Apple Pencil 2 discharging while attached.

[spiderman0616]

Wanted to see if anyone is noticing this with their Apple Pencil 2:

I have been noticing that my Apple Pencil 2 will slowly discharge over time even while stuck to the side of my iPad Pro if I haven't used it for a while. It is not disconnected from the iPad because I see it in the battery widget with a battery percentage.

I'm kind of wondering if this is by design--like I wonder if the Pencil hits a certain percentage if the iPad Pro will start to top it back off again on its own. If I take the Pencil off and stick it back on the iPad, it tops off to 100% again, but then will slowly drain over the next few days if I don't use it and just leave it on the charger.

It would make sense to me if the iPad is doing this on purpose in order to not wear the Pencil battery out by constantly keeping it topped off if it sees that I haven't used it in a couple of days. What would not make sense to me is if the iPad just let the Pencil drain down to nothing and then I take it off the side and it's dead. I just haven't gone long enough without using it to have that happen yet.

Anyone noticed this issue (or maybe feature?)

 

[1rottenapple]

I wonder if it’s discharing because it’s constantly paired to the iPad. I have mine across the room from the iPad. I keep the pencil in the apple case it came with (the white box). I noticed it lost about 5% of battery life in 20hrs away. Not a big deal.

 

[megatronbomb]

I’ve noticed this too. The pencil seems to go down to 80% if the iPad is left alone and then charges back up when I start using it (the iPad).

 

[1rottenapple]

I saw the tear down of the pencil, they basically had to peel the material with a razor and the battery is super small.

I would not worry about battery life unless you cannot charge the pencil for a minute or two. Like if your case prevents you from charging easily.

 

[spiderman0616]

I’ve noticed this too. The pencil seems to go down to 80% if the iPad is left alone and then charges back up when I start using it (the iPad).

Yep-same. I left mine alone to just keep an eye on it yesterday and it stopped discharging around 80%. I used the Pencil last night for some work in Procreate, and then stuck it back on the iPad. It charged up to 100% and stayed there. The iPad needed to be charged so I had it plugged in over night. I took it off the charger at 6:30 this morning and the Pencil and iPad are both still at 100%. Nothing to see here I guess. This must be by design to keep from wearing out the battery.
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I saw the tear down of the pencil, they basically had to peel the material with a razor and the battery is super small.

I would not worry about battery life unless you cannot charge the pencil for a minute or two. Like if your case prevents you from charging easily.

I'm not worried at all--I have worked on stuff for hours at a time and not gotten this thing even close to dead, so I don't think it's a big deal. Popping it back on the iPad tops it off VERY quickly.

 

[1rottenapple]

Yep-same. I left mine alone to just keep an eye on it yesterday and it stopped discharging around 80%. I used the Pencil last night for some work in Procreate, and then stuck it back on the iPad. It charged up to 100% and stayed there. The iPad needed to be charged so I had it plugged in over night. I took it off the charger at 6:30 this morning and the Pencil and iPad are both still at 100%. Nothing to see here I guess. This must be by design to keep from wearing out the battery.
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I'm not worried at all--I have worked on stuff for hours at a time and not gotten this thing even close to dead, so I don't think it's a big deal. Popping it back on the iPad tops it off VERY quickly.

I hope they made the battery technology in a ay that it keeps the battery health for years to come.

 

[kiensoy]

I had an issue a few days ago where the pencil wouldn’t charge. It was paired, I could draw, it displayed the battery level but it wouldn’t charge, only kept discharging. I tried turning on/off Bluetooth and repairing but it didn’t work. I had to restart the iPad and that fixed the issue .

 

[1rottenapple]

Sound like the iPad was the issue.

 

[Waterman316]

Actually came here to post about this. Mine was down to 84% when it’s been connected to my iPad which was on the charger for about 24 hours now.

 

[1rottenapple]

Actually came here to post about this. Mine was down to 84% when it’s been connected to my iPad which was on the charger for about 24 hours now.

That’s weird. Was the iPad out of the house without the Apple Pencil. I ask this because my scenario involved the iPad I’m the house with the pencil. Just not attached.

 

[spiderman0616]

My issue is getting worse and I’ve narrowed the issue down to definitely being because of the pencil. When it’s connected to the side of the iPad, the iPad drains about 20% a day but the Pencil doesn’t charge. It just keeps slowly draining a bit at a time. The battery meter shows exactly when it’s happening and when it is not happening. It’s almost as if the iPad thinks it has to keep charging the pencil because at some point it always starts discharging.

The pencil and iPad always work fine. They’re not unpairing, and the pencil always shows up as connected in the battery widget. It just doesn’t show as charging but at the same time seems to be constantly drawing power. To prove this—I took the pencil off the iPad 6 hours ago. It was at 62% then and it’s at 61% now. If it’s the same result in the morning I’ll be contacting Apple for a replacement Pencil.

