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Sudden Drop in iPad Battery Capacity (5 1/2 yr old iPad Pro)
Hi folks
I have a 2017 iPad Pro 10.5 and Ive noticed in the last few weeks that batter capacity seems to have nosedived a bit. I notice it especially with graphically intense apps e.g. games, or certain music apps, but it is definitely across the board.
It’s not the loss of capacity itself, which is expected, but the way it seems to have accelerated recently and whether others have experienced similar on devices of a similar age?
I have restarted the device a couple of times in case there was any rogue process etc but it’s still draining at a faster rather than before.
I am moving towards replacing the battery soon I think, but I’d like to get as much use out of this one as I can first. And I have used it many hours a day for all of that time so it’s held up pretty well.
Any experiences, thoughts to share?
Comments
I have a few phones that behaved like that when the batteries got old.
It's "normal" or I should say, "standard". 5/6 years old for this kind of device is like 80 years old for a human being. I had many iPad, my mother had many iPad, my dad, my sister. 5 years is often the end of life of the device. At least, I always get rid of it for something newer and faster, I'm not saying you cannot keep it 10 years.
I think one relevant factor is how often the battery was drained to 0%. If it happened once or twice, the capacity should remain quite high after 5 and more years. If it happened on a regular basis (under 20%, under 5%, 0%), one can expect that the battery must be replaced, even after a year or two. Exposure to temperatures below 0° C can also damage the lithium cells, and letting the device get hot in the sun is also something one should prevent.
My 10.5 suddenly has gone to 10% and turned itself off.
Back on and would show ‘not charging’.
I left it plugged in overnight and is showing 85% this morning but I’ve already booked a battery replacement tomorrow.
£100 not a bad price to pay for another 3+ years of iPad experience with the 3.5mm Jack input.
One thing that worries me though, is that the aftermarket batteries aren’t as good as the original even if fitted by ‘Apple authorised’ blah blah.
This is what started to happen to my iPad Air 2 about 2 years ago...
...means the battery has severely degraded performance.
It's only a matter of time before it starts to turn it self of when the battery heats up.
According to Cocnut Battery my iPad Air 2's battery is very bad at the moment about 10% of design capacity.
It lasts less than 5 minutes without being plugged into the wall
(Standby with screen of and cover on is ~2 1/2 hours).
Why would apple themselves not use the original battery?
I’ve heard apple doesn’t replace iPad batteries at all but you rather get a replacement/refurbished device
I don’t know why but I’ve had a bad experience with my iPhone 6s where I had ‘service’ only after 1 year’s use. In contrast, I’ve replaced the battery myself 2 years ago and it’s still 100% peak performance.
They wouldn’t give me a refurbished unit with a 5 year old device. It is no longer produced or sold by Apple.
So, running it down to 0% is bad and should be avoided...?
‘Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, the depth of discharge (DoD) determines the cycle count of the battery. The smaller the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine. There is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles to prolong life.’
https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries
OK. Thanks for that.
The thing is, apple’s 0% indicator is just an arbitrary value that they decided was a good tradeoff between battery life and battery longevity. There’s not really a physical 0% that is ever reached, that would just destroy the battery, there’s just a range of capacity/voltages that is increasingly damaging to the battery. It’s best for battery longevity to remain between a certain voltage range but we have no idea how apple’s % indicator translates into actual voltage or capacity so saying „never let the voltage drop below x“ is a pretty arbitrary statement itself because we don’t have any clue what x% even translates to…
What should be avoided in my opinion is to arrange your life around a battery that has a limited lifetime anyway, that will inevitably suffer and can be replaced for a fraction of the cost of the device. Who knows, maybe that one time you forgot the phone in the black bag sitting in the sun for an hour is more damaging that the 50 times you ran out of battery over the last year… we have no idea how big the impact of a single damaging event like an overheated battery is compared to constant „mistreatment“ by using it to 10 or 0%.
OK. Thanks. I'll keep it topped up.
The question really is how big is the influence of your personal effort. if it takes your battery 1 year 6 months vs 1 year 5 months to reach 80% battery health but you put daily effort into looking out for your battery, was that really worth it? If a new battery is “only“ 90 bucks and you extended your battery longevity by, let’s say 10%. So the hours of worrying and taking care and being cautious and reading articles and unplugging at 80% etc etc. might amount to a value of 9€. Was is worth it? Would you rather pay an extra 9€ if it meant you don’t have to care for your battery at all?
So I suppose I should just buy a new iPad?
