Comparing results with Windows devices

When comparing these scores with results from a Windows device, please ensure that the results from the windows device are results from the multi-platform mode of the Battery Life Benchmark. For information on how to run the benchmark in multi-platform mode, please the "Running the multi-platform Battery Life Benchmark on Windows" article. 

Installing required software 

Make sure you are connected to the Internet. 

Updating macOS 

  1. Ensure you are running the latest version of macOS. You can check the latest versions of macOS on the Apple website. 

Installing Microsoft Office software 

For the Office Productivity scenario, you need to install licensed versions of Microsoft Office. 

  1.  Install Microsoft Office 365 or Microsoft Office 2019 (or newer). 
  2. Open any Microsoft Office application and activate the license by either logging in with a suitable account or by entering a license key. 
  3. Open the Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint apps at least once, then clear any popups or activation dialogs to prevent them from interfering with the Procyon office productivity Benchmark.  

Installing the UL Procyon multi-platform Battery Life Benchmark (note that this is the same installer as the One Hour Battery Consumption Benchmark on Mac)

  1. Install Procyon:
    Procyon-v2-1-163-one-hour-battery-benchmark-macos.pkg
  2. You may be prompted to install Rosetta to continue the installation unless Rosetta is already installed in the system. It can be installed with the command:  
    softwareupdate --install-rosetta 
  3. Follow the prompts to complete the installation. 

Note:  
UL Procyon is installed in the ‘/Library/UL/Procyon/BatteryLife’ folder. 

Registering your Procyon license

  1. Open Terminal. 
  2. In Terminal, navigate to the installation folder with:  
    cd /Library/UL/Procyon/BatteryLife 
  3. Register your license:
    ./UL_Procyon --register <license key>


First time Procyon setup

We recommend that in order to correctly set up the required macOS security permissions, you first run the “Office Productivity first time setup” and "video playback first time setup processes, then accept the requests for security permissions that appear in the first few minutes of the process.  

Usually on a system that has not any special permissions configured the Office Productivity and video playback first time setup process goes as follows: 

  1. Using Terminal, run the configuration tool in the Procyon install directory:  
    ./UL_Procyon -d office_productivity_first_time_setup.def && ./UL_Procyon -d video_playback_first_time_setup.def
  2. Accept the macOS permission requests that appear during the first-time process.  
  3. The last prompt will take you to Security & Permissions in Settings app.  
  4. Check the box next to “java” (on macOS Monterey) or “Terminal” (on macOS Ventura & Sonoma) 
  5. The first-time setup will end and show a prompt to retry the first-run setup if it does not have all necessary security permissions. 
  6. Click ‘Retry’ in the first-time setup dialog. 
  7. Accept any more permission requests that appear. 
  8. Necessary security permissions will have been set up once the first-time setup ends successfully. You may have to run the setup several times to achieve this. 


Notes:  

  • Do not run the commands using sudo, as it may cause issues when running the benchmark. 
  • In case you accidentally deny a permission instead of accepting it, you can go to Security & Permissions in Settings app to check boxes in Accessibility and Automation tabs 
  • If it all fails, you can start over by resetting all permissions by issuing the following command in Terminal: 
    tccutil reset All  
    • Some enterprise security systems may require you to first add Terminal app to have Full disk access in Security & Permissions 


Required Permissions

MacOS 12 Monterey 

On macOS 12 Monterey, the required permissions are: 

    Accessibility: 

  • /Library/UL/Procyon/jdk8u292-b10-jre/Contents/Home/bin/java 

    Automation: 

  • /Library/UL/Procyon/ jdk8u292-b10-jre/Contents/Home/bin/java 
  • Microsoft Word 
  • Microsoft PowerPoint 
  • Microsoft Excel 
  • System Events 
  • QuickTime player 

macOS 13 Ventura and macOS 14 Sonoma

On macOS 13 Ventura, the required permissions are: 

    Accessibility: 

  • Terminal 

    Automation: 

  • Terminal 
  • Microsoft Word 
  • Microsoft PowerPoint 
  • Microsoft Excel 
  • System Events 
  • QuickTime player


Run the Battery Life Benchmark

Once the benchmark is installed and permissions configured properly, it can be run as follows: 

  1. Open Terminal. 
  2. In Terminal, navigate to the installation folder with:
    cd /Library/UL/Procyon/BatteryLife
  3. To run the benchmark using the office productivity scenario:
    ./UL_Procyon -d "custom_definitions/office_productivity_mp_batterylife.def" -o "<Export_folder>/resultfilename.procyon-result"
  4. To run the benchmark using the Idle scenario:
    ./UL_Procyon -d "custom_definitions/video_playback_mp_batterylife.def" -o "<Export_folder>/resultfilename.procyon-result"
  5. To run the benchmark using the Video Playback scenario:
    ./UL_Procyon -d "custom_definitions/idle_mp_batterylife.def" -o "<Export_folder>/resultfilename.procyon-result"

Please note: Export folders must be created before attempting to save files into them.

Viewing your results

The best method to process benchmark result data is to use the One-Hour Battery Consumption benchmark with Testdriver Cloud.  

If you chose to not use Testdriver Cloud, you can extract the information from the results file using either of the following processes.  

Exporting with command line switch

  1. Use the -export-simple-CSV command line switch to export results as a single CSV file:  
    ./UL_Procyon -d "custom_defintions/<scenario>_mp_batterylife.def" -o <Export File Name>.zip --export-simple-csv <CSV File Name>.csv

Extracting Result.xml from the .procyon-result file.

(This is essentially the same as using -export-xml command) 

  1. Unzip the .procyon-result file to extract the contents. Your benchmark results are available in the ‘Result.xml’ file.

Once you have the CSV or XML file, you can process the data with your preferred tools.


Uninstalling the UL Procyon multi-platform Battery Life Benchmark

The benchmark can be uninstalled as follows: 

  1. Open Terminal. 
  2. In Terminal, navigate to the installation folder with:
    cd /Library/UL/Procyon/BatteryLife
  3. Run the uninstallation script:
    sudo ./uninstall.sh 

Note:  

It is not recommended to uninstall just by removing the installation folder, as it will leave the Procyon app installed in the operating system registers. This can cause issues when installing Procyon again later.