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iPad Pro Is it normal for iPads to take longer to charge the older it gets?

D

DeepSix

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 4, 2022
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I have a 1.5 year old IPP 11” and the charging has become unbearable. I even upgraded to a 30 watt charger and no difference. I’ve tried different chargers, different cables and no difference. From my testing it takes 6 hours to charge from 90% to 100%. Sometimes it will get stuck at a number like say 95% then all of a sudden it jumps right to 100%. What the?

I don’t recall charging to be this bad when I first got the iPad. When I first got the iPad it was super fast.
 
It should takes less time to charge as the battery ages. This is because it can no longer hold the same capacity as before. It sounds like some defect with the pack or charging circuit.
 
Your iPad will charge slowly above 80% mark after the battery degrades.

What is the time to charge till 80% ?
 
DeepSix said:
I have a 1.5 year old IPP 11” and the charging has become unbearable. I even upgraded to a 30 watt charger and no difference. I’ve tried different chargers, different cables and no difference. From my testing it takes 6 hours to charge from 90% to 100%. Sometimes it will get stuck at a number like say 95% then all of a sudden it jumps right to 100%. What the?

I don’t recall charging to be this bad when I first got the iPad. When I first got the iPad it was super fast.
Click to expand...
It's not normal, it should be the contrary. The issue might be that your USB C port is damaged. It happened to me with another device, it charged super slowly and there is nothing you can do about it. It does not depend on the charger, the iPad will only trickle charge because the power delivery pins in the USB C ports are damaged. The only "solution" at this point would be to (buy and) use a Magic Keyboard to charge it at 20w.
 
Digitalguy said:
It's not normal, it should be the contrary. The issue might be that your USB C port is damaged. It happened to me with another device, it charged super slowly and there is nothing you can do about it. It does not depend on the charger, the iPad will only trickle charge because the power delivery pins in the USB C ports are damaged. The only "solution" at this point would be to (buy and) use a Magic Keyboard to charge it at 20w.
Click to expand...

The USBC ports on iPads must be made with rubber, not sure how they get damaged so easily. How were you able to tell that your device had a damaged port?

Online says it could be software related but I don’t see how it can be since I haven’t installed any new apps for at least 6 months.
 
DeepSix said:
The USBC ports on iPads must be made with rubber, not sure how they get damaged so easily. How were you able to tell that your device had a damaged port?

Online says it could be software related but I don’t see how it can be since I haven’t installed any new apps for at least 6 months.
Click to expand...
USB C (female) is a very fragile port as it as a lot of pins, sometimes even just pulling the USB C cable from an angle when disconnecting can damage it. For me it happened as I regularly used the smartphone in my hands while plugged it, which should not be done. As again that can put pressure on the port.
The device was under warranty but I was warned that they usually don't cover this issue under warranty as they consider it accidental damage and even just sending it in for a check would cost money, so I just bought another one.
It also happened with 2 laptops, including a MacBook. The Windows laptop lost USB C power delivery, but everything else worked, while the MacBook lost video output with everything else working. So it depends on which pins the cable damaged.
These kinds of issues are not software related, that's unfortunately hardware issues. I wasted I lot of time trying to reset the devices etc. but nothing, that just USB C, it's a very common issue and there is nothing you can do (other then using the smart connector)
 
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It’s not normal. I don’t think my 9.7-inch iPad Pro charges any slower or faster 7 years after purchase. It definitely should not take 6 hours from 90% to 100%.
 
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it is not normal. I have an iPP 11 2018 with a 20w charger, I think it takes 3 hours to charge and I have ever charged it with the charger of a 96w 16" MacBook Pro and I think it takes less than 2 hours.
 
DeepSix said:
I have a 1.5 year old IPP 11” and the charging has become unbearable. I even upgraded to a 30 watt charger and no difference. I’ve tried different chargers, different cables and no difference. From my testing it takes 6 hours to charge from 90% to 100%. Sometimes it will get stuck at a number like say 95% then all of a sudden it jumps right to 100%. What the?

