"Find My" is draining my battery even though I have turned it off.

This is definitely happening due to a recent iOS and iPadOS update. Dunno which it was, but I’m trying turning off Find My as mentioned above and will have to see what happens next. It seems odd folks at Apple haven’t spotted this and gotten a fix out by now. (Is it possible that it’s related to Airtags support? That was a recent change too, and it’s part of Find My.)

I have the same problem with my iPad where background activity related to “Find My” is draining the battery and has left my battery dead several times, with the iPad getting unusually warm.

I use two air tags that are usually within close range of the iPad. There appears to be no obvious correlation between air tag location and the battery drain problem

The problem started in May 2021 after I purchased the air tags and has not been fixed with the 14.7 update. Other web forums are full with similar reports of this issue - it seems about time Apple takes this seriously and fixes it.

NickRedwoodCity wrote: ... The only fix I've found for my iPad is to manually turn BT off in settings (not just in Control Center which is temporary) and turn it back on when I use it. The annoyance is re-pairing the Apple Pencil, I have to remove it from the side of the iPad and re-attach it for it be recognized.

That's not re-pairing. You're just turning your Apple Pencil back on again and reconnecting, not re-pairing. I actually use this technique to keep my Apple Pencil charged. 1) When I finish using my Apple Pencil, I put it in it's charging spot on the side of the iPad and bring it up to 80% charge. 2) I take the Pencil off and use it (or my finger) to turn off Bluetooth in Settings, not simply temporarily disconnecting in the drop-down Control Panel. 3) I tap the screen with the Pencil confirming it's off. 4) I immediately turn Bluetooth back on again. 5) I tap the screen with the Pencil again confirming it is off. ... You can skip steps 3 and 5 as it always works.

If you don't do this, then your Pencil just goes to sleep after a period of not being moved, and the battery slowly drains. You can confirm this by looking at the battery level for your Apple Pencil in Settings or in the battery widget. If you pick up your Apple Pencil after not using it for five or ten minutes and tap on a desk or table, it'll wake up and display the battery level.

The Pencil battery will run down to zero over a few weeks if you don't Bluetooth-toggle it off this way.

I don't understand why this tip isn't more widely known. It's pretty simple and works without fail (as long as your Pencil and the iPad don't surreptitiously mate up in your bag ;-)

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Regarding the Bluetooth battery drain issue, it looks like we're just going to have to wait for Apple to fix it in the next iOS/iPadOS update.

I’ve been plagued by this issue for several months. As some others reported, it does not seem to drain the battery all the time, but it happens frequently. Last night was among the worst I’ve seen: I went to bed with 93% charge and woke up with 36% (iPhone 12 Pro with 100% battery health). The culprit always appears as Find My, with it consuming 100% of the usage each hour overnight.

I do have AirTags, and it seemed to have started when I got them, but it’s strange that it happens intermittently.

Same problem here. iPad Pro 2021 (M1). Got my first AirTag over a month ago and that is when the drain started. Usually 20-50% battery loss per day with no usage. Battery in settings shows find my as primary culprit. Super frustrating to say the least.

Nick:

Understand that you’re troubleshooting, but you should be aware that disabling FindMe has some significant security implications.

While it’s obvious that you can’t find your device if it’s misplaced, it also prevents you from placing it into “lost” mode or remotely “erasing” it.

It also inhibits Activation Lock; meaning that anyone who might obtain your device can reset and then re-use it.

Just so ya know …

Find My, even while it has no access to location services, was draining battery overnight. Battery usage reports 100% activity due to Find My background activity. I’ll have to see how it went overnight on my other iOS devices before kicking this upstairs.

Same Problem here on iPad Pro 2018 in combination with Airtags and find my app.

find my drains battery enormously according to battery app in system settings.

problem came with airtags and no iPadOS update could repair that! Including 14.7.1 problem is still here and massive.

ipad really gets warm when find my is in drain-mode.

I have a number of them around. Some are close by in the same room and others further away in neighboring rooms.

I have tried resetting and erasing the ipad, unpairing the airtags and then repairing, nothing seems to work.

Did anyone find a permanent solution to this?

AppleCare just waste my time with calls that don't go anywhere.

I don't have any other tracking devices. Turning off bluetooth doesn't change anything.

At the moment I've turned off location services as the only thing that would prevent the Find My iPhone service from pinging my location every 2 minutes and wasting battery of course..

Thanks for offering this solution, but some of us have a bunch of AirTags in different locations, so doing this isn't exactly easy to do. Just to confirm before I try: is this a known issue or just a hunch? How does one know if the firmware on an AirTag is up to date or not? No info seems to be visible in Find My or elsewhere in iOS, etc. Thanks again!

Looking forward to hearing of any “findings” you might uncover.