Resolved Restore to factory settings = better battery? Or no difference?

[Branaghan]

My IPP 10.5 has been suffering in terms of battery compared of course to years ago. This is the current status:

What I was wondering is this...

- Restoring the iPAD to factory settings;
- Then not restoring from any backup. Instead reinstalling all apps and configure everything again, manually;

Will that help somehow with the battery decreasing not so fast? Or won't make any considerable difference?

If I were to speak about Windows/PC, then a format would make a difference, that's for sure. Not substantial, yet it could. But in this case I am not talking about apps running faster or anything of the sort, instead it is about battery not dropping so fast.

And in my case this is even worse, because I disabled everything that could drain battery. Brightness, for example, is always at a low figure. The same for background refresh, totally turned off. Still, if I use a little this equipment, the battery drops like hell.

 

[AutomaticApple]

My IPP 10.5 has been suffering in terms of battery compared of course to years ago. This is the current status:

What I was wondering is this...

- Restoring the iPAD to factory settings;
- Then not restoring from any backup. Instead reinstalling all apps and configure everything again, manually;

Will that help somehow with the battery decreasing not so fast? Or won't make any considerable difference?

If I were to speak about Windows/PC, then a format would make a difference, that's for sure. Not substantial, yet it could. But in this case I am not talking about apps running faster or anything of the sort, instead it is about battery not dropping so fast.

And in my case this is even worse, because I disabled everything that could drain battery. Brightness, for example, is always at a low figure. The same for background refresh, totally turned off. Still, if I use a little this equipment, the battery drops like hell.

What caused the battery to die so quickly? Was it being used heavily while plugged in?

 

[ericwn]

I doubt there would be much if any impact, regardless of system these days.

 

[Gandek]

My 10.5 is at 85% health bro uses it now we will replace the battery when Apple stores open up more. At 83% in your case id recommend doing the same (Most likely you will just get a new refurbished)

 

[Whoakapi]

What are your charging habits?

40-80? Or keeping it topped off?

Do you make sure to keep the device cool? Li-ion suffers greatly under higher temperatures.

Battery wear estimations are also more precise when the device is measured at 90%+ charge.

 

[Branaghan]

What are your charging habits?

40-80? Or keeping it topped off?

Do you make sure to keep the device cool? Li-ion suffers greatly under higher temperatures.

Battery wear estimations are also more precise when the device is measured at 90%+ charge.

I don't think I did anything wrong with this iPAD. Perhaps using more the 29W USB-C Power Adapter? This reduces charging time a lot compared to the default one that came with the IPP 10.5. I also don't let the device run to 0% before charging. And no, I don't have the habit of using with the charger.

I can also tell you that my iPAD is configured in a way iPADOS itself would not run the battery down so fast.

Or perhaps some specific app is draining more battery than it should? In the last 10 days only this one used 37%:

‎nPlayer Plus

‎** nPlayer officially supports DTS (DTS HD ), DTS Headphone:X, Dolby (AC3, E-AC3). ** The 'Upgrade' In-App is just only for the users who already purchased nPlayer of the version 2.6.5 or the previous version. The first time buyer can use the full functions without any upgrade.(In-App purchase...

apps.apple.com

Youtube 12% and Instagram 11%.

But I rarely have been using nPlayer these days. The only thing I did was to enable background playback, but I don't leave any file playing inside this player without watching it, of course.

Maybe this app is not fully optimized to not drain so much the battery?

Read more about it here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/infuse-pro-vs-nplayer-plus.2052537/?post=29758564#post-29758564

Besides all that, I firmly believe after few years these Apple devices start consuming a lot more battery, probably because only with their default iOS version they run optimally. Meaning the newer versions released years later drain more battery and you have some sort of planned obsolescence, plus the obvious fact the battery gets old and inevitably needs to be replaced, or you buy a new equipment. Of course with these two factors happening at the same time it gets difficult to point only one as the culprit.

And we need to keep these devices updated, we can't let them using an old version forever.

What I asked was if after years of updating multiple versions and not restoring to factory settings and manually configuring everything again *, wouldn't that be detrimental, too, to the battery dying faster. For Windows this impairs performance, a new format after YEARS can and certainlly will improve Windows speeds, if not much, a little.

* That implies not restoring from any backup after factory settings.

 

[JBGoode]

You have over 600 charge cycles on a 4 year old battery. I’m not even sure why you think there is a problem. Batteries don’t last forever. You’re lucky that’s it’s still above 80% health.

 

[Branaghan]

You have over 600 charge cycles on a 4 year old battery. I’m not even sure why you think there is a problem. Batteries don’t last forever. You’re lucky that’s it’s still above 80% health.

