iPad iPad Air M2 11" poor standby battery life

[Yuh]

Since around the end of 2024, my iPad Air M2 11" has developed terrible standby battery life. It drains 35-45% per day without using it at all, ie virtually no screen on time. Before this time, it would drain maybe 4% per day. I suspect it was from some software update involving apple intelligence that came out around that time. This is a problem as I don't use it very often, and every time I need to use it was on low battery or dead.

I've tried everything from turning off apple intelligence, siri, wifi, bluetooth, airplane mode, low power mode, background refresh off, Find My off, location off. Done a full reset, full factory restore (without restoring from backup) and have essentially a stock iPad with no apps installed or signed in. Still no change.

I spent 3 weeks with Apple support and their conclusion after doing all their tests and running all their diagnostics is that there is no issue with my iPad and that this is "normal behaviour" for a powerful M2 chip ipad. As long it lasts more than 10 hours, there is no problem they say.

Anyone else come across this issue?

 

[FeliApple]

Standby battery life on my iPad Air 5 running iPadOS 15 is poor vs my iPad 11th-gen on iPadOS 18, but maybe 5-6% per day, nothing egregious like that.

It seems like you’ve tried everything so I don’t know what to recommend, sorry. Hope you can solve it! That’s definitely both unusual and appalling.

 

[Reverend Benny]

Since around the end of 2024, my iPad Air M2 11" has developed terrible standby battery life. It drains 35-45% per day without using it at all, ie virtually no screen on time. Before this time, it would drain maybe 4% per day. I suspect it was from some software update involving apple intelligence that came out around that time. This is a problem as I don't use it very often, and every time I need to use it was on low battery or dead.

I've tried everything from turning off apple intelligence, siri, wifi, bluetooth, airplane mode, low power mode, background refresh off, Find My off, location off. Done a full reset, full factory restore (without restoring from backup) and have essentially a stock iPad with no apps installed or signed in. Still no change.

I spent 3 weeks with Apple support and their conclusion after doing all their tests and running all their diagnostics is that there is no issue with my iPad and that this is "normal behaviour" for a powerful M2 chip ipad. As long it lasts more than 10 hours, there is no problem they say.

Anyone else come across this issue?

I don't have the same device, but using a iPad Pro M1 (16GB cellular version) and get great numbers from it.
I use it mostly in the evenings these days doing some Netflixing and webbrowsing and stand-by time is great when not using it.

What peripherals do you have connected to it (Airtags, Apple keyboard etc)? Are you using the same iCloud account as to other devices (iPhone, apple TV)? You using cellular connectivity?
Does it drain just as much even if you turn on airplane mode (no BT or Wifi)?
What iOS version are you currently running (iOS 18.4.1 is the latest)?

 

[rui no onna]

My M1 iPads would drain like that on standby but it doesn't do it on airplane mode (cellular, wifi and bluetooth off).

It's kinda weird it does that when you've already reset the device. How is your onscreen battery life?

 

[Yuh]

What peripherals do you have connected to it (Airtags, Apple keyboard etc)? Are you using the same iCloud account as to other devices (iPhone, apple TV)? You using cellular connectivity?
Does it drain just as much even if you turn on airplane mode (no BT or Wifi)?
What iOS version are you currently running (iOS 18.4.1 is the latest)?

The iPad is 11" Wifi only model. No peripherals are attached. It is usually in a case but I've tested it without the case and there is no change.
Usually it is signed in (same account Apple ID as my MacBook Pro, but no iPhone) and also tried signed out. No change.
Even in airplane mode, it drains the same amount.
I did a full restore with the newest 18.4.1 as part of the troubleshooting with Apple support. No change.

My M1 iPads would drain like that on standby but it doesn't do it on airplane mode (cellular, wifi and bluetooth off).

It's kinda weird it does that when you've already reset the device. How is your onscreen battery life?

