Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPad Pro Is it true that if you go in for an iPad battery replacement, Apple takes your iPad and gives you a refurbished one?

I had my iPad replaced due to an ageing battery a couple of weeks ago. As others said, they replace the entire iPad with the same model for the price of a battery.

The tech told me that it had to be 79% or below on their diagnostics or show an error to be eligible for a replacement. They didn’t have any stock when I went in (2018 iPad Pro) so they had to order one and it took about nine days.

They also said they don’t transfer data (not part of the scope of service) so told me to do a backup before I came in to pick up the new iPad. When I came back they erased my old iPad, made sure the new one powered on, then gave it to me on the setup screen. I went home and restored my backup and that was it.

Fwiw I also mentioned my Dad’s iPad was running down fast. They recommended I contact Apple support online or on the phone to do remote diagnostics so I didn’t waste a trip. It was a good thing I did because it was at 82% and ineligible for service.
 
  • Like
Reactions: msackey
jkaa said:
It’s still listed on the Apple site as £129 (as is the 9.7 pro)
Click to expand...
These devices are vintage, so you can still get hardware service in some places, but not everywhere. Once they become obsolete there will be no more service anywhere
 
Tres said:
I had my iPad replaced due to an ageing battery a couple of weeks ago. As others said, they replace the entire iPad with the same model for the price of a battery.

The tech told me that it had to be 79% or below on their diagnostics or show an error to be eligible for a replacement. They didn’t have any stock when I went in (2018 iPad Pro) so they had to order one and it took about nine days.

They also said they don’t transfer data (not part of the scope of service) so told me to do a backup before I came in to pick up the new iPad. When I came back they erased my old iPad, made sure the new one powered on, then gave it to me on the setup screen. I went home and restored my backup and that was it.

Fwiw I also mentioned my Dad’s iPad was running down fast. They recommended I contact Apple support online or on the phone to do remote diagnostics so I didn’t waste a trip. It was a good thing I did because it was at 82% and ineligible for service.
Click to expand...

Did they take your old one while you were waiting for the new one 9 days? OR did they allow you to keep your iPad till the new one arrived?
 
I use a shortcut to monitor my iPad charge cycle and battery health. It seems more reliable than coconut.
IMG_0016.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: daabido and hovscorpion12
twdawson said:
I use a shortcut to monitor my iPad charge cycle and battery health. It seems more reliable than coconut.View attachment 2203531
Click to expand...

I dont really trust Coconut. Reasons being, Coconut reports 93-94% battery healthy for my wife's iPhone 12 Pro, but Apple's own battery health tool shows 84 or 85% at this time (I dont remember off top of my head). that is a huge discrepancy and I have no idea how Coconut could be so off.
 
mlody said:
I dont really trust Coconut. Reasons being, Coconut reports 93-94% battery healthy for my wife's iPhone 12 Pro, but Apple's own battery health tool shows 84 or 85% at this time (I dont remember off top of my head). that is a huge discrepancy and I have no idea how Coconut could be so off.
Click to expand...
I do not believe apples numbers at all, they seem to be rather high compared to other tools.
 
mlody said:
I dont really trust Coconut. Reasons being, Coconut reports 93-94% battery healthy for my wife's iPhone 12 Pro, but Apple's own battery health tool shows 84 or 85% at this time (I dont remember off top of my head). that is a huge discrepancy and I have no idea how Coconut could be so off.
Click to expand...

I found the completely opposite with my Air 2, coconut reporting low %, but once in the Apple store for the replacement, they said it was fine (and a bit higher).
 
twdawson said:
I use a shortcut to monitor my iPad charge cycle and battery health. It seems more reliable than coconut.View attachment 2203531
Click to expand...
twdawson said:
I do not believe apples numbers at all, they seem to be rather high compared to other tools.
Click to expand...
Digitalguy said:
I don't get the difference between "Maximum Battery Capacity" and "PowerUtil Calculated Battery Health". The descriptions are vague and don't say what the difference is...
Click to expand...
Coconut and Apple’s numbers are the same on iPhones, but Apple’s measurements on iPads are always higher than reality. I don’t know why.

As far as that shortcut goes (and the difference between Max capacity and PowerUtil calculated health) is that maximum capacity takes Apple’s spec as the original battery health, whereas the shortcut takes the “MaximumFCC” number from Apple’s analytics page.

I personally trust the factory default (i.e., Coconut), far more than that number. Apple’s battery health measurement on iPads (which you can only get from Apple themselves), is totally bogus.
 
jms-uk said:
I found the completely opposite with my Air 2, coconut reporting low %, but once in the Apple store for the replacement, they said it was fine (and a bit higher).
Click to expand...
Like I said, nobody knows what their internal mechanism is, but Apple’s number is always far higher than reality (Coconut).