I don’t recall charging to be this bad when I first got the iPad. When I first got the iPad it was super fast.
Click to expand...


Did you activate „optimal charging“ ?

This intelligent charging Mode prevents Batteries from Segregation by Adaptation the charging time dependent on the Time you Sleep and charges very Slow. And just in the 30 min before you Wake up the Last 5-15% will be charged.

BTW you did not Even tell us about the Max. resting battery capacity…
 
Digitalguy said:
USB C (female) is a very fragile port as it as a lot of pins, sometimes even just pulling the USB C cable from an angle when disconnecting can damage it. For me it happened as I regularly used the smartphone in my hands while plugged it, which should not be done. As again that can put pressure on the port.
The device was under warranty but I was warned that they usually don't cover this issue under warranty as they consider it accidental damage and even just sending it in for a check would cost money, so I just bought another one.
It also happened with 2 laptops, including a MacBook. The Windows laptop lost USB C power delivery, but everything else worked, while the MacBook lost video output with everything else working. So it depends on which pins the cable damaged.
These kinds of issues are not software related, that's unfortunately hardware issues. I wasted I lot of time trying to reset the devices etc. but nothing, that just USB C, it's a very common issue and there is nothing you can do (other then using the smart connector)
Click to expand...

What a shame, good to know this, thanks for sharing your experience on this. I treat all my electronics with extreme care and I'm always careful with ports and I never tug or strain cables. I've never had a port of any kind get damaged, the USB-C ones on ipads must be fragile in comparison.

Apple reps will always try to blame it on software first, and suggest to reset it, what a waste of time. I knew it couldn't be software related. I wonder if there are standalone smart connector chargers out there. I ain't buying the MKB just for this.
 
MrAverigeUser said:
Did you activate „optimal charging“ ?

This intelligent charging Mode prevents Batteries from Segregation by Adaptation the charging time dependent on the Time you Sleep and charges very Slow. And just in the 30 min before you Wake up the Last 5-15% will be charged.

BTW you did not Even tell us about the Max. resting battery capacity…
Click to expand...

From what I see, I have no option in my settings for optimal charging.

How do I find out the Max. resting battery capacity?
 
DeepSix said:
From what I see, I have no option in my settings for optimal charging.

How do I find out the Max. resting battery capacity?
Click to expand...
You have shurely the option of optimal charging… 😁 this exists since years in the IOS software…

As for the „optimal charging“ option in settings —-> „battery“ —-> „charging“
(I dont know exactly the english settings because I use German settings)
Then you can see the resting capacity in the upper part and below if „optimal charging“ is activated.

Very nice is the app „coconut battery“ even in its free version for Macs.
then in your Mac you can precisely diagnose not only the charging-count and the exact resting charging-capacity of your Mac, but also for every IOS device.
And even start a timeline-list of the history of charging counts and corresponding resting battery capacity for every MacOS- or IOS-device you connect with your Mac.
 
MrAverigeUser said:
You have shurely the option of optimal charging… 😁 this exists since years in the IOS software…

As for the „optimal charging“ option in settings —-> „battery“ —-> „charging“
(I dont know exactly the english settings because I use German settings)
Then you can see the resting capacity in the upper part and below if „optimal charging“ is activated.
Click to expand...

Which iPad models support this feature? While it shows up on my iphone it does not appear on my ipad mini 6.
 
MrAverigeUser said:
You have shurely the option of optimal charging… 😁 this exists since years in the IOS software…

As for the „optimal charging“ option in settings —-> „battery“ —-> „charging“
(I dont know exactly the english settings because I use German settings)
Then you can see the resting capacity in the upper part and below if „optimal charging“ is activated.

