ways to prolong ipad mini 4 battery life

Yes, the simple fact is that unfortunately those people were woefully misinformed about modern lithium power cells. Their recommendations made sense ~20 or so years ago when NiMH batteries were the norm for consumer electronics, but they have not applied for a very long time now.

Deep discharge cycles will inherently degrade a lithium battery faster than shallow discharge cycles and more frequent charging.

There generally is no need to monitor the battery level and micromanage it. Just plug it in whenever it is convenient to do so, for however long it is convenient to do so.

For example, I plug mine in when I go to bed and leave it plugged in all night. That way it is fully charged in the morning, and it will have backed up to iCloud using my home wifi network each night. But, when I get to work, if I'm going to be in my office for awhile, I'll plug it back in there too just to keep it topped up. On long car trips, I just plug it into one of my car's USB power ports. If stuck at an airport, I'll plug in there if there's a seat near one of the outlet trees, or use my little 1200mAh batter pack I carry in my brief case. My lithium batteries (laptops, iPhones, iPads, iPods, BT headphones, speakers, keyboards and mice, toothbrushes, game controllers, etc, etc) will typically comfortably exceed the rated life span in terms number of cycles and still have sufficient capacity to be useful.

Frequent and partial discharges and charges are fine.

So don't fuss and monitor the battery. Plug it in when it's convenient, unplug it when you need to. As much as you can do so, avoid deep discharges (especially running it down to the point of auto shutdown). Don't worry about how long it is plugged in for either - even if left plugged in for several days in a row, it will be fine.

You will find that despite the fact that Lithium polymer and Lithium Ion batteries have been in common use for small electronics for decades now, most people's ideas about how to use such personal electronic's batteries are based on old technology (NiMH, rechargeable NiCAD, etc). Those ideas do not apply to lithium cells and never did.

ios devices can't be overcharged they stop charging when they reach 100%

read about battery care here http://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/

about prolonging by usage http://www.wikihow.com/Extend-the-Battery-Life-of-an-iPad

more

https://www.google.dk/search?q=apple+battery+care&ie=&oe=#q=ipad+prolong+battery +life

It is not healthy for the battery to continually deplete the battery to low levels, and will in the long term, cause damage.

• You can charge at any time, for any amount of time.
• You can use the device while it is charging.
• You can leave it attached to the charging circuit after the battery reaches 100%.
• Do NOT deplete the battery to low levels.

You cannot and never have been able to over charge any iPhone, iPad or any other Apple Lithium battery powered device. They have, and always have had, over charge protection built in to the battery itself. Charging simply stops when the battery is at capacity.

The source for charging also does not matter as long as it meets standard USB power standards. It is also not necessary to always run the battery down so low as you mention, and in fact that will cause it to wear out somewhat faster than just charging it more frequently before it gets really low (<1/3rd charge remaining). It is also not necessary to always charge it fully before unplugging it if that is not convenient to do so.

Any lithium battery may swell up when it gets old and worn out. Lithium batteries have a finite useful life span, and once they are worn out, they are prone to swelling.

The people you spoke with are clearly completely uninformed about modern industry standard SMART Lithium battery technology. You CANNOT overcharge an industry standard SMART battery. The very standards these batteries are manufactured to include complete over charge protection designed into the control circuitry of the battery itself. Once fully charged, all charging stops.

I will repeat - you CANNOT overcharge any Apple Lithium battery powered device.

It is NOT necessary to fully discharge, nor fully charge any SMART Lithium battery - you can charge them at any time, to any level (and again, that is not an Apple product feature - it applies to any and every single consumer electronic device that uses world wide industry standard Lithium battery technology).

Deep discharges will always cause a Lithium battery to degrade somewhat faster than simply charging it more frequently before it is deeply discharged. There is no way around that as it is a factor of the chemisty going on inside every Lithium battery. So you are better off not letting it drop to such low charge levels, and just charge it more frequently (either partial charges or full charges).

The once a month full discharge/charge advice was required to keep the battery level indicator properly calibrated (and that was ALL it ever did). Apple has not recommended doing that for several years now, as the software for the battery meter display is self-calibrating.

Mine is about two eeeks old and runs down in no time. Every tech tells you something different. I’ve been a big Apple fan, buying numerous computers, pads and phones over the past 30+ years but am getting pretty disgusted.