There is a theory, though: battery health fluctuates, and Apple is presumed to take a (weekly?) average measurement. Coconut’s measurement is instant, and therefore tends to be lower. The fact that they never coincide, though, would indicate that the measurement itself is different. They clearly don’t use MaximumFCC, because in that case it should be lower, yet it isn’t.
 
FeliApple said:
As far as that shortcut goes (and the difference between Max capacity and PowerUtil calculated health) is that maximum capacity takes Apple’s spec as the original battery health, whereas the shortcut takes the “MaximumFCC” number from Apple’s analytics page.
Click to expand...
The shortcut just say "relative to when it was new" for the first, which means what? 100%? iMazing reports between 104-106% for new devices....
And for the second they say the battery capacity the Apple lists on their website (which doesn't seem to be what you said). And which should be what apps like imazing and coconut use.

However the first data is more in line with iMazing and Coconut, while the second is lower in all my iPads.

My suspicion is, based on all the data I have, that the first data is from a theoretical 100% capacity, while the second is from the actual 104-106% so a 10% decrease is reported as a 5% one in the first case and as a 10% one in the second...
 
Digitalguy said:
The shortcut just say "relative to when it was new" for the first, which means what? 100%? iMazing reports between 104-106% for new devices....
And for the second they say the battery capacity the Apple lists on their website (which doesn't seem to be what you said). And which should be what apps like imazing and coconut use.

However the first data is more in line with iMazing and Coconut, while the second is lower in all my iPads.

My suspicion is, based on all the data I have, that the first data is from a theoretical 100% capacity, while the second is from the actual 104-106% so a 10% decrease is reported as a 5% one in the first case and as a 10% one in the second...
Click to expand...
Exactly that, “relative to when it was new” means MaximumFCC, which is the 104-106% you report. Coconut takes the Apple-reported spec on the spec-sheet, so 100%. The Apple-reported spec is iMazing and Coconut. These apps measure the live battery health, which is far less consistent than Apple’s average (I reckon that’s why Apple’s measurement is always higher).
 
FeliApple said:
Coconut and Apple’s numbers are the same on iPhones, but Apple’s measurements on iPads are always higher than reality. I don’t know why.

As far as that shortcut goes (and the difference between Max capacity and PowerUtil calculated health) is that maximum capacity takes Apple’s spec as the original battery health, whereas the shortcut takes the “MaximumFCC” number from Apple’s analytics page.

I personally trust the factory default (i.e., Coconut), far more than that number. Apple’s battery health measurement on iPads (which you can only get from Apple themselves), is totally bogus.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that they are the same give my wife's situation. Apple's battery health shows 84% but Coconunt 93%. In her case, Coconut is showing way higher number than what Apple's own system.
 
mlody said:
I wouldn't say that they are the same give my wife's situation. Apple's battery health shows 84% but Coconunt 93%. In her case, Coconut is showing way higher number than what Apple's own system.
Click to expand...
This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this. Never has Coconut’s number been reported as higher than Apple’s store-assessed number. Where are you getting the number from? If you use the shortcut that’s circling around, that number will be lower than Coconut, because like I said, Apple’s analytics use the battery’s actual original spec, rather than the factory-designed one.

Otherwise, an actual Apple Store-assessed number has never been lower than Coconut.
 
Digitalguy said:
I don't get the difference between "Maximum Battery Capacity" and "PowerUtil Calculated Battery Health". The descriptions are vague and don't say what the difference is...
Click to expand...
'Battery Health' compares your current battery capacity to when you took it out of the box.
'PowerUtil Calculated Battery Health' compares your current battery capacity to the battery capacity your device is supposed to have, according to Apple's website and regulatory filings for that device.
The reason why both of them are different is, not all batteries are made the same.
Let's say, Apple promises 7000mAh on a device's battery, you might get a little more or less than that, let's say 6980mAh. The 'Battery Health', which is provided by Apple compares your current battery capacity to the 6980mAh value, but 'PowerUtil Calculated Battery Health' calculates it against the 7000mAh value.
 
spiderman0616 said:
Pretty much. They don't really do battery replacements on iPads because it requires them to soften glue and take things apart, so they'll recycle/refurbish/trash the old one and give you a "white box" model. The thing that's always a mystery to me is how they decide if you'll pay or not, and if so, how much that will be.