Very nice is the app „coconut battery“ even in its free version for Macs.
then in your Mac you can precisely diagnose not only the charging-count and the exact resting charging-capacity of your Mac, but also for every IOS device.
And even start a timeline-list of the history of charging counts and corresponding resting battery capacity for every MacOS- or IOS-device you connect with your Mac.
Click to expand...

I don’t see any option for optimal charging. So does this mean mine is off?

IMG_0190.jpeg
 
DeepSix said:
I don’t see any option for optimal charging. So does this mean mine is off?
Click to expand...
I guess you don't have it (Battery Health & Charging > Optimized Battery Charging). This is what it looks like under iOS:
 

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Alpha Centauri said:
I guess you don't have it (Battery Health & Charging > Optimized Battery Charging). This is what it looks like under iOS:
Click to expand...

You have to go further on:
Click on „battery health and charging“
Than you might see the options I wrote about..

My old ipad Pro 9,7“ from 2016 doesn‘t have it, but the 11“ iPad Pro from 2021 should have it… mine which I purchased

At least my old iP SE II from 2020 has it and my iP 14 Plus as well.My own (new) iPadPro 11“ 3 Gen. (2021) will arrive in about 5 days - so I cannot make the proof, but it should have this option…

.
 

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MrAverigeUser said:
You have to go further on:
Click on „battery health and charging“
Than you might see the options I wrote about..

My old ipad Pro 9,7“ from 2016 doesn‘t have it, but the 11“ iPad Pro from 2021 should have it… mine which I purchased

At least my old iP SE II from 2020 has it and my iP 14 Plus as well.My own (new) iPadPro 11“ 3 Gen. (2021) will arrive in about 5 days - so I cannot make the proof, but it should have this option…

.
Click to expand...
I'm not the OP, I just posted a screenshot from iOS of where Batteriezustand & Ladevorgand / Battery Health & Charging "should" be. For some reason the OP doesn't have "it" located between the Low Power Mode switch and Battery Level graph.

Tbh I've only ever had the 2nd generation iPad back in the day and have therefore no experience of options within iPadOS.
 
DeepSix said:
What a shame, good to know this, thanks for sharing your experience on this. I treat all my electronics with extreme care and I'm always careful with ports and I never tug or strain cables. I've never had a port of any kind get damaged, the USB-C ones on ipads must be fragile in comparison.

Apple reps will always try to blame it on software first, and suggest to reset it, what a waste of time. I knew it couldn't be software related. I wonder if there are standalone smart connector chargers out there. I ain't buying the MKB just for this.
Click to expand...

I have never had a USB-A or USB-C port or connector get damaged. They are quite robust and you have to really try hard to damage one.
 
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It's also been my experience that devices charge to 100% much quicker as the battery ages. It's off course misleading as it doesn't hold the charge for as long as it used to, so likely there's something else going on.
 
Well now I'm not so sure that my USB-C port in my iPad is defective. I think it still works because I have a 30-watt charger in my car I just plugged in my iPad to the car charger and it charged 15% in 15 minutes. So doing the math over 100% that would be 100 minutes, 1 hour 40mins which sounds about right.

But like I said I've tried two different chargers and two different USB-C cables at home. One 30 watt and one 65 watt charger with 100 watt USB cables and these are high quality chargers and cables. Even tried two different wall outlets at home and they all have the same issue with super slow charging.
 
DeepSix said:
Well now I'm not so sure that my USB-C port in my iPad is defective. I think it still works because I have a 30-watt charger in my car I just plugged in my iPad to the car charger and it charged 15% in 15 minutes. So doing the math over 100% that would be 100 minutes, 1 hour 40mins which sounds about right.

But like I said I've tried two different chargers and two different USB-C cables at home. One 30 watt and one 65 watt charger with 100 watt USB cables and these are high quality chargers and cables. Even tried two different wall outlets at home and they all have the same issue with super slow charging.
Click to expand...
If I were you I would invest in a USB C power meter to better understand what's going on (especially in terms of voltage)
 
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