iPad Air 4 Battery Drain

I had this experience too. Something is wrong with these units. I am on my third iPad Air. First screen bleed, second all these same battery issues (drain and idle drain). My third iPad Air 4 is working great. I returned each one and purchased another. No refurbs.

Call customer support and ask them to do a diagnostic test. It will be seen if it’s a hardware issue.

Then ask Apple to replace the device again. The guarantee is valid and Apple knows that there is a defective batch.

Do not worry, the Apple warranty is valid regardless of the store where you purchased it. Contact them immediately for a technical inspection and then request a device replacement. I personally did not pay anything, the warranty covered me!

Last evening I installed from 14.1 to 14.3

i charged up to 100%. I left it on standby with Bluetooth off and no pencil attached during the night.

this morning it was still @ 100%. Nice.

As you can see in my previous post, in my case it was a hardware issue. Contact Apple support and ask them to do a diagnostic test. It will be seen if it’s a hardware or software issue.

My above answer wasn't fully accurate To clarify further:

1. Watching Youtube/Netflix videos for 1hr 20 mins, battery power was consumed at ~12-15% per hour, which seems OK
2. When in standby mode, screen switched off, no background apps running, and a few possible battery-consuming features/settings disabled, battery power was consumed at a rate of ~4% per hour, which is shockingly high.
3. In standby mode, screen off, no background apps, but with every possible battery draining setting/feature switched off including Bluetooth, but still with WiFi enabled, consumption dropped to a very reasonable ~1/2% per hour.

You can see these three consumption gradients in this screenshot - first on-charge, then steeply sloping while watching videos for 1hr 20min, then moderately sloping for 6 hours while in standy, then almost flat for 12 hours when in standby but with "everything disabled":

To reiterate; the left/middle-ish moderately sloping, section lasting ~6 hours of the plot above corresponds to scenario 2. as described above: screen off, standby mode, no background apps running (NB 'Battery Usage by App' during such periods show no app as consuming any power), yet it drains battery in this scenario ar around 4%/hour.

What's that all about?

I've only managed to get battery consumption down to expected(acceptable!) levels in standby mode by disabling pretty much every iOS feature I can think of (except WiFi) that might possibly consume power when the iPads not being used by me. Scenario 3 above, the rightmost very slightly-sloping (almost flat) section of the plot above lasting around 12 hours. Those steps shouldn't really shouldn't be necessary in order to gain acceptable battery drain in standby (non use) mode!

Update - I lost 3% battery overnight with my iPad 4 Air turned off. It was at 46% this morning when I turned it on (it was at 49% last night when I turned if off). I used it intermittently while working this morning and, over a course of 3 hours, it is now down to 4%. When I use it onsite for work, I use it for maybe 20 seconds at a time maybe every 5~10 minutes. I have my screen brightness set to automatic and it's most often in the 50% range. There's no valid explanation or excuse for the battery levels dropping this much with so little use.. other than a battery or OS issue. I got much better battery life with my iPad 3 Air that I traded in to get the 4 Air... guess trading in the 3 for the 4 was a mistake as there is definitely a battery problem that Apple won't acknowledge.

I am curious how many of you have contacted Apple Support (https://support.apple.com/) about your iPad 4 Air battery problems? Maybe we need every one of you, who haven't already, to contact Apple Support to let them know.. maybe they'll finally figure out a problem really exists the more support requests they get over the same issue.

I contacted Apple Support again today and have an appt. at the Apple Store on Friday (that's the earliest they had).. hopefully I'll get my new iPad 4 Air replaced and the new one won't have the problem.. fingers crossed.

I stopped at the Apple Store last evening and told them of my issues. They did a battery diagnostic and said all was good. They then did a clean revert back to factory settings (w/ 14.0) and told me to try it for a week and see what happens.. They said maybe its an OS issue. I asked how will we get that fixed and they said “don’t know”. That’s it. Guess I will see.

Unit was off overnight and it lost 2% doing nothing.. 65% to now 63%. All I can suggest is to keep reporting your battery issues to Apple Support. Until they gets lots of reports of battery life issues, Apple apparently won’t look into it.

what is normal for you? What would be the percentage overnight drain? Do you have background processes on? Location? Notifications? Does it drain in airplane mode? Does it drain notably even if powered off?

Update has been okay on my new device. Seems similar battery as before. Not the terrible drain in use or in idle as before. For those having issues, fight for a replacement. The QA on these is not good. Between screen bleed and battery issues, make sure you have a good one before warranty runs out.

I just got a new iPad Air 4th gen. Had the same battery issue immediately out of the box. I saw this post regarding the sweet spot of the battery being around 50%. So for almost a week I’ve been managing to keep my charge around 50%, or at least not charging too much past that, and I believe it has helped prolong the battery life. So that could be worth trying out. I think when I charge it to max capacity the drain is significantly slower, although I am not letting it get to 100% (yet).

Funny thing is that all tests showed that hardware of my iPad was in good order. But when the guy in the store took it to check I told him to memorize battery charge level - it was about 25% and after 5 minutes of test it had significantly dropped to 22% or so and he could physically see that and assume that something wrong is going on with this device regardless of the good hardware test results. So that was my point and he agreed with me and exchanged it.

Search online to locate and call contact your nearest, “local” Apple Store location to try/attempt to make an appointment to get your Apple iPad Air 4 battery issues diagnosed and options presented to you.

OR, failing that,

Contact Apple support via the contact support link located at the upper right hand corner of every Webpage of these Apple support communities.

Use the Battery and Device Performance and Connectivity support categories to make multiple postings.

OR

by installing and using the Apple Support app found in the iOS App Store.

Tap the iOS App Store link below.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/apple-support/id1130498044

Best of Luck to You!

My iPad got replaced. Now it works without problems. After 3 days and some usage 37% left. During night an no activity less than 1% drained. As I would expect.

Personally, I have not noticed any excessive heat with my new iPad 4 Air. I use my iPad in portrait mode, generally.. not that that would change things much. Heat or cold aren't good for batteries.. excessive heat can indicate a potentially dangerous situation for Li Ion batteries as they can rupture or explode in some cases. You may want to take your iPad to an Apple Store and let them check it out.