[iPad Air 2] High battery drain in standby and airplane mode

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Level 1

2 points

[iPad Air 2] High battery drain in standby and airplane mode

5 weeks ago I've got my new iPad Air 2. It's the 128GB WiFi+Cellular version but no SIM card installed yet (I told Siri to turn off mobile data). iOS 8.1.2 already installed. First everything seems fine until I saw how much the battery drains while I'm not using the ipad.

I have disabled almost everything I've found as possible solutions to avoid battery drain with iOS 8...

- Bluetooth off

- mobile data off

- Brightness almost completely left (15-20%)

- auto brightness off

- automatic app updates off

- background updates off

- location services only enabled for find my iPad

- all iCloud services disabled ecxept iCloud backup, keychain, reminders, calendar, find my iphone

Installed apps (additionally to the default Apple Apps): GMail, Youtube, Facebook, Amazon, ebay, dropbox, TV Sideview, brother iPrint&scan. Push notifications only enabled for GMail, ebay and facebook and the default Apple Apps Reminders, Calendar, Messages (iMessage on or off is no difference to battery behaviour), Facetime.

I'm using the iPad mostly for surfing the web using Safari. So this is the app with high battery usage, which can be found in the settings.

I can barely reach 6-8 hours of usage and 1-2 days of standby until it runs out of battery and I have to charge it again.

Before I go to sleep or leaving home for work, I can either enable airplane mode or not, the battery will drain up to 20% (mostly 10%-18% in airplane mode within 7 or 10 hours). I've already set it up as a new ipad four times but there is no change.

I called Apple Care Support and send a diagnostics but this says the battery is fine. I could believe that and last week the iPad turns off by itself at 12% battery left. So I called Apple again and send the iPad to service center. UPS picked it up on Monday and sent it from Germany to Apple service center in Netherlands, where it arrived on Tuesday 11:30 and was already returned at 18:00 to Hermes. They restored it and found no errors but I think in this short time they could not check the battery behaviour accurately. So I received my original iPad back on Wednesday, turned on and left with 95% battery - all options enabled except bluetooth. I connected to my WiFi, logged in with my iCloud account and installed the apps mentioned above I turned of the mentioned settings and used the iPad until 58% (some short standby minutes) and turned WiFi off, turned airplane mode on and this morning, only 48% battery left.

What is wrong with my iPad?

iPad Air 2 WiFi, Cellular, iOS 8.1.1

Posted on Dec 11, 2014 3:27 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 2, 2017 9:46 PM in response to 1apple@day

I have same problem with iPad air2 32 gigs with out line

And now it's not open at all

I called iPhone last month and they told me I should pay 250 $ to get it fixed!!!!

I just wondered how much the new one?

It's 300$

Is it make since???

I'll not use iPads anymore.

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Answer 2

Skydiver119

Level 9

53,399 points

Dec 11, 2014 4:36 AM in response to maclago

Have you looked in notifications? Almost every app you install will insert itself into your notifications and you may not need all of them..

Look in the notification center but also in the settings, scroll down to each app and explore its notification and privacy settings.

turning off the ones you do not need may help

Also your mail, do you have it set on fetch or push? On push new data is always pushed out. In fetch you can set the frequency or even set it to manual to pull in new mail. Might be something to explore.

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Answer 3

maclago Author

Level 1

2 points

Dec 11, 2014 4:52 AM in response to Skydiver119

Thanks for your answer but yes, I already checked push notifications. Push notifications are only enabled for GMail, ebay and facebook and the default Apple Apps Reminders, Calendar, Facetime, Messages (iMessage on or off is no difference to battery behaviour). I can try to disable them all for one night in airplane mode and see, what the battery says the next morning.

I'm catching my e-mails with the Google GMail-App. This uses push by default. Alternatively you can only turn the notifications for GMail off (but I don't really want to do that - it causes no issue on my iPhone 5c).

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Answer 4

maclago Author

Level 1

2 points

Dec 13, 2014 4:02 AM in response to maclago

The last two days my iPad lost only 1-3% in airplane mode - I have disabled iCloud Backup, too. But the normal standby while WiFi is enabled isn't still great.

I have also watched, that the battery percentage jumps from around 73% (+/- 3%) with one step to 100% while loading. Anyone else seen this before?

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Answer 5

Cntlaw

Level 1

0 points

Jan 7, 2015 7:15 PM in response to maclago

My pad air encountered same power drainage issue right after upgrade to IOS 8

i found under Settings , Privacy , Location Services is ON and only guess this is what caused the battery fast drainage

Any advice?

