iPad Pro iPad Pro 2018 stuck on red battery screen

[LGShepherd]

Hi!

My iPad Pro 2018 ran of battery last and ever since it's been stuck on the red battery screen.

It's been on charge for over 24 hours, I have tried hard resets and plugged it into my MacBook.

I've had a look online but no tips seem to work.

The iPad is on the latest version of the public beta of iOS so I suspect it's a bug within iOS.

Has anyone experienced this previously and got any tips?

Thanks!

 

[AutomaticApple]

I have tried hard resets

Are you referring to DFU mode?

 

[LGShepherd]

Are you referring to DFU mode?

I have tried to put it in DFU mode, but that won't work either.

 

[corry20]

Yes I have the same issue. I put it in the forum also. When you tried to get into DFU mode did the apple logo come up and go back to the battery flickering screen. When my Ipad is not plugged in the battery will not even show up.

 

[LGShepherd]

This is very strange.

I put my iPad back in my MKB and charged it through that then it suddenly started working again. Very weird.

 

[TiggrToo]

This is very strange.

I put my iPad back in my MKB and charged it through that then it suddenly started working again. Very weird.

Bad cable / charger?

 

[mlemonds]

Bad cable / charger?

this. Or debris in the USB port?

 

[Kohnnor]

Hey! Did you find the cause of this problem? I'm currently encountering the same charging issues. My tablet has been charging for 2 hours now and it's stuck in that red low-battery screen.

EDIT: after fumbling with all my chargers and outlets in the house (I don't have my original Apple one), it managed to squeeze enough power to turn on with a Switch Lite charger! The charger I usually use is my Nokia charger with a Wacom cable (I like it because it's an L-shaped one)

 

[Katie Marshall]

Hey! Did you find the cause of this problem? I'm currently encountering the same charging issues. My tablet has been charging for 2 hours now and it's stuck in that red low-battery screen.

EDIT: after fumbling with all my chargers and outlets in the house (I don't have my original Apple one), it managed to squeeze enough power to turn on with a Switch Lite charger! The charger I usually use is my Nokia charger with a Wacom cable (I like it because it's an L-shaped one)

Thank you!! I tried every cable in the house and it wouldn't charge. Then I saw your post and tried my switch lite cable....Worked a treat!! Thanks again!

 

[SnyG]

Apologies if it’s not relevant to this thread but my iPP 2018 has been behaving strangely over the last few weeks. I’ll turn it off when I’m done using it (with plenty of charge) and then when I take it out again a few days later, the battery is completely drained as if it turned itself back on?

I’d say this has been happening for at least a month - I’ve just installed 13.6 so hopefully that’ll fix it.

 

[YLG80]

Same issue here with my iPad Pro 2018, since yesterday.
I've found my iPad with a black screen of death.
Connecting it to a charger gives only an intermittent display of an empty battery on black background.
I've connected the iPad to a charger during the whole night to no avail.
Please note that there is no white USB connector below the empty battery on the iPad display!
I've tested different chargers and a USB power bank. No result.
Tried several times to hard reset the iPad.No result.

It appears that the iPad is drawing power only when not displaying the empty battery.
So as soon as the empty battery appears, the USB port is disconnected.
It always cycles like that without charging.
Never had any problem with the battery before yesterday.
It looks like the iPad has not enough power left to restart charging.
Weird !
Yves

 

[bk_pts]

Hey, I just wanted to say I'm having precisely the same problem as YLG80, also as of yesterday. I'm completely stymied as to how to fix it.

 

[bk_pts]

I found this thread on the Apple support forums that suggests trying multiple USB-C cables: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251403621

 

[Dlozano321]

Hi,

My problem was almost exact to yours. My battery drained and wouldn’t hold a charge. Every time I plugged it the screen would show the red battery screen and shut off every 5 or so seconds. I left it charging over night and nothing. Still would flash the same screen.

What worked for me was luckily my sister had a chromebook that used a type c charger so I plugged that in and it was finally able to boot up.

Use anything that has more power to charge you’re device like a Nintendo switch charger or chrome book charger.
Hope this helps!