I've had them charge me less than $100 for a battery replacement, I've had them claim I needed to pay for a whole new iPad, I've had them just swap it out no charge, it just kind of depends. You never seem to get the same story. But I do know that they don't bother with taking your original iPad apart, and you can rest assured that the refurb you'll get is in good shape. Maybe even better shape than your current one.
Click to expand...
This brings up the question then of how they ever really create 'refurbished' iPads, if they never replace the batteries. I thought their refurb process was to replace batteries on any device undergoing refurbishment?
 
pdoherty said:
This brings up the question then of how they ever really create 'refurbished' iPads, if they never replace the batteries. I thought their refurb process was to replace batteries on any device undergoing refurbishment?
Click to expand...
They replace the screen and the outer casing, too, if I am not mistaken.
 
FeliApple said:
They replace the screen and the outer casing, too, if I am not mistaken.
Click to expand...
True. According to Apple it gets all new outside and refurbished inside. Before they started randomizing serial numbers you could also see that sometimes the refurbs were brand new units but in refurb boxes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FeliApple
My daughter's iPad Air 3 finally qualifies for an Apple battery service. Yesterday, I checked with the Apple support (via chat) and they confirmed that the iPad is at 79% according to their tools.

For those interested, the PowerUtil shortcut app stats are as follow:
cycle count - 787
max battery capacity (battery health) - %78
PowerUtil calculated battery health - %74.5

Coconut reports - %73.4 - 5974 mAh

The iPad has been manufacturer in 2020-09-14 and the battery in 2020-08-24.

We purchased it in November/December of 2020, so it has less than 3 years of usage.

I am planning to make the service visit this week and will report the experience afterwards.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Digitalguy and FeliApple
mlody said:
My daughter's iPad Air 3 finally qualifies for an Apple battery service. Yesterday, I checked with the Apple support (via chat) and they confirmed that the iPad is at 79% according to their tools.

For those interested, the PowerUtil shortcut app stats are as follow:
cycle count - 787
max battery capacity (battery health) - %78
powerful calculated battery health - %74.5

Coconut reports - %73.4 - 5974 mAh

The iPad has been manufacturer in 2020-09-14 and the battery in 2020-08-24.

We purchased it in November/December of 2020, so it has less than 3 years of usage.

I am planning to make the service visit this week and will report the experience afterwards.
Click to expand...
Wow, that is surprising. Pretty heavy usage in terms of the timeframe - and a short timeframe too - and Apple already said 79%? Coconut is typically at least 10-15% worse than Apple. My 9.7-inch iPad Pro showed 83-84% and I asked Apple and they said 93%. Pretty low discrepancy.

Also @BigMcGuire, this is what we mentioned yesterday. The unpredictability of this is incredible. We mentioned that iPads typically do not reach spec because people don’t use them enough, and time degrades batteries.

My 9.7-inch iPad Pro has 700 cycles with Coconut reporting 84%, Apple reporting 93%. 7 years instead of 3, heavy usage, gaming, no battery care at all. Yet it has far better health specs? Even though I’ve taken absolutely no precautions AND it is four years older? Makes no sense.
 
  • Like
Reactions: foliovision and BigMcGuire
FeliApple said:
Wow, that is surprising. Pretty heavy usage in terms of the timeframe - and a short timeframe too - and Apple already said 79%? Coconut is typically at least 10-15% worse than Apple. My 9.7-inch iPad Pro showed 83-84% and I asked Apple and they said 93%. Pretty low discrepancy.

Also @BigMcGuire, this is what we mentioned yesterday. The unpredictability of this is incredible. We mentioned that iPads typically do not reach spec because people don’t use them enough, and time degrades batteries.

My 9.7-inch iPad Pro has 700 cycles with Coconut reporting 84%, Apple reporting 93%. 7 years instead of 3, heavy usage, gaming, no battery care at all. Yet it has far better health specs? Even though I’ve taken absolutely no precautions AND it is four years older? Makes no sense.
Click to expand...

When it comes to Apple and batteries, very little makes sense. My iPhone 13 Pro lost 10% health - from 98 to 88 in under 100 cycles and 6 months time span. My total cycle count is around 330. On the other hand, my wife's iPhone 12 Pro reached 1000 cycles two months ago and her battery was at 87% according to Coconut - go figure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FeliApple
mlody said:
When it comes to Apple and batteries, very little makes sense. My iPhone 13 Pro lost 10% health - from 98 to 88 in under 100 cycles and 6 months time span. My total cycle count is around 330. On the other hand, my wife's iPhone 12 Pro reached 1000 cycles two months ago and her battery was at 87% according to Coconut - go figure.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it all seems like dumb luck regardless of what you do. Is the iPad Air 3 degraded in terms of battery life?
 
  • Like
Reactions: foliovision and daabido
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back