I have a strong suspicion that by using the 29W charger more this battery died faster than it should. I started doing this a year ago.

Some people said this doesn't happen, others raised this possibility. Does this make any sense?

Also, what about my theory that what is really making this battery dying faster (even with 83% health and over 600 charge cycles) is some specific app that has not been optimized and it's, let's assume, consuming more resources than needed, even when not being used?

Anyway, I always thought these iPAD batteries were s.hit. This technology is very old and hasn't progressed substantially over the last decades. When I buy any device I want it to last for many years, I am not that rich so I can replace every 2-3 years. And things are even worse when you live in a poor country with one of the world's most worthless currency and after you contact Apple they say iPAD batteries can't be replaced (only iPhones), that you need to pay 2, 3 times more to receive a new unit (from the same outdated model).

Apple's awful repairability score is to blame.

Anyway, this is for sure the last device I am going to buy, I think it's preposterous, laughable that I am not even forcing this equipment while using and the battery has dropped its performance so quickly. The fact it was bought years ago doesn't even mean you've been using that much on a daily basis.

You know when these devices are new the batteries are all good, however the more iOS updates you install, the more s.h.i.t.t.y. the battery becomes, and the irony, Apple doesn't allow you to use an older version. If that were possible we would at least be able to measure the battery's performance. Or avoid a quick degradation. I wonder $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ WHY $$$$$$$$$.

It took these nazis many years to even allow us to stop updates from settings, since they always shoved them without letting us choose if we wanted or not.

It's just my opinion, feel free to disagree: if you buy something that is so expensive and 2, 3 years later, if properly taken care, that same product can't barely last you 6 hours a day of continuous use without totally draining the battery, then you are being robbed.

That's for sure. I'll be honest with you, I had enough of these pathetic batteries. It's my opinion that even lasting 10 hours when new in a single charge is terrible.

Instead of pushing the same stuff every year or 2 years with a few cosmetic changes, why can't they make the iPAD heavier and provide us with better batteries?

Because no one from this forum really cares, that's why.

If you look around there are countless threads of people complaining about the battery. And this gets worse every single update. Yet we continue buying!

Why do we feel so smart paying so much for stuff that don't last?

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Battery is hardware and chemistry. OS/software installation is software.

There's nothing you can do to un-do what has already been done in terms of usage/battery wear.

IF there's something about your OS/software installation that is behaving abnormally, resulting in more battery usage than expected, then yes, an erase/restore might reduce battery usage and therefore reduce the number of future charging cycles and therefore potentially extend battery life.

There's a variety of other ways you can reduce battery usage - reduce the display brightness, allow it to sleep sooner (Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock), reduce the use of energy-hogging apps (such as use Safari rather than Chrome)... But in the end, is your primary goal to make this last longer, or use it as a tool? For me, "extend battery life" is a secondary goal. I'm not going to stop using something just to extend its battery life.

 

[Branaghan]

I noticed a constant drop from my IPP 10.5 battery, until it reached 5%. Then I restarted the iPAD and it was down to 11%.

So, should I do something to recalibrate this battery? Maybe let it go down to 0% and then recharge to 100%, this time with the original 12W charger, not the faster 29W one?

It's one thing the battery needing a replacement, and another to give innacurate readings. Maybe that means I needed to let it go down close to 0 more?

 

[UBS28]

I doubt there would be much if any impact, regardless of system these days.

There is a huge impact. I did a factory reset and the battery life is night and day better.

 

[UBS28]

I noticed a constant drop from my IPP 10.5 battery, until it reached 5%. Then I restarted the iPAD and it was down to 11%.

So, should I do something to recalibrate this battery? Maybe let it go down to 0% and then recharge to 100%, this time with the original 12W charger, not the faster 29W one?

It's one thing the battery needing a replacement, and another to give innacurate readings. Maybe that means I needed to let it go down close to 0 more?

Try a factory reset. It solved my battery issues that I had on my 12.9 iPad Pro.

 

[ericwn]

There is a huge impact. I did a factory reset and the battery life is night and day better.

What’s night and day in measured real world terms? I don’t get better battery after erasing and installing and especially not on my iPads.

 

[UBS28]

What’s night and day in measured real world terms? I don’t get better battery after erasing and installing and especially not on my iPads.

How about the battery depleting in 2 days with no apps running in the background, while my much older iPads can last for a month or more even.

How about that I had the use the iPad Pro on a charger because it did not even last a day?

Now after the factory reset, the battery life is more than 2 times better. It is not even close. I don’t have to use the iPad Pro on a charger anymore.

