Thought I would update what I’m doing with my Apple Pencil to maintain battery while not in use. I followed someone else’s suggestion to turn off BT—my concern was that I would then lose easy connection for my Airpods. I found that when I click on BT to turn it off—I get message saying disconnected from Apple Pencil—but I don’t lose my Air pod connection and the Pencil battery level remains the same until I use it next. I do have to reinsert the Pencil into lightning port, but that takes only a second or two—so this works for me until either a second Pencil comes out or software updates correct the issue. (I vaguely remember reading after IOS11 that when you turned off BT in control center you didn’t really turn it off completely—thus explaining the Airpod easy reconnection—if I have it connected to Ipad instead of Iphone/Watch)
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Turning "off" the Apple Pencil?
- Thread starter WilliamG
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I'm confused, If i turn off BT my Airpods loose connection. Can you explain what steps you are taking please.
what happens if the apple pencil is charged and you have to pair the apple pencil each time the iPad is turned back on?
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.
I have found this same problem. If for some reason I have to walk away from my Ipad Pro for a few hours to take care of other busiiness, when I come back it shows at least a 20 percent drain if not more and it was barely physically used.
Interesting. If I use my pencil and then just leave it sitting (no movement), I don't see battery drain. After just a few minutes it doesn't register on the battery widget but if I pick it up it shows up immediately, no need for any manually reconnect. That's why I don't generally use the pencil sleeve on my iPad case - the movement keeps it awake though I'm not using it.
Its a bit of a pain IMO but I keep my Pencil in loop at top of Logitech (new model) keyboard case so its likely constantly being moved just a bit but is at hand. I have to then reconnect the Pencil each time for use by inserting in lightning port. Turning off BT doesn’t seem to keep my Airpods from connecting in IOS 11 (understand BT is not completely turned off doing it only in control center). I may try again NOT putting in loop but laying down on flat surface. I use the Pencil every day so getting message towards latter part of day saying my Pencil is at 5% is more than annoying-when after use it may have been at 50% or so. I am just hoping a new Pencil is announced this year that deals with this—Apple has to be getting complaints about this.
I finally decided to see if i was alone in my Pencil observations.
Nope.
I handle it the same way: turn off Bluetooth and let the Pencil be forgotten. Battery stays charged longer. Otherwise, it's just totally unacceptable. I barely use the thing as is (i hate the slippery feel of the tip on the glass; totally the wrong material for drawing!), so if i suddenly find an app i love to use with it (i don't enjoy any of the art apps and Apple's own PDF markup feature is full of bugs, especially with using multiple instances of signatures in one document), I'm expecting to find the battery no longer charges.
Nope.
I handle it the same way: turn off Bluetooth and let the Pencil be forgotten. Battery stays charged longer. Otherwise, it's just totally unacceptable. I barely use the thing as is (i hate the slippery feel of the tip on the glass; totally the wrong material for drawing!), so if i suddenly find an app i love to use with it (i don't enjoy any of the art apps and Apple's own PDF markup feature is full of bugs, especially with using multiple instances of signatures in one document), I'm expecting to find the battery no longer charges.
Easiest way if you use another BT device is to just unpair the pencil. Takes 2 seconds to plug it into the side to re pair it
Yep had the Apple Pencil for almost 2 months and got the same problem. The Pencil uses power even when not lifted or unused. I’ve had mine for 2 days tuck in under my Smart keyboard before I was using it again. I’m pretty sure the Pencil has had been charged to 100% before, and unused. Two days later it shows the battery is 85%!
That’s pretty annoying for a low powered, idled Apple device, which usually takes a lot of attention in power consumption. If it’s smart enough to be put under “sleep mode”, it should stay at 100%! Or 90ish at least! 15% loss at two days while unused is too much, it means the Pencil gonna lose all the charge within a week or two while sitting idle.
My iPad can idling up to almost 3 weeks if fully unused, from 100%, before it needs charging. And by idling I mean it also receives a few emails, messages, and quite a bit of notifications in the process. The Pencil is doing nothing. Should’ve stayed a lot longer
That’s pretty annoying for a low powered, idled Apple device, which usually takes a lot of attention in power consumption. If it’s smart enough to be put under “sleep mode”, it should stay at 100%! Or 90ish at least! 15% loss at two days while unused is too much, it means the Pencil gonna lose all the charge within a week or two while sitting idle.
My iPad can idling up to almost 3 weeks if fully unused, from 100%, before it needs charging. And by idling I mean it also receives a few emails, messages, and quite a bit of notifications in the process. The Pencil is doing nothing. Should’ve stayed a lot longer
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I found out that if the Pencil is sleeping when I turn off Bluetooth on my iPad, the iPad and Pencil are still paired and remember each other the next time I turn on Bluetooth on the iPad and pick up the Pencil to use it. In this way, the Pencil doesn't drain excessively from being jostled around in a bag and communicating to the Ipad, and i don't need to repair the Pencil and iPad.
I know this doesn't exactly remove all inconvenience, because either you wait for the Pencil to go to sleep (15 min or so?) and then turn off Bluetooth on your iPad before you head out to school/work, or you immediately turn off Bluetooth on your way out the door and have to re-pair the Pencil and iPad.
