Apple Pencil 2 draining iPad Pro battery

Has anyone else found that leaving their Apple Pencil 2 attached to their iPad Pro 11 overnight drains the battery anywhere from 15%-25%. I did a test of leaving the pencil attached over night and saw a 17% loss in the iPad battery. The pencil was fully charged when I left it connected overnight. So it really had nothing to charge on the pencil. Then I charged the iPad to 100% and left overnight without the pencil attached and the next morning the iPad battery was still at 100%.

Seems like the Apple Pencil 2 is constantly drawing power from the iPad Battery. Was just wondering if anyone else is seeing this behavior. Would like to keep the pencil attached so I know where it is but not if it keeps draining the battery.

iPad Pro 11-inch, Cellular, iOS 12.1

Posted on Nov 21, 2018 5:33 AM

Top-ranking reply

CaoJiayin

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Dec 29, 2018 5:38 PM

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, :)

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86 replies

MichelPM

Level 10

82,103 points

Jan 6, 2019 11:10 AM in response to RolexDiver

See my links 6 posts above.

Leave feedback and, also, contact Apple by phone.

Good Luck!

Jan 18, 2019 2:21 PM in response to peterfromsarasota

Same problem here. It took me some time to realize the drain is caused by the pencil. I didn’t thought it could be that bad.

Zee113

Level 1

4 points

Feb 15, 2019 7:55 AM in response to peterfromsarasota

I have the same issue where pencil 2 drains from o to 12 percent. Is here a fix or do I need to return pencil for a refund? It’s starting to be a BIG frustration...

Feb 17, 2019 9:04 AM in response to alekdome

I have the exact same issue. It went away after the lastest ios update, but returned after rebooting my device.

Feb 28, 2019 4:49 PM in response to xenzo

Exactly right. It’s most definitely an iOS issue or an Apple Pencil firmware issue. Or maybe even a combination of both.

klevrguy

Level 1

4 points

Mar 1, 2019 11:18 AM in response to spiderman0616

Same here. I have to detach and reattach the pencil every so often or else it drains to 0%. Maybe that’s actually better than it draining the iPad battery constantly? 🤷🏻‍♂️🎁🐴

juddza

Level 1

4 points

Mar 28, 2019 7:44 AM in response to spiderman0616

My iPad still drains a lot when the Pencil is attached. If I remove the pencil, charge remains for much longer.

In my opinion, the problem has not been sorted.

May 26, 2019 5:21 AM in response to Meatius

Still no issues here since that last big update, no longer seeing major battery drain on the Pencil or iPad in standby.

Dec 24, 2018 5:26 AM in response to MichelPM

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.

Hexdrive

Level 1

4 points

Jan 2, 2019 7:33 PM in response to MichelPM

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.

Richysb

Level 1

12 points

Jan 12, 2019 11:40 AM in response to MichelPM

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 :).

BagNDrag

Level 1

26 points

Jan 17, 2019 1:23 PM in response to peterfromsarasota

I would LOVE a feature in iOS to turn off the charging of the pencil or only allow charging below a setup percentage. I want to be able to carry my pencil connected to the iPad, but NOT have it drain the battery all the time.

Jan 22, 2019 11:52 AM in response to Kristoftekent

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.

Mar 1, 2019 7:55 AM in response to oriffet

My iPad was completely drained out overnight. Just found out about this issue. That’s crazy. Mine seems to be the most extreme case scenario. I wish mine was only 15-25% lol.. Now I have to charge my iPad up again before school. Had I known this was an issue I wouldn’t of gotten a case that enables you to keep your pencil attached to your iPad all the time. Sheesh!

guycruls

Level 1

28 points

Jun 26, 2019 7:55 AM in response to peterfromsarasota

One particularly annoying thing is that some iPad Pro cases have been designed to incorporate the Pencil, and I have bought one of those. I have now taken out my Pencil because it does seem to me that my new iPad Pro 11's battery drains faster than it should as I use it. And of course I need to start thinking about buying a case for my Pencil - Grrrrrr!

Also: stand-by is stand-by: once charged, the Pencil should not continue to drain the iPad's battery.

Perhaps Apple can find a technical solution to this. It could be very simple: include a timer in the firmware such that once the Pencil battery is fully charged, a switch cancels the charging link; up to six hours during daytime; up to twelve hours overnight. I'm no programmer but I'm confident this is feasable and simple to implement.

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Apple Pencil 2 draining iPad Pro battery