Bluetooth loading circle

My iPad screen has looked like this for hours. I made the mistake of making it forget my bluetooth keyboard thinking that would fix a glitch, when in reality it was simply out of battery. My keyboard is now charged and once again hooked up to my iPad, but the part of the Bluetooth screen in settings refuses to finish looking for devices. I've tried turning Bluetooth on and off again multiple times, as well as the iPad itself, and the loading circle still won't go away. Is my iPad simply broken and I'll never get to use a proper keyboard again?

iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi

Posted on Jan 26, 2019 12:10 PM

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Posted on Jan 26, 2019 2:06 PM

LotusPilot has given you the correct answer. Anytime you open Settings > Bluetooth, the circle will spin continuously. This is normal behavior and nothing to be concerned about. It does this on all iOS devices. ALL OF THEM. The reason it does this is because by virtue of going to Settings > Bluetooth, it thinks you are looking to connect a new Bluetooth device, thus it is searching. It's using virtually no battery power to search as the Bluetooth radio is a very very low consumer of power.


Again, there is nothing wrong with your device.

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Jan 26, 2019 2:06 PM in response to Grosserthangross

LotusPilot has given you the correct answer. Anytime you open Settings > Bluetooth, the circle will spin continuously. This is normal behavior and nothing to be concerned about. It does this on all iOS devices. ALL OF THEM. The reason it does this is because by virtue of going to Settings > Bluetooth, it thinks you are looking to connect a new Bluetooth device, thus it is searching. It's using virtually no battery power to search as the Bluetooth radio is a very very low consumer of power.


Again, there is nothing wrong with your device.

Jan 26, 2019 1:35 PM in response to Grosserthangross

What you see is nothing to worry about.


While you have the Bluetooth page open in Settings, your iPad is simply looking for Bluetooth devices that are in “discoverable” mode. Whilst this page is open, it doesn’t stop searching. Also on this page you will see a list of all devices paired with this iDevice - and their connection status.


This is entirely normal for iOS. I have multiple devices immediately to hand - of which four are iPads - and they all behave exactly as yours.


Hope this helps to ser your mind at rest.

Jan 26, 2019 2:44 PM in response to lobsterghost1

I got an email with your post which was removed. Calling a fellow poster, who was trying to help you a dummy, violates the terms of use you agreed to when you joined the forum and frankly wasn't nice or called for.


That said, I am still willing to try to help you. This is important. Since you told your iPad to forget your Keyboard, it won't just connect again, UNTIL you put the keyboard in pairing mode. You have to pair it again per the pairing instructions provided with the keyboard when you got it.


Did you do that?

Jan 26, 2019 1:47 PM in response to LotusPilot

It doesn't particularly put my mind at rest, considering that usually it would have found my keyboard and let me reconnect to it, though the list of devices still remains blank despite my keyboard being charged and the green light flashing when I press the power button, which I must believe indicates that it's on. Still though, I must thank you for your answer, as now I know that it may be a problem with my keyboard I'm looking for

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Bluetooth loading circle

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