This solved my iPad battery from being drained.

[Ben J.]

I very seldom use wifi on my ipad, when I do, it's not for long. Actually, I don't use it alot at all, so I've been used to it lying around, not needing to be charged for a week or more.

Recently, I've been wanting to use an app from Avid, to control my DAW on mac, Avid Pro tools, Avid Control. Control requires wifi to talk to Pro Tools. I immediately noticed the battery drain. Just lying idle, the battery charge would drop by 50% in less than 12 hours. If I turned off wifi, the drain would stop.

To make this short; I think I found the solution:
Nothing to do with the Control app.
I turned off 'Background update' in settings, for all applications. (Not shure of the wording in english.)
On first test, the battery had drained to half charge overnight, so no help.

Now here's what did it:
I got the advice to make a 'hard restart' of the ipad.
I did that and changed nothing else, and the battery stopped being drained dramatically, even with wifi on.

I know things like this has been discussed alot around here, because I searched around for anwers, and I often turn to Macrumors forum for help. I really didn't find a solution, and that's why I'm posting, so others might benefit.

So: turn off background updates - and 'hard' restart ipad. Solved it for me.

Thanks to 'Its2loud' and 'BScout' on the Avid Pro Audio Community for helping me with this.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Do you not use the internet at all? WiFI saves much more battery life than cellular if you’re using cellular only.

 

[Ben J.]

Do you not use the internet at all? WiFI saves much more battery life than cellular if you’re using cellular only.

Like I said in my first sentence, I use the iPad very little. When I do it's when I bring the ipad with me outside the house and I connect temporarily to wifi. I don't have "cellular". My iPad connects to my iphone also. This is why I haven't noticed the impact it has on battery, to leave wifi on. (With background updates enabled, that is.)

 

[HDFan]

I very seldom use wifi on my ipad, when I do, it's not for long. Actually, I don't use it alot at all, so I've been used to it lying around, not needing to be charged for a week or more.

If you don't use it that much why don't you just power it down when you aren't going to use it?

 

[Ben J.]

If you don't use it that much why don't you just power it down when you aren't going to use it?

I like to be able to pick it up anytime and not have to power it on. Come on, this has nothing to do with the topic.

 

[rui no onna]

To make this short; I think I found the solution:
Nothing to do with the Control app.
I turned off 'Background update' in settings, for all applications. (Not shure of the wording in english.)
On first test, the battery had drained to half charge overnight, so no help.

Now here's what did it:
I got the advice to make a 'hard restart' of the ipad.
I did that and changed nothing else, and the battery stopped being drained dramatically, even with wifi on.

I've tried this before already but it hasn't really made any difference on my iPads with battery drain issues (Air 2, Pro 9.7, Pro 10.5).

 

[Ben J.]

I've tried this before already but it hasn't really made any difference on my iPads with battery drain issues (Air 2, Pro 9.7, Pro 10.5).

I'm pretty shure it's working for me. Before I made the change and the restart, I lost 60% on the battery in 12 hrs just lying idle, the last 12 hrs today it dropped by just 15%. And that was with the Control app connected to an open Pro Tools session on the mac via wifi.

I'm thinking, that means about 1% per hour, idle with wifi on, about four days to empty. I can live with that. And I will of course be turning wifi off when I know I don't need it for a while. I've also found some tips on background stuff to turn off to save power. Anything you know that makes a big difference?

 

[rui no onna]

I'm pretty shure it's working for me. Before I made the change and the restart, I lost 60% on the battery in 12 hrs just lying idle, the last 12 hrs today it dropped by just 15%. And that was with the Control app connected to an open Pro Tools session on the mac via wifi.

I'm thinking, that means about 1% per hour, idle with wifi on, about four days to empty. I can live with that. And I will of course be turning wifi off when I know I don't need it for a while. I've also found some tips on background stuff to turn off to save power. Anything you know that makes a big difference?

Ah, yours was really bad then.

For me, standby drain is around 15-25% per day on devices with aged batteries (Air 2, Pro 9.7 and Pro 10.5). On my newer iPads, I think it’s usually 7-12% for cellular and 4-10% wifi-only.

I’ve always had Background App Refresh disabled or selectively enabled just for apps that need to download comics or videos in the background. Shutting down or airplane mode are the best ways to reduce battery drain but I don’t really use those since I need stuff like Find My to work.

 

[papbot]

I like to be able to pick it up anytime and not have to power it on. Come on, this has nothing to do with the topic.

I’ve not left mine unused for several days, but I have left it for about a day and my battery with everything on - WiFi, cellular, background refresh for most functions, etc. - and have had virtually no battery drop, maybe down to 95%, at most. So I could certainly leave it for several days and still be able to grab it and go without charging or turning it off. Now my ipad is a 12.9 2021 iPP which does have a big battery. But it does sound more like an issue with the specific apps you were using. Those could be force quit when putting the ipad aside or turning off any background connection for those. None of my iPads have ever had to be charged more than once every 2 days. But I use this iPP a lot more than any previous ipad since it has essentially replaced my laptop.

 

[cynics]

Using an iPad as a Home Hub kills the battery if you have a lot of accessories, turn that off if you use HomeKit but have other hubs (HomePods, AppleTV's).

Turning Wi-Fi off is a knee jerk reaction and while effective you're only treating the symptoms. Things that are USING Wi-Fi are what is consuming the battery. Turning the iPad off, while a nuclear reaction is also very effective to conserving battery life, now nothing can use it....not a solution though, just a band aid.

Since the iPad has a large battery it will do a lot of syncing and updating off the charger to a certain point. If you have iCloud Photos turned on (specifically "Download and Keep Originals") then every time you take a photo/video, edit a photo/video, or delete a photo/video on a different device then your iPads battery will be effected. "Download and Keep Originals" could be causing gb's of data to be transferred and processed in a very short amount of time especially when it comes to videos.

That is just one of many examples though, goto settings > Apple ID > iCloud and look at everything that wants to sync and other stuff (Find My), apps automatically updating. Every time another device since a message, every APN, etc.

To further exaggerate the problem if you have more wi-fi reception it just throws more power at the radio to maintain a connection.

Unless you don't care about sync functions, automatic updates, air drop, location services (iPad uses wifi location), etc etc then keep it that way not trying to tell someone to change something they are happy with. However since its very rare that people even complain about iPad battery life I think we could find a solution that minimizes and reduction in functionality. Again though, unless its not an issue for you at all....

Things like optimize for storage with Photo's and Music, even if you don't need the storage. Like mentioned, make sure its not a home hub. Occasionally close background apps that pop up under battery usage "background".

FYI Background App Refresh is one of many location api's that apps have access too. An app can run in the background even when that function is turned off. For example and obvious example would be a music app, spotify or whatever....its using a different background api's (music) to function in the background. Apps don't even need to be in the multitasker pane, a VOIP app like WhatsApp uses the VOIP background API in combination with an APN to tell the app "there is a phone call, execute the apps, inform the user". Background App Refresh will effect the battery but its never a massive battery hog because its the only API that is policed by Apple, if its abused the apps privilege to use it will be reduced.

Anyway, I would play around with it a bit. Turn on wi-fi see if anything is obvious in the battery settings. Look for sharp declines in battery, isolate that and see if there is a particular app/function being a battery hog.

 

[Ben J.]

I guess you're trying to be helpful, but it comes off to me as a show-off'ish lecture. Notice my initial post was not a request for help.