 

[ericwn]

How about the battery depleting in 2 days with no apps running in the background, while my much older iPads can last for a month or more even.

How about that I had the use the iPad Pro on a charger because it did not even last a day?

Now after the factory reset, the battery life is more than 2 times better. It is not even close. I don’t have to use the iPad Pro on a charger anymore.

Absolutely not my experience. I can barely get through a work day either way, but good for you. Other than not immediately running into storage issues I don’t see any effect on iOS and the sandboxed way that apps tend to keep to themselves and their extremely limited functionality in the background don’t create much if any slowdown in my experience.

 

[UBS28]

Absolutely not my experience. I can barely get through a work day either way, but good for you. Other than not immediately running into storage issues I don’t see any effect on iOS and the sandboxed way that apps tend to keep to themselves and their extremely limited functionality in the background don’t create much if any slowdown in my experience.

Well, there was a serious problem with my iPad Pro. Even in ”standby”, the battery would drain in 2 days, while my super old 9.7 iPad lasts for more than a month in “standby”. It is not normal that an iPad Pro has less battery life than a super old 9.7 iPad.

So a factory reset is a fix worth trying if people are having battery issues with the iPad Pro.

 

[Branaghan]

In the last weeks I contacted Apple and they said it was possible to replace the current battery, if I send to where they are (in my state/local Apple stores this is only available for iPhones). If not possible then they would return everything back, payment refunded too, or offer me an option to pay 4 times more for a new device (which I don't want).

I have decided to check my theory about iOS having battery issues first. This option:

How to factory reset your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Learn how to securely erase information from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and restore your device to factory settings.

support.apple.com

In my case not the "reset all settings", instead "erase all contents and settings". So I wiped completely. Of course restoring to factory settings still uses the last iPADOs installed, not the one that came with it, from 2017.

Then I told the iPAD to not restore from any backup, including the one from iCloud (of course before this step I moved all my contents from the iPAD, elsewhere). Tediously I reinstalled all apps and reconfigured all settings, in the last days. Later I logged into my Apple ID again, which restored some saved settings such as bookmarks from Safari.

So far my conclusion after a few days is that my battery lasts longer.

I believe somehow the OS can't work properly after so many updates, or this isn't Apple's fault, it's the apps themselves which need a clean install like this one to work optimally and drain less the battery.

Sure, more than 636 charge times and 82% of battery life are among the reasons, yet I am positive something made this battery be drained much faster.

Say my battery should last 6 hours instead of 10 if it were new... With this bug the battery was lasting 4 hours. So I was robbed of 2 hours. (note: not exact numbers, you get my point)

Perhaps iOS has a problem reading the information sent by the battery, or this was some setting that drained much faster. For example, now Siri is completely off, but even though it was enabled before, I didn't used it too much or let the internet active 100% of the time (so wi-fi sometimes was off, same for bluetooth and cell data).

Despite that I noticed after a few hours of use, just by letting the iPAD in my bed and no one using it, a huge drop in battery percentage. Another odd thing is the device heating a little, and I never even put my brigthness levels at more than 40% or used some app very demanding.

The only apps I used more than others in the past weeks were nPlayer, Youtube and Instagram.

When you buy a new iPAD or IPhone you can use every day almost 10 hours. This is the original promise, of course not an exact number, let's say you only use Safari, then it's quite obvious you'll waste less battery than someone playing a new game or watching videos.

Then there are stuff like BACKGROUND APP REFRESH that they tell you to disable, and many other tips. I find hard to believe this was some wrong iOS setting I forgot to disable.

I'll be monitoring to check if this is just my impression or if the battery is really lasting longer than before in the next days.

 

[Branaghan]

For the record I measured how much time from regular usage I am getting with this iPad and my current situation. This time I used a kitchen timer (VOCOO) to count the time up everytime the Smart Cover was opened and the screen of course not turned off when closed. So I wrote in the 12 moments I did this how much time I spent. The idea was to charge the iPad to 100% and let it drain to zero.

Of course in the meantime no charging, so not using the Apple USB 3 camera adapter. Adding all notes I reached the exact number of 359 minutes or 6 hours. Nothing out of the ordinary in my daily habit during these hours. The current status of my battery is more or less 80% health. It was measured 83% a while ago, but this number may have decreased further.

Another thing I noticed is that the battery number never decreases steadily, apparently it can go from 53 to 32% without you seeing the numbers between. And once it’s down to 0% if you start recharging minutes later the number in the right superior corner says 2% but at the same time iOS reports there’s only 5% left. How much time a new iPad or an old one with a new battery are really giving to us?