Or a new battery?
Or not worry about it?
Oh, my brain hurts.
I’d definitely consider making your device functional as long as possible. Even if only to reduce electronic waste.
Yeah my battery did drain to 0% quite recently when, ironically, I forgot to exit AUM overnight. It’s only happened 3 or 4 times in the lifetime of the iPad though, but maybe at this stage in its life the complete drain has accelerated the battery’s demise …
But otherwise the iPad is in fine form and holding up well even with recent apps, and I will definitely be replacing the battery.
I have the same iPad as you. My battery is not as bad as yours but I can see it’s not what is used to be.
Let us know how the battery replacement process go.
Yup ... I have been using mine for between 2 and 10 hours daily for 5 1/2 years, most of which has been music making, or graphically intense apps such as gaming, so I think I've done pretty well.
If I'm careful I can still get about 3 hours of light use out of it, or about 90 mins of intense music making (AUM + many plugins).
Apple will replace the battery for £99 which isn't bad considering the unit cost around £700 and it's otherwise in excellent working order, and the alternative is a landfill somewhere ...
If battery life is a concern, would it better to stick with something else like a Dirtywave M8?
Thanks everyoen for pitching in - that's useful.
I had heard that it was good to run the battery down to 0% every so often, so maybe I read the wrong advice on that, but hey, we live and learn!
I'm pretty happy with the iPad and I don't have funds for new gear these days, so am making the best use of what I have got, but thanks!
Mine is older and if I run it for very long and not attached to a power source I lose 1% power for every 5 seconds or so. My battery is far worse. Haha.
From what I understand they don’t replace the battery but they give you a refurbished. I don’t see any 2017 iPad Pro in the refurb store. Any chance of getting a more recent in exchange? Anybody as gone thru the process?
Apple officially recommended to do exactly this. That was some time ago, around 2013. I consulted a local solar/battery company about the topic, and they responded that this is definitely not good for a lithium-based battery.
We can only guess why Apple gave (or still gives) this very bad advice: either it is good for the battery % indicator, to be more accurate, or for selling more devices, or both.
Sometimes, devices that are attached to the charger for long times, may indicate 97% battery, although it is 100%. Draining the battery to 0% regularly, as recommended by Apple, may recalibrate the % indication.
I've had this with my iPad Pro 2017 10.5 inch. When using lots of music apps in AUM, battery life is absolutely appalling - like barely an hour. Also, the machine has a habit of draining to zero but then being able to turn on again, with it then registering around 30% battery still there. Have you ever had that? Genius Bar did nothing to help, btw. Battery life was still rated at 85%, so I couldn't get a replacement.
Music apps are just heavy. Watching YouTube for hours is still possible.
I'd also heard to run the battery down to 0% once in a while, partly to recalibrate the battery indicator, but if this is hastening its demise, will definitely avoid doing so again.
My battery capacity on the same unit is similar, maybe 90 minutes, depending on how many apps I'm running. I was pleasantly surprised last night though in a simpler set, with Tardigrain and a few others, to be playing for about 30 mins with only about 20% battery drop.
I've occasionally had problems powering up the unit when battery still has charge, but if it's the same issue I've had sometimes, there is a way round this with certain button press combination, which I forget now, but I found it quickly with a Google search.
This is very well true. Of course there is this uncomfortable thing about resource management on a global layer, the large machinery and industry which uses huge amounts of gasoline to produce our much needed lithium batteries - something we usually are not aware of when we purchase devices; it is known, but contradicts our life-style, because we do not like to take responsibility about global issues, even if we want to.
Matter is not eternal, it is destined to decay. We use matter as it fits our needs.
I think we should keep a balance between avail and responsibility. Caring too much about this makes us slaves to technology. We don’t want that. Let us just use what is given to us. A good song, a good composition, can enlighten the hearts and minds of many people. The cost for this production outweighs the ‘damage’, I believe.
In my opinion, the best way is to use modern technology to its extent, and still keep an eye on the footprint we make. Do not let you be embarrassed too much by battery management and other technical details, as well as sociological and ecological problems.
These are gifts given to us. We should use them wisely.
Same ipad here and had a huge drop too. Also, have had it shut off when there was clearly battery left so then plugged in to charging and after a while it boots up with the battery indicator showing similar battery left to where it shut off. Anyone had good recent results with a battery replacement? I have in the past, but wondering if ios 15/16 are just really power consumptive to where the replacement is negligible?
https://www.apple.com/batteries/