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Turning "off" the Apple Pencil?
- Thread starter WilliamG
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I open the iPad notification center, and verify that the Pencil does not show up in the "Batteries" section. Then I thump the desk lightly, and "Pencil" then shows up immediately in the Batteries section.
[doublepost=1469647899][/doublepost]LOL I just had an idea for an app that lets you use Apple Pencil as an intrusion alarm.
Hang Apple Pencil from a door knob, and if anyone opens the door, the Pencil will wake up, iPad will connect with it, and the app will trigger a loud, audible alarm with all four of iPad Pro's glorious speakers.
How much time has to pass for Pencil to sleep? I always turn off Bluetooth when I am not using the pencil, and even it moves around, after reconnecting it to my iPad, I see no battery drain.
When you see Bluetooth connected on your iPad (I have no other Bluetooth devices connected to my iPad at work).
I know this is an older thread. I've had the Pencil since April and battery life was never a problem. I'm now noticing if I just leave it dormant on my iPad Pro...only for a few days without even using it - the battery drains from 100% way down to 20% or less..this morning I got a pop up warning telling me by Pencil battery is low after fully charging it 2 days ago. This certainly wasn't the case months ago so I'm already starting to wonder if the Pencil lithium battery is already going?
Also odd this started happening after the 9.3.3 OS update a few months ago, no change since the 9.3.4. (The iPad Pro 12" does not charge to 100% since the 9.3.3..seems to get stuck at 97%. Whole other topic I know..Ugh, so odd!!)
Frustrating, BUT yes the good thing is, the Pencil does charge super fast again.
I got a bit lost among the replies, so sorry if I'm replicating someone else's;
- The Apple Pencil detects vibrations and only goes to sleep when it's been physically still for a number of minutes. Thus, even if it's associated iPad is asleep, the Pencil will drain faster when it's moving. So essentially; try to put it down on a desk rather than keeping it in a pocket when you're not using it. (That may be the reason why Apple doesn't include a clip with the Pencil.)
I've got another question. When I am done with drawing, I turn off the Bluetooth on my iPad. Does it also turn off the Pencil? Am I good to move it around and don't worry about draining battery?
I was just bitten by this bug as well, for precisely the same reason as yourself: I traded my trusty iPad Air this week for a new 9.7" iPad Pro and a keyboard case with ... wait for it ... a Pencil holder built in. Never occurred to me that movement would keep the thing on constantly. I guess that explains why Apple's cases don't have Pencil holders. :^/
Probably too much to hope for a software fix in iOS 10. Is one even possible? For now I'm turning Bluetooth off when not using it, I suppose.
Exactly, this has become a huge problem for me having owned and used the iPad Pro and Pencil for over half a year now. I carry my iPad Pro and Apple Pencil in my bag almost every time I go out, and I am constantly on the move. No matter how fully I charge my Pencil, if I don't use it for a day or two, it's almost always at or near zero charge when I do use it. It is extremely frustrating having to baby this thing, charging it, if even for a moment, before each use--basically never getting to immediately dive into drawing, and pretty much never getting to draw with a full charge.
That may be the case for the casual user, but for someone who needs to get ideas down quickly (and if you're like me and aren't able to keep the Pencil from moving in between uses), having to stop the creative process to sit there and wait for the Pencil to charge from zero is a real creative flow killer. Plus if you're going into a long drawing session, you have to charge for a significant amount of time before you can start (either that or keep topping off for a few seconds every 30 minutes). But even if it's a quick 15 second charge, many times if you're drawing from life, 15 seconds is way more than enough time to miss a fleeting moment. And of course, when you're in a professional setting and you need to pull out the Pencil to draw an impromptu sketch for a client, it's very unprofessional and embarrassing to keep them waiting while you charge for ANY amount of time, as in TokyoJink's example:
^This.
They either didn't think out all of the above scenarios, and or they did and thought they were passable. Either way, it's very disappointing and they simply need to come up with a better solution soon. It's a great device overall, but this is a serious problem.
I left feedback for Apple. I suggest others with the same problem do the same. http://www.apple.com/feedback/
I can't say this is true anymore. The battery is now a problem - I think. Nothing like it used to be when i bought it in April that's for sure and I think a big change happened after IOS10.
I fully charged the pencil after getting a pop-up on my iPad Pro (Less than 5%) on Monday night. I charged it..which doesn't take that long. I didn't use it for 2 days..then bang last night, another alert my pencil was down to 5%. I checked just now, it's at 47%. Something is off.
I'll try un-pairing it, turning off Bluetooth..see what happens
I also recently noticed that my pencil no longer takes or holds a charge. This after a two month period of inactivity...
I've un-paired, hard restarted, re-paired... tried to charge it directly in the IPP, tried to charge via lightning cable... No dice.
Nope, un-pairing or disabling BT didn't do anything for me as well. I almost think Apple forgot about the Pencil...I'm at a loss. No idea if the lithium battery in this thing is just dying out, if it's IOS sucking the battery dry? If they can somehow come up with a patch for this $100 accessory, that would be nice! It is under 1 year Apple Warranty...right? Problem is I got this at Target...trying to exchange it for a new one - at Target or an Apple Store could be impossible
At this rate, by Jan, Feb., I may have to literally use the Pencil but it would only work if it's connected using a lightning cable to the iPad. Now that would tick me off.