 

[bk_pts]

Update: I went through every combination of USB-C cable and charging source I could find. Finally, the original cable and charger that came with the iPad got it to charge back up and boot. That's not the exact combination that's worked for others, though, so (frustratingly) it seems like just "trying everything you have until something works" is the current best advice I can give.

 

[Aabshir]

As of 7/30/2020 i am having exactly the same issue.

I have commented on apples site it seems there is some kind of software glitch on apples side. I also have an appointment with Genius bar (i hope they know about this, i had bad experience with them, where they had no idea what i was talking about ). but that was for i phone while back.

I have seen over 50 people complaining about the same issue already different posts and forums.
I will post my results with genius bar tomrrow.

Thank you guys for sharing this i feel better now.

 

[YLG80]

Thank you for your report.
According to me, it's definitely a marginal error in the BMS.
Unfortunately, I'm on holiday's without the original power adapter. My bad ...
Yves
PS Travelling in a campervan with a High Power USB car adapter QC 3.0.
I had already a similar problem with the same iPad in N-Z earlier this year. But it restarted eventually.

 

[YLG80]

This is how I would explain what killed my iPad (twice)
The iPad was left in our Campervan the first time, and in the car a few day's ago. No more than two hours.
The temperature in both vehicles was rather high.
I would estimate @ 45°C at least but no more than 50°C.
This is not an exceptional situation in a car.

The temperature elevation has slightly increased the Lithium battery capacity and voltage.
Something has drained the battery (background program or whatever) until the BMS decided to shutdown the iPad.

Then the temperature in the car has decreased to something like 20°C.
This has reduced the Lithium battery capacity with also a voltage reduction, now below the normal cutoff voltage expected by the BMS.
Now the voltage is way too low so that the Battery Management System (BMS) can no longer trigger a new charge.
Or the BMS is cutting the charger off because it believes that there is a safety issue with the Lithium battery.

This is likely the reason why there is like a "pumping effect" when the iPad is connected to a USB 3.0 port or to a battery bank.
That's kind of a battery deep discharge.

It should be easy to replicate that specific situation with an oven in a lab.
This is a glitch in the BMS as there is enough capacity left in the battery to wake up the iPad and display the empty battery on the screen.
Or perhaps the BMS is very dependent upon a kick from the new powerful charger.
And how about the other Apple chargers, or the QC3.0 or QC4.0 chargers, battery bank, USB 3.0 ports etc ...
Useless for my iPad
Yves

 

[Aabshir]

Update.

Met Apple Genius....apple guy told me i probably will pay $400 to replace the whole ipad. i told them about this blog and the apple community one.

he suggested that the ipad might have been doing some update in the background and that might have caused the issue.

anyways I specifically asked him if he can plug their 18w charger which he had on his hand ( i also said get the MBP charger in case if this does not help.

he went inside took about good 7 minutes when he came back ipad Turned on with 1%.

So the good thing is this is just charger issue (or not) because i wanted until it was charged 60% came home and tried my older charger which did not help prior to meeting apple tech.

This time even my older charger is working fine. go figure. anyways i am online now everything is working fine.

that's my update.

 

[YLG80]

Thank you very much for that update.
So there is some hope with the original charger.
Arrgh, I will have to wait until the end of next week.
I don't like to leave an empty Lithium battery w/o recharging it asap.
I'm wondering what solution they propose when you only have 12V power from a car to recharge your iPad.
A Turbo USB car charger Qualcomm 3.0 doesn't do the trick.
Yves

 

[YLG80]

Again thanks to Aabshir for his feed-back after going to the "Genius"
After spending my last Sunday to analyze the specs, I've found the way to revive my iPad from a 12v car charger..

You absolutely need to charge your iPad via a USB-C to USB-C power cable.
Do no try via a USB-A to USB-C, it will not work when you have only the empty battery on your display..
Due to missing wires in the USB-A connector, the charger cannot "talk" to the iPad and adjust the charging power.

You absolutely need a charger (car or wall charger) compatible with the "PD" standard,i.e Power Delivery Standard.
There are not many car chargers compatible with that specification.
Some have PD written on top of the USB-C port.
I've found the following brands compatible with the PD specification:
SBS car charger, Intertronic 230V wall charger, Hama car charger, PNY car charger.
Nintendo power charger.
The Hama car charger is the most expensive (50 euros), but it is supplied with the appropriate power USB-C cable.
This is the one I've bought because it was available on stock.

