iPad Air 4 Battery Drain

All I can suggest is for anyone having these problems to please contact Apple either via their online support feature (chat) on this site or via phone or via an Apple Store. Many of us have reported these issues to Apple but it seems that without everyone having the issues reporting it to them, they likely won't acknowledge an issue with iPad Air 4 units.

iPads will last, in use, UP to 10 hours, and that is with the screen at between 50%-100%

So, that equates to 10% per hour or roughly 1% every 6 minutes.

This will vary widely depending on individual usage cases.

When an iPad is asleep ( display off and any WiFi and Bluetooth connections are, also, off ) battery drain SHOULD be ZERO to very minimal.

Perhaps around 1%-2% every 6-8 hours, or so.

My own older 12.9 inch screen iPad Pro models drain only 1%-2% every 12 hours when the screen/display is off and both WiFi and Bluetooth are, also, off.

I know it’s an old thread: I just got the aipad air 4 and was using it with a logitech folio touch keyboard. If I set the keyboard on a table, desk, lap etc it would work like a charm. If I flipped the keyboard back and used it like a tablet, within a few mins the iPad would shut down, then when it restarted there would be a false low battery indicator (almost zero power). When I popped the iPad out of the case, the batt indicator immediately showed the correct batt level. My low batt issue was due to the Logitech folio touch defective connection. Not user error - we tested it out over three days, it happened dozens of times and always in the flipped back position. Happened to multiple people testing it out. We are not inexperienced users.

Putting it out here in case someone else experiences this same issue.

My new iPad Air 4 batter lasted just 5-5.5 hrs. Then I changed my Wi-Fi router settings and connected to 2.4 ghz connection instead of 5 ghz connection. Now batter lasts more than 10 hrs for browsing and around 6.5 hrs for YouTube and 8 hrs for Apple TV.

don’t know what’s going on!

Don’t update

Same procedure here. New one is faultless. Definitely a defective batch.

Similar issue here - rapid drain of battery when iPad Air 4 is in standby mode, screen off, with no background apps running, and nearly every iOS feature also switched off (inc Bluetooth), just WiFi on.

Same. Rapid battery drain for the new iPadAir 4 - and it was not like this the first few days of unboxing! Seems the battery has dropped dramatically after just 1 week of use..

My 2-week old iPadAir 4 drains just as fast as my 2018 iPad 6 does after 2.5 years of use.

I primarily read kindle books (no music, no video, no pencil running). After a full night of charging my battery went from 100% to 4% in less than 6 hours of on/off use.

Seems low, yes?

New iPad Air 4, (iOS 14.2) right out of the box, I noticed the battery quickly draining. Called tech support who agreed. Did some useless trouble shooting. Tech then scheduled an appointment with Genius Bar, like I have more time for this. Apple products are not what they use to be. Will update resolution afterwards.

I actually just chatted with Apple Support and described the battery issue that we are seeing with our new iPad 4 Air units. Apple did a diagnostic via the Settings app and the guy said there is no issue yet can’t explain why we are losing battery level (sometimes 3-5%) overnight when our units are fully powered off. I also let him know that quite a few people in the Apple support community are reporting the same problem. No idea how to get this problem reported up the support chain to get it fixed by Apple. Has anyone taken their unit to an Apple store to see what they say?

Update to my post on Nov. 25th: Genius Bar did an exchanged with a new iPad Air 4. Right out of the box I noticed similar issue. This time it drained 1% within 3 mins., without operating it. Got on the phone with a senior tech support advisor. This is what he said, “The iPad Air should go from 100% to 0% with approximately 9hrs of normal use.” Will test again accordingly.

@ n3ntjmatt You are correct. Also interesting, is to overcharge the battery, which is bad. According to Wired, “batteries are under the most strain when they're fully charged or completely empty. The real sweet spot for a battery is 50 per cent charge as that means that half of its moveable lithium ions are in the lithium cobalt oxide layer and the other half are in the graphite layer. This equilibrium puts the least amount of strain on the battery, and extends the number of charge cycles it can withstand before degrading.” Here is the article: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/how-to-improve-battery-life-tips-myths-smartphones

I contacted support with this problem, exact same thing happened as another user described earlier: support-agent ran online diagnostics showing battery is fine, then advised me to turn down screen brightness and sent me links to support articles on how to extend battery life. Ironically one of the articles he advised me to check was referring to the low power feature which exist only on iphone only 😳. Would have hoped for a little more commitment from support after paying 89€ for the AppleCare+ plan. Thinking I will take the device back to the store (apple premium reseller) when I have time but don’t really expect any different procedure there. Fingers crossed next iPadOS update will address this problem.

Many of you are experiencing heat in lower right corner in portrait orientation(?). I have this too, but nothing really compared to what my iphone 8 does when e.g. watching a video or using internet sharing to my laptop. I really dont think it’s the battery that heats up the ipad. Try Googling “internal layout of ipad” and you will see most of the ipad is filled with the battery. If battery would heat up the whole device would warm up, not just that corner. On the cellular model at least the SIM tray is located in lower right corner.

ipad air 4th gen, 64gb, wifi+cellular. drains 3-5%/24hrs on standby, hard to estimate drainage when used but clearly faster than my sons 8th gen standard ipad bought in september 2020 and nowhere near the promised 10 hours of web browsing.

Have you contacted Apple Support or gone to an Apple Store to report this? Seems Apple won't consider this a bug or problem until they see lots of people reporting the issue. That's what the tech told me when I contacted Apple Support via their chat feature.

I traded in an iPad Air 3 for a Air 4 in late Oct. I used the 3 the same as I use my new 4 and the 3's battery lasted considerably longer than the new 4 does. I have not changed anything in terms of settings or added any new apps to the 4 so I see no valid explanation as to why the battery performance of the 4 is so much less than the 3. I actually did a comparison of my wife's Air 2 (about 4 years old?) to my new Air 4 and their battery use was nearly comparable... I guess I should have kept the 3 and not 'upgraded' to the 4 but I could have not foreseen the poor battery performance of the new iPad Air 4 until I got it.