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macduke

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 27, 2007
13,485
20,591
Out of the blue this evening my 10.5" iPad Pro that I've had since launch day has stopped consistently charging. I've tried the Apple charger, my Anker charger, and Anker battery pack and three different cables including the Apple Lightning cable. You have to hold the Lightning cable in the iPad at just the right angle to get it to charge. If I just leave it in and it's not showing green then it doesn't charge. If I hold it in at an angle, either by pushing it slightly up/down or left/right it will beep and start charging.

I've inspected the port with a flashlight and everything looks fine, no debris. I even gently moved a toothpick around in there to see if I came across something and nothing was dislodged. The pins look clean and clear and tight/not bent. However I did notice that relative to my iPhone 7, the iPad Pro 10.5" Lightning port has pins on the top and bottom—is this for USB 3? I also have tried rebooting my iPad multiple times, including leaving it off for five minutes and plugging in the charger. When I plugged it in, the iPad recognized that and started to boot, which I thought was strange. Maybe it was only for a split second, because when it came up it wasn't charging? The only thing different is that today my Apple Pencil was completely dead and I had just charged it up to 100% earlier in the evening. I also have the Smart Keyboard and it seemed to do this whether or not it was connected.

I'm wondering if it's hardware or software causing this? I'm a developer on iOS 11 beta, which might cause issues? So far I've never run into this issue before with any of the betas, aside from the SD card adapter causing crashes while on vacation. I had to keep importing to my iPhone and then send them over AirDrop to store on my iPad. I got back home the other day and I'm now frantically trying to move hundreds of 42mp RAW photos over to my MBP using AirDrop before the battery dies since the connector has problems now and IDK if RAW files get stored in iCloud Photos.

To me this seems like a hardware issue. Does resetting all settings have a shot at resolving an issue? Usually 99% of the time rebooting a problem on iOS fixes it, so I'm not sure if I should go through that headache. I'll actually be traveling tomorrow so I'll be in a city with some Apple Stores—is it worth making an appointment to get it checked out or will I be turned away for having a beta installed?
 

Gav2k

macrumors G3
Jul 24, 2009
9,216
1,608
It’s a beta issue. I’ve the issue on my 6s plus and iPad Pro. Easiest way is plug in and power it off. Charges to 100% every time. Or put the phone/iPad in airplane mode but that’s hit and miss.
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 27, 2007
13,485
20,591
It’s a beta issue. I’ve the issue on my 6s plus and iPad Pro. Easiest way is plug in and power it off. Charges to 100% every time. Or put the phone/iPad in airplane mode but that’s hit and miss.
I was hoping it was a beta issue. Did it just crop up in beta 3? And in your experience it also starts charging if you wiggle the connector around? Because that's the part that seemed really weird to me and made me think it's a hardware issue. Like it was loose?
 

Gav2k

macrumors G3
Jul 24, 2009
9,216
1,608
Moving it round can cause it to work. Thing that’s due to the port having a little play around the connector making it disconnect and reconnect. Well that’s how it feels. But I just plug in and power off and it charges every time.

As for beta 3 it was spotty in beta 2 also.

There’s also an Apple Pencil charge issue I noted.
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 27, 2007
13,485
20,591
Moving it round can cause it to work. Thing that’s due to the port having a little play around the connector making it disconnect and reconnect. Well that’s how it feels. But I just plug in and power off and it charges every time.

As for beta 3 it was spotty in beta 2 also.

There’s also an Apple Pencil charge issue I noted.
Well, that's super weird, but thanks for the info! I'll try that once I get done offloading all these RAW files. AirDrop is really finicky when it comes to the receiving device showing up and I'm sending in batches so I can verify. Blah…
 

macduke

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 27, 2007
13,485
20,591
Moving it round can cause it to work. Thing that’s due to the port having a little play around the connector making it disconnect and reconnect. Well that’s how it feels. But I just plug in and power off and it charges every time.

As for beta 3 it was spotty in beta 2 also.

There’s also an Apple Pencil charge issue I noted.
I tried the plugging it in and turning it off thug but it kept turning itself back on but wouldn't charge. Also it has gotten worse and I have to push it in even harder just got a brief beep connection. I got all my RAW photos from my vacation moved over so I'll be randomly popping into the Apple Store later this evening.
 
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