I've immediately connected the iPad Pro 11'' in my car and about 10 minutes later the iPad restarted.
Cool for my iPad.

What is not cool is that this is a new bad story with the USB chargers standards?
The EEC has tried to standardize the USB chargers (interchangeability) but now there are different specifications for the same type of connector USB-C.

My wife has the latest Samsung Galaxy Tab, also with the new USB-C connector.
Unfortunately the charger does not speak the same language.
It is compatible with the USB-C Fast Adaptative Charging protocol.
That charger is useless to kick the recharge of the new iPad pro.

According to me, Apple should fix the Empty Battery of Death issue, because they pretend that an iPad Pro would replace any Laptop or Desktop.
That's likely true, but I cannot afford to loose my iPad usage just for such a stupid charging issue when I have only 12V available.
I hope this will help iPad Pro >2018 users...
Yves

 

[Scott Estes]

Thankfully I came across this thread. Been struggling the last few days with a dead iPad. Used every USB cord and plug I had and finally went back to the originally charger and USB-C cord and its charging!

 

[pmcneely]

This thread convinced me I wasn't losing my mind over nothing. I had all the same symptoms as everyone above, Ipad was like 2 months out of warranty. I tried every combo of USB-C cord and charger to no avail. Finally decided to pursue the AMEX double warranty on purchases and they needed me to take it to get it diagnosed. Took it to the Genius Bar, tech was having no luck pulling the serial from the dead Ipad, then their new tool was able to connect to pull serial. Tool said it was dead though and wouldn't accept charge...but I figured if they were able to pull serial it probably was more alive than dead. They put a replacement on hold and said $599 if AMEX coughed up the dough. Took it home a bit bummed still and not really wanting to jump through the rest of the hoops to submit claim last night. Decided that I still wanted to see if it would charge after he was able to pull serial (I think someone said they got theirs to charge after a similar event at a genius bar). Plugged it in, red line of death! but decided to leave it plugged in for a bit and see what happened. Original charger and cable, btw. This am, iPad at 100% and ready to roll! So, if the theory is that it somehow gets software wedged in some way preventing charging, perhaps the genius bar tool can unblock? Dunno, worked for mine. I am still concerned it might happen again, so I guess I will have to be super diligent keeping it charged.

tl;dr : genius bar said it was dead and needed replacing, but their tool read the serial from firmware; was able to charge iPad to full after returning home.

 

[inFMSwsr]

I also looked at other people's responses regarding usbc to usbc vs usba and i believe they are correct. even just charging it from my laptop usbc to usbc turned it back on after a couple of minutes and now that it is on i moved it back to the usb a but i just ordered a pd usbc from aukey (or anker?)

 

[rleavitt1010]

USB C to USB C
So I've been dealing with this exact issue with my Ipad Pro for over 3 years. First unit I bought was in 2018. Blinking dead battery issue started right before my warranty expired. No-one at apple or apple support stores had a clue what was going on. They replaced the unit free of charge since it was under warranty. 8 months later the new ipad pro started doing the exact same thing!! I mean I hardly use this thing and treat it like gold. This time i was pissed...obviously a software/hardware flaw that apple should take care of. They told me my warranty was no longer good and I would have to pay $800 for a repair. I complained to everyone person who would listen and no help. Every tech claimed they have never heard of this problem. So I put the dead ipad in a drawer and tried not to think about it anymore. Fast forward a year later I saw it in the drawer and thought I'd call apple to see if this obvious problem had hit their radar yet. The tech on the phone again had no idea and claimed this never happens. I found this blog and people mentioned having success with using a 18Watt USB C to USB C charger. The entire time I was trying to charge my ipad was with a usb c to usb a since that's what came with my ipad. I tracked down a standard 18W Usb C to Usb C and in 10 minutes my ipad was alive again!! I cheered in the store and everyone thought I had gone mad. lol Anyhow after 3 years of dealing with this problem its finally solved. No thanks to apple. Not sure why thy have not figured this out yet and have their techs trained to help others. Thanks to the comments here that help me out. Made my day!