Hey Philly,
Just back from the apple store (where I did buy the pencil), and they substituted it with no questions asked. It was paired to the device, the tech saw that it wasn't charging, and the deal was done. The tech wasn't aware of any 'gate' worthy issues (or at least he wasn't sharing), just a one-off bad battery...
Definitely take care of it before your year is up!
As far as the purchase point goes, I think you can rest assured that with a receipt from Target they will honor the warranty. I ordered a Smart Keyboard on amazon, and they accepted the receipt by visual confirmation from screen of my iPad. (Btw, the 'fabric' of the connection bar was starting to come up, nothing a little super glue wouldn't fix, but since I was there I showed it to them and they swapped it out with a new one...officially not an apple issue, so I'm thankful that there were some zealous customer service guys on the sales floor today)
Just back from the apple store (where I did buy the pencil), and they substituted it with no questions asked. It was paired to the device, the tech saw that it wasn't charging, and the deal was done. The tech wasn't aware of any 'gate' worthy issues (or at least he wasn't sharing), just a one-off bad battery...
Definitely take care of it before your year is up!
As far as the purchase point goes, I think you can rest assured that with a receipt from Target they will honor the warranty. I ordered a Smart Keyboard on amazon, and they accepted the receipt by visual confirmation from screen of my iPad. (Btw, the 'fabric' of the connection bar was starting to come up, nothing a little super glue wouldn't fix, but since I was there I showed it to them and they swapped it out with a new one...officially not an apple issue, so I'm thankful that there were some zealous customer service guys on the sales floor today)
Thanks for this. I do have my Target receipt from April, the Apple Pencil box and I'll see if I can simply exchange it today. I never had problems returning things at Target for refunds - But if I'm just simply exchanging it for the same item 6 months later - I hope it's not an issue.
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I will try to exchange this today at Target where I got it 6 months ago. But the whole thing is just getting more odd. I wanted to use it for a project Im working on Illustrator...again I see 41% battery life on the Pencil, I charged this 24 hours ago. Anyway, I hook it up to my charger using the lightning adapter (cord also charges my iPhone) The darn widget went from 41% to 72% in a matter of 4, 5 seconds! I literally watched the widget and it skyrocketed to 85% in about 4 minutes.
It's now 100% only 15min after I plugged it in.
(Time lapse I just took, real time is about 14 min.)
Now I'm wondering if the widget is giving me some kind of inaccurate reading, like a "false / positive" that the battery is "low" when in fact it really isn't. IPad pop-up alert - which relies on the widget - telling me the battery is 5%, it may actually have much more life than that?
Thats a whole new strange issue I just noticed.
----I have found that the pencil drains as long as the Ipad Pro 10.5 stays on which I guess means when Bluetooth on the Ipad is active. That is not a good thing. I almost fully drained the pencil when I left the Ipad on on my office desk for a few hours.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.
This is very true. I would charge the Pencil reaching 100%, if I just happen to leave the iPad on - not even using it, or having apps open - that Pencil will drain to 60-65% within 90 minutes.
Who knows, the good part about the Pencil, I've had that down to 5% where it alerts me, it only takes about 35-40 minutes to recharge it back to 100%.
I have not had this problem at all--if the Pencil is not moving, even if my iPad is on, the Pencil does not drain or even show up in my battery widget. This is why I stopped using cases with attached Pencil holders, and why the first thing I did with my Tech21 case was slide the Pencil holder off and put it in a drawer. The Pencil goes to sleep if you're not using it and it's not moving. When it's asleep, the battery will still drain, but it will be very slow drain. If your Pencil is draining that fast even when it's not awake, there is something wrong with the Pencil.
I had a problem where the charge on the Pencil became erratic. It would charge to 100% within seconds, then discharge some more value very quickly, then jump to a high-level again. I took it to the Apple store and they exchanged it immediately.
I used to keep the Pencil in my back pocket. That caused cracks to develop near the lightning connector. Eventually it fell apart. I'm more careful with the replacement and it is holding up fine.
I don't worry about the state of charge. I preemptively plug it once in a while and it is usually good.
I used to keep the Pencil in my back pocket. That caused cracks to develop near the lightning connector. Eventually it fell apart. I'm more careful with the replacement and it is holding up fine.
I don't worry about the state of charge. I preemptively plug it once in a while and it is usually good.
My Logitech Slim Combo keyboard case (the new one) has a loop at top—landscape. During the day as I use it off and on I use the loop, otherwise its in an SF case where i keep CC connector, Pencil tips and adaptor, etc
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I OFTEN PUT MY pencil in a SF case with CC connector, Pencil tip, adaptor, etc. It is not being handled, laid flat on table shelf. My Pencil battery still drops a lot quickly. I have not tried turning BT off but i often grab my Airpods during the day so would hate to do that—but I’ll try. My pencil is charging right now—again.
I purchased these a while back for my Oringinal 12.9 Pro. I use them now with my 10.5.