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Battery Saver

Automatically reduce capture frequency when your Mac is on battery power to extend battery life. Your recordings still happen, just less often.

Updated August 2026

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What Is Battery Saver?

Battery Saver is an opt-in feature that automatically reduces how often Retrace captures your screen when your Mac is running on battery power. It cuts energy usage by up to 66% by slowing down screen analysis and frame saving. Your recordings still happen, just less frequently.

When you plug back in, full capture speed is restored instantly. The setting persists across app restarts, so once enabled, it works automatically every time you unplug.

Note
Battery Saver is off by default. You need to enable it once in Settings. After that, it activates and deactivates automatically based on your power source.

Enabling Battery Saver

  1. Open the Retrace timeline
  2. Click the gear menu in the bottom-right corner
  3. Select Settings
  4. Click Storage in the sidebar
  5. Find the Battery Saver section and flip the toggle to ON

You'll see a green battery icon next to the toggle, along with a brief description. Hover the info icon (ⓘ) for a detailed explanation of how the feature works.

How It Works

Battery Saver activates when both of these conditions are true:

  • Your Mac is running on battery (power cable unplugged)
  • The Battery Saver toggle is ON in Settings

If either condition is false, Retrace runs at full speed.

Screen Analysis Speed

Retrace continuously analyzes your screen for visual changes. Battery Saver reduces this analysis rate:

StateAnalysis Rate
Normal (plugged in or saver off)3 FPS
Battery Saver active1 FPS

At 1 FPS, the image processing pipeline does 66% less work, significantly reducing CPU and GPU usage.

Capture Intervals

Capture intervals control how often frames are actually saved. When Battery Saver is active, intervals are doubled but never slower than the Slow recording mode's values (30s minimum, 60s maximum).

Recording SpeedNormal Min / MaxBattery Saver Min / Max
Active5s / 60s10s / 60s
Passive10s / 30s20s / 60s
Slow30s / 60s30s / 60s (no change)
Ultra3s / 3s6s / 6s
Note
In Slow mode, Battery Saver has no effect on capture intervals because they're already at the floor. The only benefit is the analysis rate drop from 3 FPS to 1 FPS, which still reduces CPU and GPU work.

What You'll See

Unplugging (Saver Enabled)

When you unplug your MacBook with Battery Saver enabled:

  1. Retrace waits 3 seconds to filter out brief power fluctuations (such as MagSafe wobble or USB-C negotiation)
  2. A toast appears below the menu bar icon: 🔋 "Battery saver active"
  3. The toast auto-dismisses after 4 seconds
  4. Capture reconfigures to 1 FPS with no interruption to your recording

Plugging Back In

When you plug your MacBook back in while Battery Saver was active:

  1. Retrace waits 3 seconds (same debounce)
  2. A toast appears: ⚡ "Full capture rate restored"
  3. The toast auto-dismisses after 4 seconds
  4. Capture reconfigures back to 3 FPS instantly
Tip
The transition between battery and full speed is seamless. There is no stream restart and no gap in your recording. Retrace reconfigures the capture pipeline live.

Launching on Battery

If you start Retrace while already on battery power:

  • Toggle ON: Capture starts at 1 FPS from the beginning. No toast is shown since you haven't just unplugged.
  • Toggle OFF: Capture starts at normal 3 FPS. The suggestion banner may appear (see below).

Suggestion Banner

If you unplug your MacBook and Battery Saver is not enabled, Retrace shows a suggestion banner below the menu bar icon:

  • "Save battery while on the go" with a description: "Reduces capture frequency to extend battery life"

The banner offers three actions:

  • Enable: Turns on Battery Saver immediately, closes the banner, and opens Settings so you can see the toggle
  • ✕ (dismiss): Closes the banner for the current session. It won't appear again until the next app restart.
  • "Don't show again": Permanently suppresses the banner across all future sessions
Note
The banner auto-dismisses after 30 seconds if you don't interact with it. This counts as a session dismissal.

When the Banner Won't Appear

The suggestion banner is suppressed if any of these are true:

  • You previously clicked "Don't show again"
  • You already dismissed the banner during this session
  • You turned Battery Saver off while on battery during this session
  • Battery Saver is already enabled

Fallback Notification

If the Retrace menu bar icon is hidden, the banner cannot be shown as a popover. Instead, Retrace sends a standard macOS notification:

  • Title: "Battery Saver Available"
  • Body: "Reduce capture frequency to extend battery life. Enable in Settings → Storage."

Quick Capture While on Battery

When you use Quick Capture (⌘ + ⇧ + N) while Battery Saver is active, Retrace temporarily boosts the capture rate to 3 FPS for just that capture. This ensures your note captures a fresh frame as fast as it would on AC power. The rate returns to 1 FPS immediately afterward.

Disabling Battery Saver

  1. Go to Settings → Storage
  2. Find the Battery Saver section
  3. Flip the toggle to OFF

If you're currently on battery, capture immediately returns to full speed. The suggestion banner is suppressed for the rest of the session so Retrace won't prompt you to re-enable something you just turned off.

Tip
"Don't show again" permanently dismisses the suggestion banner. You can still enable or disable Battery Saver anytime in Settings → Storage.

How Power Changes Are Detected

Retrace monitors your Mac's power source using the same system API that macOS uses for its own battery icon. A 3-second debounce filters out transient power source changes caused by MagSafe connector alignment, USB-C Power Delivery negotiation, or brief charger disconnections. Only after the power state remains stable for 3 continuous seconds does Retrace act on the change.

Next Steps