New iPad battery drain

I've been following this thread and a few others since I've been having battery drain problems as well. I upgraded my iPad about two weeks from the first generation model to the newst, and noticed immediatly that I was losing 10-15% battery in standby overnight if the iPad was not charging. This has never been an issue on my first gen iPad, so I've been poking around for the last few weeks trying to discern a cause. I tried a lot of home solutions including turing off different services and such, but have felt since the onset that this was something more than just a mere settings issue since the new iPad was configured exactly as my old and yet I'd never had the issue on the older device.

I decided on Wednesday to go down to my local Apple Store to talk with a Genius, mostly because I wanted to plug into their in store diagnostic software to see what information they could find that I'm not able to see on my own. Immediately we noticed that my iPad was repoting in their software that, since its last full charge, it had been in standby and in use for the exact same numer of hours. This told us that something internally was not kicking the iPad into standby even when the power button was pushed or smart cover closed. I was conviced it was a softward issue, and so we did an in store factory firmware restore from DFU mode so as to ensure that the firmware was clean and uncorrupted.

I'm happy to report that two days later my iPad is perfomring flawlessly and not exhibiting the standby battery drain any longer. So I'm inclined to think at this point that it's a software issue that's causing this rather than a hardware one, and I'm suspicious further that it might be related to iCloud/iTunes backups where perhaps something corrupt is being pulled into the new device from a backup. To test this theory I'm restoring my new iPad again from a previous backup to see if I can reduplicate the problem, and I'll report back here for others to see in another day or two once I've seen the results.

But for now it would seem, at least in my case, that this was completely a software issue that was solved by a DFU restore. If you suspect this might be the cause then you may visit a local Apple Store to have them check your iPad performance as well to see if it's also reporting the same standby/usage discrepancy. That is information that you can view on the iPhone version of iOS, but for some reason that feature is not enabled on the iPad and as such would require a visit to an Apple Store to verify. If you don't want to visit an Apple Store or do not have one in your area, a DFU restore is something you can do on your own through iTunes. The key is making sure to put the iPad into DFU mode first before initiating the restore, and instructions for that process are easy to find. I'll report back in a day or two on my restore test, but hopefully we're zeroing in on the cause of this.

I also have the 32WFI with the same problem, no such problem with my Ipad 1

sorry to be thick, but what is DFU

DFU is "Device Firmware Upgrade"

Well I can report that after restoring from my iCloud yesterday and letting my iPad sit unplugged overnight I was able to reproduce the battery drain problem. So it would appear that my theory is correct and that this issue is somehow related to restoring from an iCloud/iTunes backup. I'm running a DFU reset as we speak, and if all is as I expect then the problem should not exhibit tonight.

I'm not sure what that means in terms of what specifically is causing the problem, but basically something in the backup software is not playing well with the new hardware so that there is a problem with the iPad successfuly going into standby. This would seem to verify that it's a software issue and not a hardware issue since I've been able to duplicate the problem and also resolve it through software restores. As mentioned, I'm running another DFU reset today, and I'll report back in another 24 hours or so if that seems to again resolve the problem.

The problem I had with my iPad I would use it for 20 minutes in and go from 100% to 90%. I would reset it and the battery would jump back up to hundred percent. The first thing I tried was to reset settings, then I tried to restore it. each time I would restore for my iCloud backup and the problem would persist. This backup was for my iPad two which might have something to do with that I'm not sure. I took it to the Apple Store talk to the lady and she said it was most likely a software issue she ran the diagnostics on it and said that the iPads battery was fine. I had to do a DFU Nuke and pave software restore without updating from the iCloud backup and now it seems to work fine.

matigo wrote:

DFU is "Device Firmware Upgrade"

You cannot DFU a New iPad. Apple doesn't have a .ipsw for download for the 3rd Gen iPad because it shipped with iOS 5,1, that's what Apple is implying. Even on the developer portal, you cannot find an .ipsw for the new iPad.

1. Connect to a computer: First step is to connect your device with Windows or Mac computer. Keep iTunes running on your device while connecting.
2. Hold Buttons: The most important step is to hold down multiple buttons simultaneously. Hold down the home button and the two sleep buttons on top of your device together.
3. Timing: It is most important to keep all buttons held down for at least 10 seconds. This may need some practice as over holding will display the apple logo on your screen, meaning that you have to start all over again.
4. Switching Buttons: After 10 seconds, let go of the two sleep buttons but keep your finger on the home screen for at least 5 more seconds. Again, timing is crucial as over holding may result in “Plus into iTunes” message that means that you have to do it again.
5. Done: If you managed to do this properly, the color of the screen stays black. This means that you have successfully turned your device into DFU mode.

Mac_hine82 wrote:

Done: If you managed to do this properly, the color of the screen stays black. This means that you have successfully turned your device into DFU mode.

I repeat, there's no point in DFU-ing your New iPad... There's no ipsw firmware download available by Apple for the New iPad even for developers on the developer portal. That's because the New iPad is shipped with the latest firmware, the same version iOS5.1. You cannot use an ipsw for an iPad 2 on the New iPad due to compatibility reasons.

I repeat again, there's NO POINT of DFU-ing a New iPad until Apple releases iOS5.11 or 5.2. Until then, you have to try other workarounds or make an appointment with the genius bar.

The purpose of DFU is to upload a downloaded firmware onto the iDevice. But there is NO FIRMWARE to upload..

The most drastic measure you can take is simply a reset.

I repeat, there's no point in DFU-ing your New iPad... There's no ipsw firmware download available by Apple for the New iPad even for developers on the developer portal. That's because the New iPad is shipped with the latest firmware, the same version iOS5.1. You cannot use an ipsw for an iPad 2 on the New iPad due to compatibility reasons.

