My iPad only lasts a few days even with zero use. I have not been able to figure out what settings to modify so that I can (for example) pick it up a month later and not find the battery dead.
My iPad only lasts a few days even with zero use. I have not been able to figure out what settings to modify so that I can (for example) pick it up a month later and not find the battery dead.
It's Find My. No great solution. I turn my iPad off now when not actively using it.
Wow you’re right. Find My has used 10% of my battery in the past day even though my iPad stays permanently at home. What’s worse is that my battery life has dropped from 100% health to 96% after a year even though I enabled the 80% charge limit. I wonder if Find My has added excessive wear on the battery.
A lot of the wear comes in when the charge falls below ~10%. Although 100% > 96% sounds pretty normal unless the device is brand new.
A lot of lithium batteries will have a hit of initial wear compared to brand new, level off the wear for a long while, then start declining again. It going from 100% health to 96% health in say the first year probably isn't too concerning, assuming it levels off around there soon.
Another solution is just to fully turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. (Not "disable new connections" but fully turn them off). I have a Shortcut on my iPad's homescreen that does this. Just keeping Bluetooh off definitely greatly improves idle battery life. And you can use Shortcut automations to automatically turn it back on when you take certain actions. And if you don't care about Find My at all, you can disable it deep in system settings.
This is all far from ideal.
I've been doing this with my MBA M4 since day one: I turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to prevent the network and my connected keyboard and mouse from interrupting the computer's sleep.
I configured Control+Command+S as a shortcut to put the computer to sleep. While playing a music video on YouTube, I pressed the shortcut and the music stopped. However, as soon as I moved the mouse or used the keyboard, the video started playing again, even while the computer was supposedly "asleep" (with the lid open or closed).
So, at the end of the day, the best thing for me to do is turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, then use the shortcut to put the device to sleep, and finally close the lid before putting the MBA in my backpack.
Yep, same experience. It's crazy that the very much default case of "iPad and things with Air Tags" has this effect. Not exactly an edge case.
Disabling bluetooth usually helps there. But completely, not from the control center.
Disable push notifications and background sync. Those will always be the things that pull the most idle power.
I have the same issue. I've disabled "Find My" feature and uninstalled everything that kept showing up as battery draining apps. My iPad loses about 20-25% of battery every night and there is nothing showing up in battery details anymore.
I'm pretty sure the problem would go away with a factory reset. Just like it with old Windows installations, except you had a better change debugging those...
Harsh suggestion: log out of iCloud on the device.
If that works you can try to isolate it further.
how do you work without iCloud?
Yes, I realize alternatives exist, but this works so smoothly on Apple devices.
It’s a debugging technique not a permanent solution.
If logging out of iCloud does NOT fix the problem, you eliminated a bunch of potential issues at once.
Yeah, it's just to see if that is the issue. It's possible a massive or constant sync from Files or Photos is what is pulling down your battery.
I mean, switching to Airplane mode is another thing worth trying.
As is rebooting the phone.
My new A16 iPad seems to use more power sitting closed much than I would have thought. I came here to say this, but found you got to it first. I hope someone here has some thoughts on the matter.
I am more Android guy, so I am not yet familiar with the options. Does the iPad have a power usage app describing what apps/services are using the power? Bluetooth for one to keep the Apple Pencil ready, I suppose.
yes, search for battery