the case near the phone shows all three levels: left, right, and case. On macOS you see the earbud levels while they are connected and playing, and the case level never arrives.
To read the case level, use an iPhone or iPad on the same Apple Account. It is a platform difference, not a setting you have missed.
Low battery, silently
macOS warns you about its own battery and says nothing about your accessories. System Settings has no low-accessory-battery notification to turn on, which is how a Magic Mouse comes to die mid-sentence.
Two habits cover the gap. Charge on a schedule instead of waiting for a level, because these accessories last long enough that the warning you are waiting for never comes. And if you use a Magic Mouse, its charging port is on the underside, so it cannot be used while charging: a five-minute top-up before a meeting beats a full charge started the moment it dies.
Where a monitor fits
Mole puts connected accessory batteries in the same status view as the Mac's own battery, CPU, memory, and thermal state, so the answer is in the menu bar rather than three clicks into Bluetooth. It reports the levels the system publishes for connected devices and shows nothing for accessories that do not publish one, rather than guessing a number.
For the Mac's own battery, including cycle count and condition, see how to check MacBook battery health.
FAQ
Why do my AirPods not show a battery level on my Mac?
Almost always because they are not currently connected to the Mac, or they are in the case. Play audio to the Mac and check again.
Can I see the AirPods case battery on a Mac?
Not reliably. The case level is surfaced on iOS when you open the case near the device. Use an iPhone or iPad on the same Apple Account.
Does macOS warn me when an accessory battery is low?
No, macOS has no low-battery notification for accessories. A widget or a menu bar monitor is the substitute.
Why does my third-party mouse show no percentage?
Battery reporting is an optional part of the Bluetooth profile and many manufacturers skip it. If the device does not publish a level, nothing on the Mac can display one.