I have been dealing with this situation for over a month now, and it is very validating to know that I am not alone. Sorry this is so long, this has been an ongoing issue and I have done a lot to try and resolve it, only to be told that it was normal and not a cause for concern.
This issue started at the end of 2023. I bought the Magic Keyboard, iPad Pro 6th Generation with 256GB, and the Apple Pencil 2nd Generation in August for college. I spoke to apple and they helped me decide which iPad would be best for me and my needs. When the cursor started freezing, I thought that it was just an issue that Magic Keyboards had, so I ignored it. I hadn’t had the iPad very long, so I didn’t know if this was odd or not.
The first Apple Chat that I had was on February 4th. This is the first time that I raised concerns about the cursor freezing, after asking others if this was normal. In this chat, they told me to update my iPad. I did, and waited for it to happen again. On February 13th I chatted with apple again, and they told me to force restart my iPad, I did, and it happened again. I contacted apple support again, and they told me to switch keyboards with someone else to see if it was an iPad issue or a keyboard issue.
I switched keyboards with my mom, and that is when I started recording any time that I had a situation where the cursor would freeze. I would take a video showing that the keyboard still worked, but the cursor just wouldn’t move. The issue happened with my iPad and my mom’s keyboard, but it didn’t happen for her with my keyboard, so we determined it was an iPad issue. I made an appointment at the Genius Bar. On February 16th, I went. I couldn’t replicate the issue, but I showed the videos. They decided to wipe my iPad with a computer (hard reset and wipe). This was supposed to completely clean out the iPad.
The issue persisted and I contacted Apple support twice on February 17th due to the issue and they told me to go to the Genius Bar again. So, I made another appointment on February 18th, and that is when they told me they needed to completely replace my iPad. So, my iPad was replaced.
Brand new iPad, set up as new (not an iCloud Backup) it was supposed to be resolved. On February 25th, my new iPad had the cursor freeze again, so I contacted Apple Support. They told me that since this was a “resolved issue” I had to call for assistance. Apple Support called me, and they shared my screen and changed a bunch of my settings that had to do with my cursor.
On March 2, I called Apple again. During this call, they escalated my case and paired me with a supervisor. During this call, the supervisor told me that this was a “processing issue” and was “not a cause for concern” since it didn’t render my iPad completely useless. She said that since in the videos of my cursor freezing my iPad was usually under 50%, the iPad productivity was going to go down, and that is why it wasn’t working properly, that this just happens and is a known problem in iPads and MacBooks. I told her that I traded in my MacBook and old iPad to get this set up, and that I did not accept that this was just “how it was.” According to the supervisor, my iPad could only be expected to work properly when over 50% battery. So, she told me that I would need to get a video of the iPad freezing showing that my iPad was over 50% battery, and then plug in my iPad. If that didn’t fix it, I would need to remove my Apple Pencil. (She also said that since I was using a Magic Keyboard AND a Pencil, that is another reason productivity is going down). She told me that since I could not replicate the iPad freezing she couldn’t do anything, but she would personally be taking over my case. Later that same day, my iPad froze 2 more times. I took videos like she asked and documented this with a voicemail to her.
I realized that this seemed to be happening any time I would exit out of any apps on my iPad. I typically would use Safari and Google Sheets. Sometimes, I would use the split screen and would use the two apps at the same time with nothing else open. Today (March 5) she called me back and said that she heard my voicemail and that it sounds like a “processing issue.” She said that I was running too many things at the same time and that my iPad couldn’t keep up. I told her it was just the two apps and she said that Google Sheets is a third party app and that it could make the cursor freeze. I told her that I could not accept that using two apps was asking too much from my iPad, and how was I expected to do school work if it can’t handle Safari and Sheets? She said that I had to go get an iPad with a 16 core processor. I asked if she was telling me to buy a new iPad and she said “there may be a charge.” I have had this iPad for 7 months, so to tell me to buy a new one, and that I need to upgrade is baffling to me.
So here I am, she said we were at a “standstill” and that there is nothing I can do except get a 16 core processor.