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Answer 6

Philly_Phan

Level 7

20,707 points

Jan 7, 2015 7:19 PM in response to maclago

Using the battery level meter in this manner is comparable to using your car's fuel gauge to calculate miles per gallon. The only thing that matters is the total amount of operating time from full charge to auto-shutdown.

Use the wall-mount charger that came with the iPad and charge overnight. Do NOT use an iPod/iPhone charger. Do NOT use a computer's USB port. Then, operate it normally until auto shut-down (ignore any low level alerts that may appear). An irony is that doing that test to determine the total operating time is also the procedure necessary to calibrate the battery level meter.

I'm not claiming that you do not have a problem. I am stating, however, that we don't yet know. If the above test does, in fact, indicate a problem, read this.

Also, according to Apple:

Use Your iPad Regularly

For proper reporting of the battery’s state of charge, be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).

Elsewhere, Apple elaborates and explains that two half-discharges (or four quarter-discharges, etc.) equals one full discharge.

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Answer 7

Jul 9, 2015 9:08 AM in response to Philly_Phan

I Have iPad Air 2 for the last 6 months with me . for the last 3 days I was experiencing the same problem which you faced.

I Switched off wifi , location service, mail. Auto update , and every bit of programme which might use power in stand by mode. Surprisingly my iPad continue to drain battery drastically even if in switched off mode .

I Charged 100 % and switched it of for 12 hrs And when I turned it on the battery was at 21%.

But I have noticed one thing , iPad downloaded iOS 8.4 update three days back And I didn't install it . Till that date onwards I had encountered this issue.

i Decided to install the update last day night and surprisingly the iPad is working fine after the installation . In fact it is working better than before..

I Think Apple is inserting some kind of bug into iPad , to encourage iOS update . Please share your experience if some one have the same problem...

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Answer 8

elb2020

Level 1

8 points

Sep 11, 2015 11:15 PM in response to Jisnajohn

I Have the same issue for about 1 week now. I have a charge of 70% , went to sleep come back this morning to find it completely dead and needing to charge. I have no idea why, but I guess on my iPadA2 it was a reverse effect after the last update. Before the 8.4 it was fine, after it I found background app refresh was on. I really hope that update 9 will fix it as I really don't feel like it taking it for a repair run.

any suggestions?

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Answer 9

JonBOY26

Level 1

53 points

Sep 19, 2015 7:14 AM in response to maclago

I have noticed this same issue with my iPad Air 2. I owned an original iPad, then an iPad 3, then 4 and now an iPad Air 2. Every one of these devices could sit for days and days on standby and barely lose any battery, with exception of my Air 2. I love the Air 2 design, but am really disappointed by the battery.

I've been through all my settings and have disabled everything I can, but it doesn't seem to have helped. I also charge off the original AC wall charger. I'm about ready to uninstall apps like Facebook to see if that makes a difference. Before I do that though I'll follow the above suggestion to fully charge and then drain the battery all the way to zero.

My iPad has warranty until December, and if I can't improve the battery longevity with some troubleshooting I'm actually tempted to take it into the apple store and try make some sort of warranty claim.

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Answer 10

Brand B

Level 1

0 points

Oct 14, 2015 8:42 PM in response to maclago

FFor me the culprit turned out to be the YouTube app. Watched one short video yesterday, came home to find my iPad Air 2 dead today. Checked usage under Battery in the settings, found YouTube had used 63% of the power in the last 24 hour period.

delete. No tolerance for that kind of behavior.

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Answer 11

A7exV

Level 1

9 points

Oct 17, 2015 1:12 PM in response to Brand B

I have the same problem. iPad Air 2 32GB + cellular. From 100% to 0% for 2 days without any activity. Tried to turn WiFi off, same issue. iOS - 9.0.2.

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Answer 12

Feb 11, 2016 6:44 PM in response to A7exV

Same IPad air2 cellular 128... Same problem!...sent in for service...returned saying no problem found...bull!

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Answer 13

May 7, 2016 8:31 AM in response to Bobbiedee45

Had the same problem on iPad Air2 64GB iOS 9.3.1 - several times, the battery went from hero to zero overnight. What solved my problem was changing the auto-lock period from 'never' to '10 min' (Settings > General>Auto-lock). I always manually switch off the iPad when I'm finished using it, but sometimes it seems to mysteriously switch itself back on.

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