The purpose of DFU is to upload a downloaded firmware onto the iDevice. But there is NO FIRMWARE to upload..

The most drastic measure you can take is simply a reset.

True story my friend, there's probably no need to go DFU here since you end up having iTunes to perform the recovery anyway. Recovery mode should work fine, and is certainly easier to initiate than DFU. I've just used DFU on my iOS devices so many times I don't even think about it anymore. But if all we're doing anyway is forcing iTunes to do a clean firmware install, then recovery mode should be fine.

By way of further report, the device seems like it's running great today this far. I'll be interested to see if it exhibits any drain overnight, but right now I'm optimistic it's good to go. I'll report back again tomorrow as far as any overnight drain behavior.

I just tested mine, lefted it on sleep the whole night (about 9 to 10 hours) and woke up and it was the same percent where it started. now idk this could mean my battery is fine, but whenever i play some games ( real racing 2 hd, adrenaline 6) it seems to drain the battery quickly, it could just be me tho, but i need to no if my new ipad didnt loose any percent overnight, does that mean it is fine? or is there other tests to do?

plzzz reply

Thanks for sharing your experience and adding to the thread.

I managed swap out my iPad this weekend once again citing the battery drain in standby. The rep at the Apple Store was super nice and helpful about everything. Battery life and drain in standby seemed to be the same on the new unit however so I wasn't pleased to say the least.

Despite this fact, I tried the above suggestion of removing my iCloud account from the iPad. Lo and behold, it holds the charge overnight! This is DEFINITELY a software issue. There's no other explanation for the drain overnight on the multiple models/units I've gone through. Wishing I had tried this and known about it earlier as it would have saved me a great deal of time, gas money, and frustration. Not to mention I would have kept my second unit with a positively perfect screen.

The unit I have now is performing as expected. Holds the charge while in standby, maybe dropping 1% overnight if any. Unfortunately though, the screen on this one is slightly dimmer/greenish on the lower left side. It's definitely not as bad as some others have shown in the other problem threads, so I'll sit tight for a little while. In a few months I'll try to swap it at the genius bar once a new lot of units is in the pipeline.

In summary, I urge anyone experiencing excessive battery drain in standby to temporarily remove their iCloud account. It seems to have worked for me. Now just waiting for its 5.1.1.

Best of luck to everyone. And a big thanks to any and all who have chimed in.

--- Adam

I should like to add, turning off icloud helped with the battery issue but also appears to have cured my new ipad of its pink colour tinge. Early days though only did it yesterday. By the way I did a reset on iTunes first, took 3 hours but well worth the effort

Well, I charged the battery to full on Saturday afternoon, and then unplugged it and have been running it now over 48 straight hours with no additional charging. Through two consecutive nights and 48 hours it has exhibited no standby battery drain at all. It was used moderately on Saturday afternoon, hard yesterday (several hours of Netflix by my kids, a few hours of reading my me), and little today. Through all of that the battery is now at 35%, so that I'm definietely getting the battery perfomance I've come to expect from my prior iPad experiences.

So bottom line, I've now been able to successfully cause the drain problem and also remove it on several instances. It is clearly a software issue, and it seems clear that it's brought on to devices through something corrupt that is imported from a previous software backup. I should mention too that my initial problems with this were created by backups restored from iCloud, and then the last successful recreation of the problem was brought about by restoring from a backup I created in iTunes. So it does not appear to be iCloud related, but rather a matter of something corrupt from an older backup being importated onto the newer device.

So if you suspect this is your problem, it would seem from my initial experieces that the solution is to perform a restore of the device to factory settings, and then reconfigure it as a new device. To complete this reset, please not that you will loose all data on the device. Following the resest you'll need to set up the iPad as a new device, and then instead of restoring from backup you'll need to reinstall applications and data. I should say too that in my initial successful attempt I manually downloaded all my apps again via the App Store, but that in my most recent attempt I installed the apps via iTunes. Both methods have worked, the key has been performing a factory restore and then configuring the device as a new iPad rather than restoring from a previous backup.

So for those interested, here's the steps I've successfully followed:

1. Back up the device through iTunes. Though you will not want to use the backup created, the step will ensure all apps are copied to iTunes if you want to go that route after the reset.
2. Backup any data you want to retain off the device. Photos can be imported to whatever program you use, and then a lot of application data can be manually saved through iTunes. To do this, select the device in iTunes, the select the "Apps" tab, and then scroll to the bottom of the page where individual apps can be selected and data transferred to-from those apps during iTunes sync.
3. Once all data is backed up to your satisfaction, initiate the factory restore. I mentioned that I've done this by inititating DFU mode, but recovery mode should work fine per Apple's instructions here.
4. Once the restore is complete, follow the instructions to set up the iPad as a new device. The key here is that you DO NOT want to restore from a prior backup as doing this seems to be the step that reinistalls whatever corrupt data is causing the battery drain problem. So configure it as a new device.
5. Reinstall apps and data through whatever means you desire. As mentioned, you can do this via iTunes sync, and in conjunction with this you can also resinstall any app sepcific data you backed up in step 2. Alternatively you can redownload apps through the app store individually, whatever you choose.

And that's basically it. One tip I use as I've undergone this process, before I restore the device I take screenshots of each page on my device so I can get all the apps back where they were previously once I restore. It makes it quick and easy for me, and I don't feel like the whole "new device" setup then is an overly burdensome process. Remember too, if you make an iTunes or iCloud backup before you perform this process, there is the option to always restore that backup later if you realize that some of your important data is missing.

So I hope my experimentation helps someone.

If you're not losing battery during standby then you're not having the problem that myself and others have encountered. Our problem has been that when the device is left unplugged overnight it is losing 10% or more battery, even though it's in standby and not in use. So again, if you're not losing battery during standby then your device would seem to be performing as it should.