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How good is your battery life?
I got my iPad 4 in April 2013. I use it constantly, as it has largely replaced my MBP for everything but DAW use and downloading (hell, it is rarely out of my hands unless I'm sleeping or working), so I am sure this contributes to the shortened battery life I have been experiencing lately. It has become an indispensable part of my music studio, but I often have to set it aside, as I have yet to find an ideal way to charge it while using it for audio and midi. I try to keep the battery around 100% and power cycle it at least once a month, but lately I find that it quickly drops to about 70% within 2 hours or so of web browsing (and much worse if I'm using it a lot for making music), and takes longer and longer to charge than it used to. As a result, I'm using it less and less in the studio because I cannot rely on it for longer sessions, especially in the last month or so as I've noticed a more significant drain on the battery. I'm also experiencing issues where it is not accepting a charge for more than a few minutes from an Apple branded lightening cable and 12w power adaptor.
This isn't the first time I've had issues with Apple products and power consumption; my last two MacBooks have died from power/overheating issues, and my current iPhone 4s shuts off once it hits around 23% battery life, even tho plugging it into a power source quickly jumps it to around 35% battery and it quickly reaches a full charge in less than an hour.
At this point, I'm too invested in the software and my current hardware configuration for music to even consider switching, but these are glaring issues to me, so I'm curious if other folks are encountering similar problems or best practices to work around them.
Comments
Hi. I also own an iPad4 from around that time. Battery life is still great, like I don't really notice any difference through the time I used it. I am very anal, though, when it comes to charging/ power cycling. I NEVER charge it before it reaches 15% (that includes liveshows as well, just needs some thought about it in the days before the show...). In my experience with Macbooks/i-devices, the batteries keep their strength much better, much longer this way... . That said, I know my friends look at me funny because of this "stern" attitude, and tend to laugh at me from time to time (I myself do the same sometimes). I just like to tend to my devices carefully (too much joy they bring, hehe).
Cheers, twobeers
My ipad2 dropped to about 30 mins use on a full charge, so a couple of years ago I pretty much stopped using it. Then one day when I didn't have much to do I updated the iOS to v7 and it instantly increased to
around 5 hours, and has stayed like that for the last year.
Recently the battery life on my MacBook Pro has dived, so I'm wondering if a software update will give that a boost too.
Charge your ipad when it drops below 40% and never let it reach 100%. Just stop when it goes 80%+. Try to charge it like this every day. You can go from 0-100% once every 1-2 months. This is the best way to keep the battery in good shape.
@BoWeavil said:
So is it no good to use a dock that charges the iPad? When using these I presume they keep supplying power as long as it's connected, regardless of whether the iPad is at 100% or not.
@BoWeavil said:
Where does this info come from? I never heard of this approach. What would be the point of not charging the battery all the way up to 100%? Surely you'll get shorter battery life if you do that.
A hard reset can help with glitchy issues like this
@supadom Here is one example where that advice is given.
http://gizmodo.com/how-to-take-care-of-your-smartphone-battery-the-right-w-513217256
I don't subscribe to it personally, but see no harm in it.
very diverse and sometimes diametrically contradicting information on this matter.
Although I've gathered some experience over the last 40 years, I still do not know exactly what is the best treatment for a battery. Usually it doesn't matter anyway, small devices get replaced after 2-3 years. Not for me, I always intend to keep a device as long as possible.
Then there are old habits with Nickel-based batteries. Nickel-based batteries had to be discharged to 0% before charging in order to keep their capacity. Now the Lithium-based batteries are exactly the opposite: they should never discharge to 0%, or they will lose their capacity in a short time span.
This is a big difference between older and newer battery systems. Most times unknown to the consumer. Then there are misleading guidelines from manufacturers, for example Apple, that tell the consumer to periodically let devices go down to 0%. Letting a Lithium battery go down to 0% is not a good maintenance at all. But it does calibrate the battery indicator. And of course will render the device obsolete earlier.
In the studio I keep my iPads attached to the power grid all the time. I don't shut them down. They are running permanently, always at 100% battery. One or two of them are attached to interfaces that power the iPad. Even outdoors I started to keep all devices charged using power banks. Power banks are cheaper to replace, and produce less waste. iPads I want to keep as long as possible.
What I found out is that my first iPad2 that is 3 years old (and almost permanently running since then) is still in very good shape, surprisingly good battery capacity. Almost like new. And on the other hand, an iPhone I got from a friend, not one year old, with very low capacity. One full charge lasts maybe 3 hours when constantly used (estimation).
For the consumer there are only few occasions to get proper information. One I found on one of those bluetooth speakers, the other from a solar system/battery manufacturer. It reads like I said before: always fully recharge the device after mobile use. Keep the charge as high as possible over time. When you let the battery go down to 0% all warranties are void.
Clear indications. But to be honest I'm not entirely sure. I'm pretty sure. And my observations seem to confirm this. But I'm not an average consumer ... a new device is for me an investment for life. Not a gadget I'll throw away and replace every few years. That's why battery life and keeping its capacity is more important to me.
Yeah, nice article. The guy kind of contradicts himself by saying that the charger will stop charging when full but then advising that leaving to charge overnight is a bad idea. I used to be paranoid about the batteries until I noticed how my GF has total disregard to how and when to charge with no obvious negative effect on the battery. There's this site called battery university or something that explains battery issues very well for those interested.
@Accent said:
I recorded about 2 hours of 4-track drums using Cubasis and my Akai EIE USB interface with the Apple CCK last night... Battery on the iPad 4 had dropped to 96%... I'm impressed!
@BoWeavil I completely disagree with you on your charging methods...
If you are in iOS 8 (I know many are not ;-)) - you can see which apps are using your Battery.
I just found out that LaunchPad was sucking up my battery, even though it was days since I had opened it. Same problem is with Retronyms AudioCopy. It seems they are running som background task you can't turn off (probably newsfeed) that's using all your power.
So you may want to manually shut down these apps if you are experiencing loss of power. Other apps may have the same problem, but so far these are the only ones I have found. The only way to stop them is to manually shut them down.