Apple Pencil 2 draining iPad Pro battery

I’m noticing that if I have my Apple Pencil 2 attached to my iPad Pro for a while without using it, the Pencil starts discharging a little every day—maybe about 5% per day. For a while the iPad will continue topping it off, but then it stops. The Pencil shows as still attached and connected, just not charging. This will drain my iPad’s battery anywhere from 10-20% every 24 hours or so unless I remember to detach/attach the Pencil now and then to start the charge process over again.

I’m not really sure what to do about it. I’ve had the Pencil replaced thinking it was a faulty Pencil. I’m not going into the store again to get the iPad replaced and then run into the same thing. I feel like this is a software issue, as I’ve only been noticing it since 12.1.2.

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, :)

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.

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.

I have the same problem. What I did was turn the Apple Pencil around so it doesn’t make the magnetic contact. It helps to have a iPad Pro case with the pencil attachment. It won’t charge unless I turn the pencil around. Hope this helps.

I haven’t had the issue for the last couple of iOS updates. I leave the Pencil attached to the iPad whenever it’s not in use and I’m not seeing any extra drain anymore. Appears to have been a software issue in my case.

Hi,

I did not notice the discharge part of the IPad. However, I have been asking myself a similaire qestion. The one about the Pencil 2 battery lifespan. As we know keeping the device on the charger while it’s over 80% decreases the lifespan of the battery over time. I’ve decided to leave the pencil on the table next to the iPad - not clipped to the iPad just in case. I am sure that engineers working on this thought about this aspect however I am not sure what decision have been made regarding this. As earlier the battery quality decreases the higher the chance it will be replaced by the user. I would welcome the option to disable the charging manually.

It might be too late to suggest this considering you might already have a case for your iPad Pro, but just recently I got the ZUGU Case for my iPad Pro on Amazon (Keep in mind I am definitely not paid to advertise or anything like that, I am just a satisfied consumer who really appreciate a good product) and there are two options of where to put your Apple Pencil. On the side connected via magnets (the usual place where the Apple Pencil charges) and there is a little elastic pocket on the back the keeps your Apple Pencil firmly there while not draining your battery life. I know it’s another investment, but I definitely find it useful because I find I don’t really have to charge my Apple Pencil since the battery lasts for so long and when I do I just leave it charging while my iPad itself is charging.

But as far as something Apple could do, it would be cool to see a software update in the future that allows you to keep your Apple Pencil on the iPad without it draining your battery. Maybe when the pencil is 100% and the iPad recognizes it and doesn’t drain the battery. Or a window asking if you want it to charge the pencil.

Your very confidently-expressed explanation seems to make technical sense, logistically, though you seem to gloss-over perhaps the most obvious structural element of the issue -- i.e. what the Pencil could even be doing such that it would burn through that much of the iPad’s battery, by itself, while the iPad is otherwise dormant.. ?

You‘re making no indication that the iPad itself is doing anything, which I imagine you’ll double-back on, otherwise the question of HOW the little Pencil could possibly use that much wattage without literally melting itself, still remains..

Lastly, speaking properly - What exactly would you provide as backup sufficiently qualifying you to comment on what the Pencil “should” be doing or is “designed” to be doing, by any measure..?? Assuming you’re not the chief engineer overseeing Pencil development, and without any other substantive reference(s), that‘s nothing more than a personal opinion .. Perhaps it’s a valid one, maybe, but nonetheless inconsequential without backup.

Thanks,

MJA

I’ve also had this problem and I haven’t found a way to stop it from happening.

Issue is mostly fixed for me in iOS 12.2 update from yesterday. The Apple Pencil part of the problem is gone. The Pencil stays charged at 100%, and the lightning bolt icon never goes away in the battery widget after a few hours like it did before. I did not wake up this morning to see the Pencil drained down to 85% either. The Pencil is also not warm to the touch like it used to be sometimes. So I think we can call this half of the issue solved.

The iPad half of the problem is still not fully fixed in my opinion. My iPad still went from 100% to 91% in about 17 hours while not being used and with the Pencil attached. I will say I’m not seeing a huge spike in battery drain between 3 and 6 am during the night like I was before, so they definitely changed something. The drain I’m still getting on the iPad is better than it was for sure, but I still don’t think it should take this much power away from the iPad to keep the Pencil charged. The Pencil should be able to intelligently let the iPad know when it needs charge and when it doesn’t, not just constantly draw power from the iPad. Maybe I’m expecting too much, I don’t know.

I do wonder if some of my battery drain last night was just because of my iPad settling down from the update. I’m going to let it sit today too and see if the drain is improved or not.

Quite a rude reply, we are all aware that the pencil drains the iPad to get its charge but surely when the pencil is fully charged and the pad is left on standby and neither are in use it shouldn’t drain 40% off the battery overnight. You complete fool, this is a design flaw obviously and a simple piece of IF THEN programming would solve the issue