 

[spiderman0616]

So I’ve had the Pencil off of the side of the iPad since about 6:00 PM yesterday afternoon. I did not use either device at all and just let them sit. The Pencil is still at 99% which is what it was when I took it off the iPad. The iPad went from 62% to 59% from then until now, which is a pretty standard amount to drain when just sitting there on standby.

I made an Apple Store appointment for the 27th to have the Pencil swapped out, but I’m going to try to run in there today with just the Pencil and see if they’ll just give me a new one. I know it’s a crap shoot as to whether or not they’ll do it but I’d like my stuff working correctly over the holiday.

 

[spiderman0616]

Just took my Apple Pencil over to the Apple Store and walked them through all the troubleshooting I've done. They agreed with me that it sounded like the Pencil itself was the culprit and they swapped the Pencil out for a new one. Have it paired and charging now. I'll update this thread once I get to test it out for a few days.

 

[highertechnology]

I recall from the previous Apple Pencil that sometimes restarting the iPad with the pencil attached would fix the communication issues between them.

 

[spiderman0616]

I recall from the previous Apple Pencil that sometimes restarting the iPad with the pencil attached would fix the communication issues between them.

This worked for me temporarily, but the issue would always come back. As for the new Apple Pencil I got from the Apple Store this morning though--I'm seeing a big difference already:

1) The Pencil stays topped off at 100% with the little charging icon next to it in the battery widget. My original would stay connected, usable, and visible in the widget, but would discharge slowly throughout the day. I'd say about 10% or so every 8 hours.

2) The iPad is not draining at all. With the old Pencil stuck to it, it was draining about 20% every 12 hours or so.

3) I have not used the iPad or Pencil since about 11:00 AM this morning and neither item has drained even 1% of battery sitting there on standby.

SO

Here's what I think was going on with the first one: It would start to drain a little bit, and the iPad would see that and start trying to charge it. Something was wrong inside the Pencil where it was not flipping over into "let the iPad top me off again" mode so it was sitting there discharging for hours at a time (maybe thinking it was in use and needed to be active?) while the iPad was trying to charge it for hours at a time. The iPad detected the Pencil and its charge state the whole time so I knew the iPad was not the problem.

I'm cautiously optimistic it was just a faulty Pencil.

 

[Waterman316]

That’s weird. Was the iPad out of the house without the Apple Pencil. I ask this because my scenario involved the iPad I’m the house with the pencil. Just not attached.

No. It was attached to the charging spot on the iPad in my bedroom, and the iPad was connected to the charger. Lol

 

[spiderman0616]

So.....the replacement Pencil isn’t draining as much battery as my first one when attached to the iPad, but it’s most definitely still draining it faster than the iPad would normally drain in standby without it attached. I’ve had them disconnected in standby for 2 days now without use, and neither item has drained at all. iPad is still at 100% since 2 days ago, and so is the Pencil. My workaround for now is going to be that if I’m not going to be using the Pencil for a while, it stays on my desk asleep and not sipping power off of my iPad constantly. Still trying to find other people that are seeing this same behavior. I’m pretty sure it’s a software thing.

 

[1rottenapple]

So you replaced the pencil? Maybe the culprit is the iPad then.

 

[silver_mtb]

So you replaced the pencil? Maybe the culprit is the iPad then.

Seems to me the culprit is actually not one device or the other, but is bad charging/power management/engineering between the latest iPad and the 2nd generation Pencil. Replacing either piece of hardware will not help this issue, IMO.

 

[1rottenapple]

Seems to me the culprit is actually not one device or the other, but is bad charging/power management/engineering between the latest iPad and the 2nd generation Pencil. Replacing either piece of hardware will not help this issue, IMO.

Maybe? My 3rd gen iPad and 2nd gen pencil are functioning well with little drain

 

[swarlos]

Sounds like there’s going to be a needed software update to fix this.

 

[spiderman0616]

Sounds like there’s going to be a needed software update to fix this.

I think that’s probably correct, and I’m not going to bother trying to swap out any more hardware.

 

[triangletechie]

I had an issue a few days ago where the pencil wouldn’t charge. It was paired, I could draw, it displayed the battery level but it wouldn’t charge, only kept discharging. I tried turning on/off Bluetooth and repairing but it didn’t work. I had to restart the iPad and that fixed the issue .

I just had this same issue today. I restarted my iPad and am waiting to see if that fixes it.

 

[spiderman0616]

I just had this same issue today. I restarted my iPad and am waiting to see if that fixes it.

It won’t. It will seem like it did for a little while, but the problem will return. I even started my iPad over as brand new and still had the problem. I really think it’s a software bug.

 

[bclarkj]

Same issue here. Battery on pencil stops charging and only starts charging again when I take off iPad and reattach. If I don’t do this prior to plugging in iPad to charge it, I come back to iPad fully charged and pencil at 80-97% depending where it was charge-wise when I plugged in iPad. Will be making Genius oppointment if next update doesn’t fix behavior.