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Charging Problems With Apple Pencil

Cookie18

Cookie18

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 11, 2014
584
684
France
Hey everyone,

I'm curious if anyone else has had the same issue as me, I can't seem to find anything online.

I have been trying to charge my Apple Pencil for the last 30-60 minutes and it is acting very strange. I have it plugged into my 12.9 iPad Pro which has 96% battery. The Pencil is charging up to maybe 40-50% and then losing about 3-5% a second until it is back down to 0.

It is plugged in the whole time, I'm sat watching the battery level on my iPad as it goes up and then goes right back down again. Sometimes it goes to 20-30% and then right back down.

Has anyone experienced this before? I really don't want to go to the Apple Store with it if I don't have to as I don't have the time and it isn't close.

Edit: It worked it's way up to 80% (insanely slowly). I looked away for a second and it was 40% again.
 
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Newtons Apple said:
Has the pencil been damaged? Very unusual for it to discharge that quickly. 3-5% drop per second is telling you that there is something wrong.
Click to expand...

Not from what I can tell. There are no signs at all of outside damage. It just sits on my desk and I use it maybe once a week.
 
Cookie18 said:
Not from what I can tell. There are no signs at all of outside damage. It just sits on my desk and I use it maybe once a week.
Click to expand...

Sounds like it has a short or something for it to go down that fast. I would take it to Apple but not sure what kind of warranty it has. If defective they might just replace it.
 
Newtons Apple said:
Sounds like it has a short or something for it to go down that fast. I would take it to Apple but not sure what kind of warranty it has. If defective they might just replace it.
Click to expand...

We only bought it in September so I’ll take it in the next couple of weeks when I have time. Hopefully they just replace it if it is a problem. I haven’t tried it on anything else yet but I’d rather it be a problem with the pencil than my IPP.

IowaLynn said:
I’m going to buy a pencil charger.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FEYA61Y/
Click to expand...

That looks awesome. I want to add that to my office.
 
I'm having weird problems too recently. My pencil is at 2%, then it charges to 9%, then drops to 6%, then back up to 12%, then back down to like 3%. Only when I leave it charged for hours at a time does it go significantly higher. I'm not sure if it's because I'm charging via iPad that's causing this problem, but this tells me that either my iPad or pencil is screwy.
 
ejin222 said:
I'm having weird problems too recently. My pencil is at 2%, then it charges to 9%, then drops to 6%, then back up to 12%, then back down to like 3%. Only when I leave it charged for hours at a time does it go significantly higher. I'm not sure if it's because I'm charging via iPad that's causing this problem, but this tells me that either my iPad or pencil is screwy.
Click to expand...

That sounds almost exactly the same as my problems. I plugged it into the wall (first time ever) and it seemed to charge at the regular speed. It seems to be a problem charging from my IPP, I just don’t know whether it’s the pencil or iPad that is not wanting to charge it. Both are under warranty but it’ll be a huge hassle if it is my iPad. As far as I know my iPad doesn’t have any problems with charging itself so I’m not sure what it could be.

Perhaps it’s a software issue?
 
Turned off BT from Control Center leaves Pencil connected but won’t scan for and add new devices. And turning “off” BT in the CC leaves it on in settings. But seems to be using less, and Pencil maintains its charge slightly better.

Off in CC seems to be low power mode and handy. Didn’t like what I read about it at first.
 
I bought mine about a month ago and it starting doing the exact same the other day - charging about halfway from the iPad and then dropping all the way back down to zero in a matter of seconds. It charges absolutely fine from the wall plug though, have no issues with that whatsoever, so that’s what I’m doing.
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Cookie18 said:
That sounds almost exactly the same as my problems. I plugged it into the wall (first time ever) and it seemed to charge at the regular speed. It seems to be a problem charging from my IPP, I just don’t know whether it’s the pencil or iPad that is not wanting to charge it. Both are under warranty but it’ll be a huge hassle if it is my iPad. As far as I know my iPad doesn’t have any problems with charging itself so I’m not sure what it could be.

Perhaps it’s a software issue?
Click to expand...

Could well be a software problem imo because when I plugged it into the wall after struggling to do it from the iPad it jumped back up to 100% almost immediately.
 
How well does the iPad charge? rule out any issue with the lightning port.

There shouldn’t be a correct orientation, or a worn contact (scratch?).

My pencil basically stopped batter charge level putting BT into its semi-off state. Stays at 100% last couple hours. Before was going down 5% or more per hour.
 
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Thanks. I just saw “Amazon Recommends” and it was late.
I’d seen others almost same in black with no criticism.

Well, it was a nice idea :-(
 
Okay. This has 4 out of 5 positives.

Apple Pencil Stand, Oittm Desktop Apple Pencil Charging Stand (Aluminum + Wood) Charger Dock Station with Apple Pencil Holder & Cap Holder $22

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072M96DP3/
 
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IowaLynn said:
Okay. This has 4 out of 5 positives.

Apple Pencil Stand, Oittm Desktop Apple Pencil Charging Stand (Aluminum + Wood) Charger Dock Station with Apple Pencil Holder & Cap Holder $22

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072M96DP3/
Click to expand...

I have one being delivered sometime today - I'll report back on it. The biggest gripe seemed to be about the charging status LED being wrong but the vendor indicated it was a bad lot. I'll see ...
 
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sparksd said:
I have one being delivered sometime today - I'll report back on it. The biggest gripe seemed to be about the charging status LED being wrong but the vendor indicated it was a bad lot. I'll see ...
Click to expand...

I got the charger and it looks real nice and charges the pencil but like other Amazon reviewers have noted the charge light does not turn green when the pencil is fully charged. I reached out to the vendor and I'll see what their response is.
 
Last edited:
sparksd said:
I got the charger and it looks real nice and charges the pencil but like other Amazon reviewers have noted the charge light does not turn green when the pencil is fully charged. I reached out to the vendor and I'll see what their response is.
Click to expand...

Follow-up: I sent the vendor an email on this but received no reply so I returned the defective unit to Amazon for a refund. I ordered another, hoping to get one that works as advertised (it appears that some people have). The second one has the same problem – the status light does not show green when the pencil is fully charged. The vendor replied to another reviewer that this problem was due to a batch of bad units going to Amazon; apparently, they decided not to recall those units from Amazon but have let them go out to customers. I gave the product a very low rating because of that. (And the LED is bright.)
 
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hi guys. i have the same problem as you all do.

i got my ipad less than a month ago, and in the last week it has started to reduce battery from the apple pencil while it's plugged through the ipad, yet when on cable, charges just fine.

smells like a problem with the ipad.

anyone has news regarding to it ?
 
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