Onscreen battery life is not too much of an issue to me. I only use it for 2-3 hours at a time. It drains about as expected, 10-15% per hour.

The main issue is I only use it every few days and when I come to use it, the battery is flat.

 

[Yuh]

More information for my case.

I first noted this standby battery issue around the start of 2025, perhaps with 18.1 or 18.2. After some troubleshooting, I found the issue to be that Apple Intelligence wasn't downloading the model correctly despite being plugged in and on wifi. It would stay on "downloading..." and drain battery in the background.

Note, I'm in Australia and on Australian English so we got Apple intelligence later than the US.

I managed to work around this issue initially by changing the device language to something else (UK English) and then switching back to Australian. This completed the AI download and the drain issue was resolved, at least temporarily.

A few weeks later, the issue returned again but this time the AI models had already downloaded correctly and changing languages didn't make any difference.

I did a full restore of 18.3.x (this one automatically downloaded AI). I tried 18.5 betas and finally last week did a full restore back to current 18.4.1. On this one you could choose not to install AI. Even without this installed the battery drain issue remained (and frankly is even worse).

Talking to Apple support over a period of a few weeks, they were initially helpful but after doing their diagnostics and asking me to do tasks such as full charge/discharge cycles, their conclusion is that there is no hardware issue and it is working within spec.

I asked why is it not performing as it should previously, their answers include: it has to run things in the background and wifi and screen wakes ups which is all understandable but still the amount of drain is ridiculous. They also weren't happy that I installed the beta software and despite doing full non-beta restore afterwards, they would always blame the beta software.

When I asked even if I turn on airplane mode, turn off location, keep the screen off, why it's still the same, their response is it still has to run the clock...

I'm out of ideas. Sorry for the rant.

 

[Reverend Benny]

More information for my case.

I first noted this standby battery issue around the start of 2025, perhaps with 18.1 or 18.2. After some troubleshooting, I found the issue to be that Apple Intelligence wasn't downloading the model correctly despite being plugged in and on wifi. It would stay on "downloading..." and drain battery in the background.

Note, I'm in Australia and on Australian English so we got Apple intelligence later than the US.

I managed to work around this issue initially by changing the device language to something else (UK English) and then switching back to Australian. This completed the AI download and the drain issue was resolved, at least temporarily.

A few weeks later, the issue returned again but this time the AI models had already downloaded correctly and changing languages didn't make any difference.

I did a full restore of 18.3.x (this one automatically downloaded AI). I tried 18.5 betas and finally last week did a full restore back to current 18.4.1. On this one you could choose not to install AI. Even without this installed the battery drain issue remained (and frankly is even worse).

Talking to Apple support over a period of a few weeks, they were initially helpful but after doing their diagnostics and asking me to do tasks such as full charge/discharge cycles, their conclusion is that there is no hardware issue and it is working within spec.

I asked why is it not performing as it should previously, their answers include: it has to run things in the background and wifi and screen wakes ups which is all understandable but still the amount of drain is ridiculous. They also weren't happy that I installed the beta software and despite doing full non-beta restore afterwards, they would always blame the beta software.

When I asked even if I turn on airplane mode, turn off location, keep the screen off, why it's still the same, their response is it still has to run the clock...

I'm out of ideas. Sorry for the rant.

Interesting case, espeically since (if I understand correctly) you have tried Airplane mode and it still drains just as much.

Since you have tried most things it sounds like its a HW issue. But, and this is a longshot. Since you have run beta you could potentially have had a new FW installed that is causing the issue, that FW (for whatever component) won't be replaced with an earlier one if you roll back.
Now, it doesn't seem likely this is the issue since you have had it for quite a while back.

The last alterantive to try to do a DFU restore if you haven't tried this. You need a computer with itunes to do so.
Read the instructions carefully and if needed watch a few youtube videos before doing it so you get the hang of how its done.

