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Turning "off" the Apple Pencil?

W

WilliamG

macrumors G4
Original poster
Mar 29, 2008
10,037
3,951
Seattle
This is interesting. Once you've paired a Pencil with the iPad Pro, the battery will simply just drain on the Pencil, even if you're not using the Pencil! The only way to turn the Pencil "off" is to turn off Bluetooth on the iPad Pro. The problem with this is that when you turn off Bluetooth, it effectively removes the Apple Pencil from the iPad which is why the Pencil then goes to "sleep."

That means when you turn on Bluetooth again, you actually have to connect the Pencil to the Lightning port on the iPad Pro to get it to reinitialize the existing pairing, which is a bit of a nuisance.

A bit peculiar, unless I'm missing something.
 
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I don't think the Apple pencil's battery will drain as much when your not using it (sort of like standby). When your using it such as drawing, typing then battery life would decrease faster.
 
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WilliamG said:
This is interesting. Once you've paired a Pencil with the iPad Pro, the battery will simply just drain on the Pencil, even if you're not using the Pencil! The only way to turn the Pencil "off" is to turn off Bluetooth on the iPad Pro. The problem with this is that when you turn off Bluetooth, it effectively removes the Apple Pencil from the iPad which is why the Pencil then goes to "sleep."

That means when you turn on Bluetooth again, you actually have to connect the Pencil to the Lightning port on the iPad Pro to get it to reinitialize the existing pairing, which is a bit of a nuisance.

A bit peculiar, unless I'm missing something.
Click to expand...

Bluetooth on iDevices doesn't work like that. Once paired, it's in the device list for the device it's connecting too. Even if you turn off BT, it's still there when you turn it back on. I am sure the pencil goes to "sleep" when it's not used. The only time you need to re-pair it is if you remove it from the iDevice it was connected too.
 
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AbSoluTc said:
Bluetooth on iDevices doesn't work like that. Once paired, it's in the device list for the device it's connecting too. Even if you turn off BT, it's still there when you turn it back on. I am sure the pencil goes to "sleep" when it's not used. The only time you need to re-pair it is if you remove it from the iDevice it was connected too.
Click to expand...

I understand how Bluetooth works. :)

However, if you turn OFF Bluetooth on the iPad and turn it back on, it does NOT automatically connect to the Pencil. It still has the "history" of the pairing in Bluetooth settings - but it does not re-connect automatically. You have to plug the Pencil back in to the iPad, and then it instantly connects (NOT pairs - i.e. it doesn't ask you if you want to pair with the Pencil like it does the first time you set it up).

I used my iPad yesterday afternoon without touching my Pencil for several hours, and the Pencil stayed connected and drained a significant portion of its battery. When I turned Bluetooth OFF on the iPad, the Pencil stopped draining, but then I needed to connect it physically to the iPad again to make it work after turning Bluetooth back on.
 
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ZombiePete said:
Actually, in this case that is not correct.
Click to expand...

From that Apple page: "If you turn off Bluetooth—for example, if you turn on airplane mode—you'll need to turn on Bluetooth and pair your Apple Pencil again."

Yeah, the confirmed ouch... and that really is a big ouch. Be nice if there had been a hidden power button somewhere...

Technically, despite what Apple says, it's not re-paring the Pencil. It's jut re-connecting the Pencil. The history of the pairing is still visible in the BT settings even after turning Bluetooth off and then back on. And it won't ask you to pair again after the first time.

Oh well, - won't surprise me if the second-gen Pencil sorts this out as it's certainly a bit of an inconvenience. I don't need to leave Bluetooth on 24/7, and doing so with the Pencil in the vicinity drains the Pencil battery... But then I have to physically connect the darn Pencil if I turn Bluetooth off!

THANKS, APPLE!

PS First-world problems, I get it.
 
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WilliamG said:
Yeah, the confirmed ouch... and that really is a big ouch. Be nice if there had been a hidden power button somewhere...
Click to expand...

I was wondering about this myself. Without a power button there's no way to turn it off.

An alternative solution could be for it to turn itself off after some period of time not interacting with the iPP, then re-enable when it makes contact again. It would be important for this period to be long enough (as in not just a couple minutes) because obviously it'll take a moment to start working when you first go to use it, which would be very irritating if it happened every time you set the Pencil down for a bit.
 
appleguy123 said:
In the notification center. Battery for all the bluetooth devices (Watch, Pencil, some third party headphones) that support it can be found there.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I only see my watch on my phone. Are you able to see your watch on your iPads Notification Center?
 
Atomic Walrus said:
I was wondering about this myself. Without a power button there's no way to turn it off.

An alternative solution could be for it to turn itself off after some period of time not interacting with the iPP, then re-enable when it makes contact again. It would be important for this period to be long enough (as in not just a couple minutes) because obviously it'll take a moment to start working when you first go to use it, which would be very irritating if it happened every time you set the Pencil down for a bit.
Click to expand...

Right. Even half an hour would be fine. Just not a huge fan of the way it works currently.
 
The Pencil is not streaming media while on standby. I have Bluetooth earpieces that can hold Achaemenid for a long time while not using it. The newer Bluetooth 4.0 is design that way I believe.
 
I would like a clip or storage of some sort to hook my Pencil to. I can't wait for something to be developed. Other than using some velcro. Lol
 
Atomic Walrus said:
I was wondering about this myself. Without a power button there's no way to turn it off.

An alternative solution could be for it to turn itself off after some period of time not interacting with the iPP, then re-enable when it makes contact again. It would be important for this period to be long enough (as in not just a couple minutes) because obviously it'll take a moment to start working when you first go to use it, which would be very irritating if it happened every time you set the Pencil down for a bit.
Click to expand...

I got lucky today and was able to purchase a pencil. It looks like the pencil goes to sleep after while and will wake up when it is picked up. Once you pick it up it shows in the battery widget, but once it goes to sleep it disappears from the widget until it's picked up again.
 
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pento said:
I got lucky today and was able to purchase a pencil. It looks like the pencil goes to sleep after while and will wake up when it is picked up. Once you pick it up it shows in the battery widget, but once it goes to sleep it disappears from the widget until it's picked up again.
Click to expand...

You're right. The Pencil goes to sleep after what looks like 20 minutes! As soon as I picked up the Pencil, it woke up and reconnected to Bluetooth. Interesting.
 
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image.jpeg
pento said:
I think I'm going to return the Smart Cover, but I did notice that the pencil will magnetically stick to it!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip.
 
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For me this has been a huge issue, the pencil is the key factor because of which I bought the iPad Pro and after a day and a half in which I didn't use the pencil the battery went down from 100% to 84%, that is almost a deal breaker for me, that means that after 1 week or less if I don't use the pen it will be fully discharged. For now I just turn the bluetooth off but that is not a great solution for me as now I have to phisically connect the pencil every time and I can no longer use continuity on my iPad.

I really don't understand how Apple couldn't think this through any better.
 
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