apple pencil gen 2 stopped working after upgrade to iOS 14.0.1

I chatted with Apple Support. They took me through all the suggested steps to diagnose, disconnect, charge, forget, add and nothing worked. The eventual solution was scheduling a Genius Bar appointment and replacing the Apple Pencil 2.

Within a month, the new Apple Pencil 2 failed to connect even though the IPad Pro (4th Gen) recognized it but didn't offer a way to connect. I erased all data and reset my IPad Pro to factory settings and this didn't work either.

This happened twice; once with a new Apple Pencil 2 and again with the replacement Pencil 2 Apple provided.

The only solution was replacing the Apple Pencil 2. I'm on my fourth Apple Pencil . This is definitely an Apple product quality issue.

The hard reset thing is what solved my issue. Thanks for the hint.

My Apple Pencil 2 was not recognized by my iPad. Rebooting, forgetting the pencil in blutooth settings did not help.

Then I came to this post mentioning Hard reset:

with my pencil attached to the iPad, I pressed volume up, released and immediately volume down, released and then main power button. Switched off the iPad. Switched on (pencil still on the iPad), and it was immediately recognized after I entered my PIN.

Hey Guys, I am just sharing my experience with my local Apple Store.

During my appt, I was passed their inhouse iPad Pro and apple pencil gen 2.

So while waiting for the tech, I did this self troubleshooting.

1. Pair their inhouse apple pencil with my iPad pro. (okay)
2. Test my pencil on their iPad Pro. (okay)
3. Then pair my own pencil back to my iPad Pro. (okay)

The problem never came back!

Perhaps u can try to borrow someone's pencil and iPad or go to any store with the above and ask to try the above steps.

Hope it helps!!! =D

Yes I did. I tried quite a few things that didn’t work but eventually just turned my Bluetooth off for about a minute and then turned it back on and it immediately connected with the pencil again. Very simple but hey - it worked and hasn’t dropped out again.

I've had my iPad 11" for 2 days, the pencil 2 worked fine until I updated it. I tried all the online solutions before I just decided to try resetting all the settings on my iPad which worked. I connected my pencil and the iPad showed the pencil connecting as if it was the first time.

Exactly had the same issue as yours.

What I did earlier was to do a hard reset.

With my Apple Pencil attached to the side of the iPad Pro 11, I did the hard reset.

press Vol Up (let go), then Vol Down (let go), Press and hold onto the Top button until u see your device turned off and Apple Logo appears.

After that when u go under Bluetooth, Apple Pencil works fine.

but this is where the next issue happens.

it only works well for about 5-10mins and then the same issue repeats itself.

i tried the above method several times and it does get the pencil working well for couple of minutes only.

it shows connected but not working.

definitely a software issue after I updated to ios14.1, it was all good earlier.

Had logged a case with Apple and will be heading down to a store for a check too.

I simply turned off my Bluetooth and then turned it back on again after about a minute and everything worked again. I’m sure you’ve probably tried that, but just in case you haven’t .....

It is possible that, because of the pandemic, that Apple Stores may have old,,new stock of Apple Pencils that have been sitting around for some time and not being able to be charged up, being in storsge and sealed up, may have lost all of there battery charge for some extended period of time and the batteries in these stored Pencils have died/failed.

You cannot store Apple Pencils for any prolonged period of time and NOT keep them charged up to some level.

If your Apple Pencil/s sat around unused or unopened and not kept charged up for more than a few weeks, or so, OR

LONGER, then the battery in Apple Pencils may have comoletely drained, failed and the Pencil is fully dead.

And it looks like some things about the Apple Pencil have NOT changed in the new version 2 model, either.

FYI and something Apple will never, EVER divulge to it potential iPad Pro/Apple Pencil customers/users unless the potential customer/user is smart enough to ask about,

Due to the “always on and active/standby” nature of the Apple Pencil and, also, due to its very tiny rechargeable Li-

ion battery ( smaller than the eraser head on a REAL wooden pencil ), the Apple Pencil needs to be constantly charged up to some significant charge level ALL THE TIME, even when not using the Pencil for prolonged periods of time.