If you can't update or restore your iPad - Apple Support

You can put your iPad in recovery mode, then restore it using your computer.

support.apple.com

 

[StoneJack]

Since around the end of 2024, my iPad Air M2 11" has developed terrible standby battery life. It drains 35-45% per day without using it at all, ie virtually no screen on time. Before this time, it would drain maybe 4% per day. I suspect it was from some software update involving apple intelligence that came out around that time. This is a problem as I don't use it very often, and every time I need to use it was on low battery or dead.

I've tried everything from turning off apple intelligence, siri, wifi, bluetooth, airplane mode, low power mode, background refresh off, Find My off, location off. Done a full reset, full factory restore (without restoring from backup) and have essentially a stock iPad with no apps installed or signed in. Still no change.

I spent 3 weeks with Apple support and their conclusion after doing all their tests and running all their diagnostics is that there is no issue with my iPad and that this is "normal behaviour" for a powerful M2 chip ipad. As long it lasts more than 10 hours, there is no problem they say.

Anyone else come across this issue?

reset as new

 

[Yuh]

The last alterantive to try to do a DFU restore if you haven't tried this. You need a computer with itunes to do so.
Read the instructions carefully and if needed watch a few youtube videos before doing it so you get the hang of how its done

The full restores that I did to 18.3.x and also 18.4.1 were using DFU restore mode using my mac. I believe that is the only way to roll back from beta to non-beta.

 

[Yuh]

Interesting case, espeically since (if I understand correctly) you have tried Airplane mode and it still drains just as much.

Yes that is correct, it still occurs in airplane mode.

Since you have tried most things it sounds like its a HW issue. But, and this is a longshot. Since you have run beta you could potentially have had a new FW installed that is causing the issue, that FW (for whatever component) won't be replaced with an earlier one if you roll back.

I had the issue on 18.4 and prior and out of desperation to see if the beta may have fixed some issue, I tried the 18.5 beta. I have since rolled back to 18.4.1 now. Whether the firmware for some component is affected negatively or not I have no idea. I guess I would have to wait for the 18.5 stable release.

 

[muzzy996]

reset as new

That's what I would do. Complete reset, set up as a new device and refrain from installing apps until the device settles down from initial setup (a day or two). If heavy battery drain is still observed with just baseline iPadOS installation and no third party apps, cloud services set up or email accounts setup in the mail app then things point more strongly towards a hardware issue. Otherwise one is just guessing.

 

[Yuh]

That's what I would do. Complete reset, set up as a new device and refrain from installing apps until the device settles down from initial setup (a day or two). If heavy battery drain is still observed with just baseline iPadOS installation and no third party apps, cloud services set up or email accounts setup in the mail app then things point more strongly towards a hardware issue. Otherwise one is just guessing.

I've done a full reset multiple times. First was to 18.3.x. Set up as a new device without restoring from backup and didn't install anything other than a sign in to Apple ID (due to Apple support requiring this). I had this for a few weeks and then most recently did a full DFU restore of the latest 18.4.1, again without install anything / restoring from backup. It's basically a stock baseline iPad. I turned off most of the functionality (background refresh, location, bluetooth etc). This has been running for almost a week.

Tried for a couple days with wifi off / airplane mode / low power as well. This does reduce battery usage a little, down to about 30% per 24hrs.

As for a hardware issue, apple support have run all their diagnostics and found no issue. Hence they said it's all "working normally". So despite being under warranty, they won't replace it. I'll probably wait until 18.5 stable comes out and give it one more go with a full reset / DFU restore, and if it still doesn't change, this iPad will be traded in.

 

[Yuh]

I was hoping to see if anyone else had a similar issue with this particular iPad and if so hopefully Apple could find the issue and fix it.

I found one other forum post with a similar issue but it doesn't seem to be widespread so perhaps there is some rare issue with ours:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ipad/comments/1iw1wrq/my_partners_ipad_air_m2_has_extreme_battery_drain