Apple Pencil 2 draining iPad Pro battery

My bad—yes, whatever the last iPad update was. Though, thinking back, I don’t think the iOS version matters—I think this might have been an issue before that. I think it might be a Pencil firmware issue, honestly.

I have the same issue. If this is "normal” behavior then I think Apple should disclose it, I saw many reviews and none informed about the standby drainage.

iPad standby battery was amazing, let's hope this problem can be resolved with a firmware update.

I have exactly the same problem.

After several experiments, I found that the iPad's battery won't be drained if I don't attach Apple Pencil 2 on my iPad pro (11 inch).

It is a clear proof that Apple Pencil keeps stealing battery from iPad.

And for your information, there is some energy loss when we talk about wireless charging, it is the cons of wireless charging tech itself, Apple product is no exception. That being said, when your iPad charges your Pencil, there is gonna be some percentage of battery lost during the process without going directly to the Pencil. Adding everything together, it is not hard to imagine the battery will drop so fast.

Short term solution would be finding a good dock or case for your Pencil, put it separately with your iPad. It worked for me.

Long term solution, I guess it is more of an Apple job, is simply not to charge Apple Pencil as long as the battery is not lower than a threshold, which could be exposed to the user. After separating my Pencil for a while, two or three days, I still have 92% battery in it. That said if iPad Pro doesn't automatically charges Apple Pencil before its battery goes lower than 80%, it could very likely save the day.

Of course, it is up to them to solve the problem.

To me, this gen iPad is good, but not perfect, it has a lot of flaws, this is just one of them you will have to bear with to enjoy your fullscreen experience, :)

You can let the Apple Pencil battery drain all the way down to between 10%-20% before having the need to charge it!

You do not have to keep it attached to the iPad Pro all of the time!

Another thing you can do/try to make sure the Pencil isn't charging on the iPad Pro all the time, is simply slide the Pencil over on those charging magnets until it stops charging, but still stays attached to the iPad.

The amount of drain happening here (in my experience) is far beyond a few percent a night. If it were just 4 or 5 percent due to topping off the Pencil now and then, I’d be totally fine with that. But it’s anywhere from 15 to 20 percent per 12 hours of standby, and that’s just plain unacceptable. There is no way that much juice is needed to keep the Pencil topped off or at least reasonably charged. Apple needs to fix this ASAP. I’m really happy with my new iPad Pro so far, and I’m really happy with the Apple Pencil 2 as well. I’m just not happy with the way this charging solution is working.

Apple may not recognise this as a defect.

The Apple Pencil IS supposed to charge up completely from the iPad.

So, it stands to reason it is going to constantly drain the battery of the iPad.

See my solution two posts above yours.

I think you totally missed the issue. I have the same problem. The pencil drains while attached to the iPad while the iPad is connected to it’s charger. Mine has drained down as low as 2%. I think the iPad stops charging after sleeping. I have not been able to determine at what interval the charging stops.

MichelPM, do a little research and post a viable solution or 🤫

If your iPad 11”/12.9” is going to remain powered on and idle for an extended amount of time with Pencil 2 magnetically attached, turn off Bluetooth or turn on Airplane mode - Pencil 2 will disconnect from your iPad (electronically not physically) and will not charge or consume iPad’s battery. Pencil 2 will remain dormant (or in sleep mode) when it doesn’t have an active Bluetooth connection - so even if you’re twirling it between your fingers, there’s no battery consumption.

Hello everyone. I have had the same problem and I returned my new Ipad Pro 11 and now I'm back on my old iPad Pro 10,5 which is way better than the new with the battery problem...

Good luck in finding the solution for this problem, I retired :).

Same problem here!

Last night I made a test... iPad in standby without my pencil attached.

From 17.00 to 10.00: iPad 100% ---> 94%, Pencil 100% ---> 95%.

Previous nights, the iPad loose about 15-20%!

So, i think this is a bug!

The Apple pencil is working as designed and the only fix Apple could give would be to down regulate the charging of the Apple pencil during night hours or after an extended period of time.

The amount of battery drained from the iPad is significant and is likely due to the wireless charging as energy is lost in the process. Much less energy is lost in conventional charging as the wires used have a much lower resistance. I doubt Apple will fix this unless enough people cause a stir in forums like this or notably within the Apple community on youtube.

As far as fixes it is probably worth looking at cases like the Zugu Muse case which offers good protection, a place to hold your Apple pencil whilst charging and another elastic sleeve on the back of the iPad. This way overnight you can use the sleeve to hold the pencil.

Alternatively plug the iPad into a charger overnight as well.

I'm hoping iOS 12.1.3 solves this problem--I'm topping everything off right now and letting it all sit overnight with the Apple Pencil connected. I have a feeling it will not be different though, as I have not seen any changes in the release notes pertaining to Apple Pencil issues.

For those of you saying "just turn off Bluetooth" or "that's how it's supposed to work, just leave it unattached", those aren't solutions. The whole point of this new design was to make it easier to carry the Pencil with you and always know that you'll have it when you'll need it. If I have to leave it sitting on my desk because it bleeds my iPad dry within 3 days after not even being used, that's a major problem and is not the functionality that was advertised.

Having to turn Bluetooth off has negative effects that I'm not willing to live with on a day to day basis. Having to leave the Pencil sitting on my desk unless I need it removes a major feature upgrade that made me want to dish out the $129 to upgrade from the old Pencil.

I’m noticing the battery drain in your screenshot is consistent with what I see on my own iPad Pro as far as the time of day it happens. It’s usually between 3 and 6 AM where I see the most dramatic drain.

I am having the exact same issue, I have the pencil connected to my iPad overnight while the iPad is charging, I know the pencil is at 100% but it’s where I keep it now, but hen I come back to it the next day and the pencil has drained to about 75%, should I try getting it replaced you think?

@Daninabottle Since the latest iOS update last week, this issue is solved for me. I also had the draining pencil, but now it perfectly sticks to a 100% and has being doing this for the whole week. Did you already update?