ipad 2 air slowly charges (only increased 4 percent in 10 hours)

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Level 1

22 points

ipad 2 air slowly charges (only increased 4 percent in 10 hours)

For over a year, my iPad has been having an issue where if I unplug it and use it for a few hours, and then plug it in to be recharged, it will sometimes not increase in charge (it does not lose charge either), but stays at the same level of charge for hours at a time.

I gave up trying to charge it at night because it hardly ever increases in percent at night. However, it used to start increasing in charge the next morning, and would get up to 100%, and I could unplug it and use it as normal.

However, in the past few days, it takes it over 24 hours before it starts increasing in charge. I have to leave it plugged in for 48 hours or so before it starts increasing again.

I unplugged it yesterday evening, even though it had not reached a full charge in over 24 hours. I used it, and it got down to 23%. I do not like it being that low. I plugged it into the charger before I went to bed last night, and it increased to 24% by the morning. It stayed at 24% most of the day, and is only now starting to charge a bit faster. (It’s finally up to 32% many, many hours after plugging it in).

I read somewhere that this might be a battery health optimization thing, but if it is, it is super annoying. I can’t unplug and use my iPad this evening because it is so low on charge. :(

Does anyone have any ideas on why it is doing this. This seems extreme to me.

iPad Air 2, iPadOS 13

Posted on Oct 16, 2020 4:17 PM

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Answer 1

Arwen4CJ Author

Level 1

22 points

Oct 17, 2020 8:48 AM in response to Arwen4CJ

It’s now made it to 53%. It had gotten to 49% last night before I went to bed. I tested it with a different lighting cable (a new one). That made no difference in charging speed. I also changed the wall charger, and that makes no difference in charging speeds either.

I had also factory reset the iPad yesterday, but that made no difference either.

I had noticed that over the past year or so, if I unplug it and use it, and it does not go below 70% charge or so, it is easier to plug it back in and get it to charge back to 100% without a lot of trouble. If it gets down in the 60%’s it has a harder time. Leaving it plugged in overnight will not increase the charge. It then will eventually start charging again in the morning.

If it gets down to 50%, it does not seem to like it, but will eventually get to 100%.

Anything below 50% or so, and it has become a fight to get it to increase the charge percentage.

I had gotten it down into the 20%’s before, and it took longer to charge it, but not as long as it has this time.

It seems to now maybe be charging okay now that it is over 50% charged. As I have been writing this, it is now at 58%, so it’s definitely charging faster than it had for the past couple of days.

It seems that if I do not unplug it and make it charge much, it seems to be okay. I am going to try leaving it plugged in from now on. The problem seems to have gotten worse, and I am afraid that if I unplug it and let the battery go down, it might not be able to increase in charge at all.

I have never had the battery replaced. Would a bad battery make it act like this, or do you think it sounds like something else is wrong with it?

I have never had the iPad serviced, and it behaves perfectly except for the charging issue. I have only ever used Apple lightning cables with it and only Apple branded iPad wall chargers.

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