(Update: Mea Culpa. The Apple tech said the battery is definitely bad and not related to the update. I believe him, even though I think it's weird to see so many people with the "service recommended battery not charging issue" right after upgrading. I'll be off the blog for a few days until I get the computer back.)
I'll be away for a bit. I foolishly clicked update on my Mac's OS. Installed Big Sur and things immediately went haywire. The battery started draining, and I got a warning that the battery needed service and was not charging. I figured it was just a coincidence until I did a quick search on Big Sur + battery problems. I am not alone, not by a long shot.
My battery reads 0% right now. The computer is on plugged in life support.
It's been a frustrating few days. I understand that Big Sur was a massive update, there are going to be bugs with any update, and I should have researched common issues before clicking update. I usually do the due diligence and err on the side of smaller security updates.
I've spent the last couple of days doing tech stuff that I'd happily left in my past long ago. Backing up the hard drive (admittedly, that's probably a good result of this fiasco), learning how to create a boot install disk, resetting SMC and PRAM (whatever the hell those are), re-installing an older version of Mac OS. Hours and hours wasted, all for naught.
I'm not happy with Apple. If you go on the Apple Support message boards or any other boards, you'll see that they're filled with Big Sur issues. It really makes one wonder if Apple said, "To hell with testing!"
Taking the computer in today. Fingers crossed. If it turned out to be a coincidence I'll report back. I'm guessing it will all be inconclusive. One bright spot - the Apple customer support people have been helpful and friendly. The person who called me ahead of my appointment could give seminars on effective customer relations and communication.