Can anyone else confirm this with their iPad and Pencil?
I know this doesn't exactly remove all inconvenience, because either you wait for the Pencil to go to sleep (15 min or so?) and then turn off Bluetooth on your iPad before you head out to school/work, or you immediately turn off Bluetooth on your way out the door and have to re-pair the Pencil and iPad.
Can anyone else confirm this with their iPad and Pencil?
Yeah, that's what I've been doing. When I'm done with the Pencil, I turn off BT to disconnect the Pencil. Reconnect when I want to use it again. So much better than leaving it connected, not used and having to charge this every 2, 3 days.
Well the only way to turn off Apple Pencil to its maximum level, is to never move it. Apple Pencil has a built in accelerometer in it, so whenever you move it, or even a slight tilt, it wakes up. I carry around the Pencil in my bag and it'll run out of battery within 4 days, unused. But when I put it steady on my table, I get 7 days with 60% remaining (from 100%). Again unused. SO do not move around your Pencil if you don't need it.
And even in putting the Pencil in case and not moving it still results in battery losing power-but I love the Pencil so much I just try to ignore this one issue—or turn off BT when not using.
My experience is not only the Apple Pencil battery drains all the time while connected, but it also noticeably drains the iPad Pro battery as well - to the extent that battery life goes down from 10 hours to 6 hours.
I am only an occasional Apple pencil user, so wonder if it is worth it? Maybe I will just leave the pencil on my office desk and not carry it around with the iPad Pro.
I am only an occasional Apple pencil user, so wonder if it is worth it? Maybe I will just leave the pencil on my office desk and not carry it around with the iPad Pro.
After a long period of inactivity, Apple Pencil will disconnect itself from the respective iPad Pro. In my experience, a week of dormant state (not used, nor moved) will make the Pencil disappear from the battery widget, even if you move it around afterward.
But the battery life is insane if you don’t move Apple Pencil at all. I’d rather not moving the Pencil rather than turning Bluetooth off my iPad, because I use bluetooth for much frequently on iPad (like for my BeatsX).
IF you have to carry around your Pencil everyday, make sure that you may to use it so frequently anyway, so the battery doesn’t drain for nothing.
I have been experimenting. I do carry my pencil around as generally want to use on the move (annotating music I am playing), so what I am now doing is briefly turning off Bluetooth after each use - just a couple seconds will work, then back on again. The Apple Pencil disconnects and stops draining batteries of itself and iPad Pro. I then plug back in briefly to reconnect Bluetooth on the pencil before using again next time.
Not ideal, but only takes a few seconds each use and saves the batteries. I have shown this works. My iPad Pro battery life is now back to nearer as new and after two days non-use the Apple Pencil battery is still at 100%.
Not ideal, but only takes a few seconds each use and saves the batteries. I have shown this works. My iPad Pro battery life is now back to nearer as new and after two days non-use the Apple Pencil battery is still at 100%.
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This is my findings. The apple pencil once connected via BT to an iPad, and attached to the iPad (a case) remains connected, and never sleeps. I have gone through 3 pencils to understand how this works for me. If I pair my pencil and separate the pencil from my iPad, the pencil will sleep and I can see a significant increase in battery life. I purchased a nice pencil sleeve and now, when I am finished drawing or writing, I store my pencil in my desk drawer away form my iPad. Solved the problem in my case.
Apple Pencil 2nd generation solves this issue, it seems. After putting the Pencil down (not connected to iPad Pro), the Pencil goes to sleep after x number of minutes and enters a low power standby state, automatically disconnecting from Bluetooth (you can tell because it disappears from the battery widget). Moving the Pencil wakes it up.
Shame you have to buy a new iPad and Pencil to fix this, but there you go...
Shame you have to buy a new iPad and Pencil to fix this, but there you go...
Gen 1 Apple Pencil went to sleep in this fashion too.
It’s been a while, but I thought the original Pencil drained very quickly? How long does the original Pencil take to go to sleep?
It does drain rather quickly, if it is in range of the iPad. No idea how long it takes to sleep or how long it takes to unpair when out of range. All I know is that it’s always almost dead. I barely use it, mostly because of how slippery the tip is on the glass. Totally the wrong materials and they didn’t fix this in the new version.
Ver. 1 goes to sleep after just a couple of minutes but wakes on movement - it has a motion sensor embedded in it. That's why it drains if attached to the iPad case and carried around. Mine drains very slowly if just left sitting there.
The problem with gen 1 was that people who carried it around in their bag etc often found it drained of battery because it was constantly in motion. Gen 2 is pretty much the same situation except now you have the theoretical option of keeping the pencil attached to the ipad (charging) while carrying it around. The problem with that is the pencil reportedly does not stay attached to the ipad when carried around in a bag (I don’t have 2nd gen). The workaround for both gens is to toggle on/off airplane mode on the ipad to disconnect the pencil, then pair the pencil again each time. Some sort of off/on switch on the pencil would be much more preferable.