iPad Pro iPad Pro excessive daily battery drain when not in use

[mrname2016]

I have a new M4 iPad Pro 13.

I also own M1 iPad Pro 12.9 Gen 5. (Selling soon)

I previously owned an M1 iPad Pro 11 Gen 3.

I previously owned an A12 iPad Pro 11 Gen 2.

All cellular models.

All of these models have one thing in common. They all experienced what I believe is EXCESSIVE daily battery drain when not in use.

I have documented this for years with screen caps of the battery settings. I did speak to Apple a couple times about it a couple of years ago but they were no use. (Run this test, run that test... gee the battery seems fine to us. I tried to tell them I don't think the battery is defective, something is draining the battery, no response or solution offered.)

Example 1. Charged to 80% on Saturday at 9pm. Put it in the bag. Take it out on Tuesday at 9pm, battery is at 50%. (No use for three days.) That's 10% a day drain while doing NOTHING.

Example 2. Charged to 100% on Monday at 11pm. Put it in the bag. Take it out on Friday around 7pm, battery is at 50%. (No use for four days.) That's ~12% a day drain while doing NOTHING.

Does that seem excessive to anyone? Is anyone else experiencing this? I was hoping this new iPad M4 wouldn't do it, but after three weeks of ownership it does. I love the iPad Pro, but I cannot understand why this happens. I would think that 1-3% a day without use is ok, but 7-10-12% a day is too much, all amounts I've seen for years on four different iPad Pros.

I wouldn't say it happens every time after a few days of no use, but definitely a lot more often than not. That makes it even more mysterious. There are times I open it after three days and the battery only went down ~10%, or 2-3% a day.

Cellular is always off. Apps may or may not be running in the background. The Apple pencil is attached.

During testing on multiple units, one thing that did drain the battery that I deleted was the FIND MY app. But, it doesn't do that on my iPad Mini or iPhone. Ever. Only on the iPad Pros.

I have an iPad mini Gen 6, and neither this one or the Gen 5 or 4 (all cellular and with pencil attached) models suffered from this issue. None of my iPhones did either. My multiple MacBook Air's didn't do this. I even owned a Microsoft Surface Pro with a keyboard and pencil attached and it didn't do it either. It did go down, but not excessively like this.

If everyone says their iPad Pros do this, then I can forget it and move on.

Thanks for any replies.

 

[sparksd]

I see the opposite. My 13" Pro has been stellar and I see little to no drain while idle while my Mini 6 does drain, at least 10%/day when not used.

 

[kirbalo]

Putting it "in the bag" could be lowering your Wi-Fi signal sensitivity to your device, making it work a bit harder to stay connected... I would suggest, as a test, to put it into airplane mode and shut off all wireless as a first debug step..

 

[Jackbequickly]

No drain on my 13”. Closed at 80% and it’s at 80% in the morning.

 

[meDANOcine]

Do not attach the pencil or keyboard case when your iPad is not in use. From my experience these will drain your battery quicker than if not attached.

 

[Honey_crisp]

I have the base WiFi only 11” model with the Magic Keyboard and have noticed the same battery drain issues. In comparison, my iPad Mini in a regular folio case has amazing standby battery drain.

 

[caesium5883]

i noticed this on my M4 11" too! was previously on the 2021 Ipad Pro 11" battery drain is too obvious for the M4.
charged to full at night 11pm. The next day morning 9-10am it is 93%? it wasn't even used.

 

[sparksd]

Do not attach the pencil or keyboard case when your iPad is not in use. From my experience these will drain your battery quicker than if not attached.

My 13" Pro is in the MKB with Pencil Pro attached and I don't see any drain overnight.

 

[aakshey]

This is normal
based on circumstances 0.25-1% an hour battery drain on standby is normal, especially for cellular models

 

[caesium5883]

my ipad is attached to the Combo Touch, maybe that could be another reason too?

 

[aakshey]

my ipad is attached to the Combo Touch, maybe that could be another reason too?

Expect 0.5-1% drain an hour

 

[sdm1985]

Hey, iPad Pro M4 WiFi. I’ve done lots of file shifting between iPad and iCloud and it’s freed up storage. Running iOS 18 public beta. Going form 25% to 0% overnight with everything turned off…

 

[DeepSix]

This is one of the reasons why I got rid of mine. It would drain 40% in one day just sitting there unused with no notifications on.

 

[sparksd]

This is one of the reasons why I got rid of mine. It would drain 40% in one day just sitting there unused with no notifications on.

There's something wrong with the device in that case - I see a couple of % drain at most on 13" M4 sitting on an MKB. That's not a normal occurrence by any means.

 

[MrSimmo]

Im seeing my 13” iPad Pro m4 draining much quicker than all previous ipads. It zapped 4% with me writing notes for around 5 mins in Notes; and it seems to drain around 40% over night.

Usual checked installed apps, background processes, notifications that sort of thing and no good. Loaded the iCloud backup onto my 12.9” 2023 pro and im seeing roughly 50% better battery use.

Apple support says its fine and normal…. Yeh right it is. I’ve got to the point now where its going back for a refund unfortunately.

 

[AustinJerry]

Why are you not opening Settings/Battery to observe which app is draining the battery? That should be the first troubleshooting step.

 

[MrSimmo]

Why are you not opening Settings/Battery to observe which app is draining the battery? That should be the first troubleshooting step.

I cant speak for the others, but I did do that and the main 'apps' using the battery was Safari and System. Safari wasn't open (I had forced closed it and rebooted the iPad prior to the test) which was odd, but it still showed up.

 

[AndrewS]

Totally anecdotal but I think there's something going on with Safari the past few iOS versions. Certain sites causing battery drain for some reason. Actually noticed the issue in MacOS with Safari as it was using "significant energy" and my Macbook Pro would drain quickly as well. I switched to Firefox and it's been MUCH better. Past couple of days have been looking at "Arc Search" for my browser on Macbook Pro and iPhone/iPad and am liking it. It's also coded in Swift like Firefox and has built in ad-blocking.

 

[Reverend Benny]

M1 11 Pro cellular here, haven't moved around with my iPad. That prob has an impact on battery time but my numbers are like this.

Took it off the charger at 12:18 (100%) on Monday and looking at it now at 15:15 on thurday its down to 79%
Don't have an apple pencil connected to it but a cellular provider is installed so its has an active cellular connection.

Pretty good if you ask me. All iPhone and iPads released lately (U1 chip, NFC etc) consume battery, even if they are turned off.

 

[AndrewS]

I have been WiFi free in my house for a while so I’m using a USB-C to Ethernet dongle and have WiFi/Bluetooth off in the iPad. If I disconnect power for charging (Ethernet still connected) AND Safari is not running and has no tabs open, it might drop to 95% at the worst at night. If I have tabs in safari and it’s running in the background, I’ve seen it drop into the low 80% or upper 70% by morning.

I thought in the past it was just the USB-C Ethernet dongle eating up battery but something is different with safari as far back as iOS 16 probably.