The Apple Pencil needs to be kept charged to a minimum of 5-10% all the time.

If the Apple Pencil battery is allowed to drain down to 0% and allowed to stay in that flat condition for more than a few weeks, or so, OR EVEN LONGER, that very tiny little Li-ion battery is too small to keep at a 0% state for a long period of time and it will fail and the Apple Pencil will be dead and you may have to “pop” for another $99 Apple Pencil, once again!

Apple Pencils need to be kept charged up all the time, even if it is only to 10%-15% charge. It must keep some charge level in that tiny Lithium-ion battery at all times!

Here is one of the better troubleshooting guides for the Apple Pencil that may be helpful in working through common issues.

https://appletoolbox.com/apple-pencil-not-working-heres-our-troubleshooting-guide/

I see this thread has come a long way. We’re discussing bed linens now. 😂🤣

I think that if you have this issue and the pencil is still in warranty just bring to Apple store and they will replace once the preliminary troubleshooting does not work.

They replaced mine and I have not had an issue since.

Experiencing the same issues with 1 week old iPad Pro 12.9" 512GB 4th Gen after updating to iOS 14.0.1

The Apple Pencil 2 was working prior to updating.

The Apple Pencil 2 is charged.

Attaching the Pencil 2 to the right edge of the iPad Pro produces the "Apple Pencil" pop up on the top off the screen.

Unable to connect to Bluetooth when I click Connect.

Clicked "i" and Forget Device.

After clicking Forget Device, Bluetooth does NOT display Apple Pencil 2 to connect or Add a new device anymore.

Looks like Forget Device permanently "blocks" it from being identified and added again.

Tried resetting network without success.

Tried resetting all settings without success.

Tried hard reboot without success.

Tried erasing all content and settings without success.

Restored from backup without success.

Extremely upset after spending this amount of time on something that should never have occurred.

Very unlikely - iPad sales were up bigly during the pandemic: People working / studying at home etc. In fact, there were wide-spread reports of shortages. If anything, Apple was short of inventory. No way do they have 'unused stock sitting around for some time'.

Not to mention many people are noting the issue comes up with brand new devices.

Same thing here - I have a brand new iPad Pro with the gen 2 pencil, bought new from Apple the last week of January. Worked flawlessly for the first two weeks or so, then suddenly will just randomly stop working. Getting the pencil 2 to pair again is hit-and-miss. Sometimes it pairs right away, sometimes it won't pair for an hour. There's no telling when it will decide to rejoin, so basically it's useless.

The iPad spends most of its time plugged into the Magic Keyboard, and the Pencil spends its entire life (when not actually being used) life attached to the iPad, so the idea that this would be due to 'drained and left like that for weeks' doesn't make any sense - I've only had it for like two weeks and was using it the entire time.

It's clearly a defective design or manufacturing defect, because people have been noting the -exact- same issue for months. Will see how the replacement does, but my guess I'll be pestering Apple to send out replacements for faulty Pencils for a while.

It may seem like a silly conspiracy theory about big company duping consumers into buying bad products but MichelPM statement about Li-ion is true specifically the material characteristics. They should never be allowed to drain completely. If they drain completely, the batteries will eventually fail to charge again or fail to hold a charge for long. Li-ion batteries have a very slow discharge rate but not zero so prolonged storage leading to complete discharge will destroy them and thus render the pens useless. I took apart a failed Apple Pencil 2 and everything's spot welded together so there's no way to replace the batteries. The product is literally a $130 disposable item. I'm an electrical engineer with a decade of experience specializing in materials characterization and surface analysis for most of the major semiconductor companies in the world including Intel, AMD, TI, philips, Nat'l Semiconductor, Sematech, etc...

For reference, Linden's Handbook of Batteries provides useful info.