iPad What happened to the legendary standby time of iPad?

[FeliApple]

My 10.5” iPad Pro from 2017, running the latest iPadOS version 16.2, still gets about a three or four weeks of battery life when on standby and I haven’t disabled anything. It rings whenever my phone rings, notifies me about various things, and syncs photos etc., but doesn’t get used as much anymore since I got my iPad mini. The battery life isn’t what it used to be when I actively use it, but the battery is more than five years old. I can’t see what the problem is on my end.

This surprises me. A lot. Like I said on my previous comment, there were wide reports beginning from iPadOS 13 about standby time, especially on older iPads. You have iPadOS 16 and it is good, with many features turned on. I wouldn’t have ever expected this. Perhaps the 10.5-inch iPad Pro is significantly better than the 9.7-inch iPad Pro in terms of standby, but I wouldn’t know.

Do you know how’s screen-on time? How many hours do you get? Like I said, my 9.7-inch iPad Pro gets 10.5 hours of light use on iOS 12 (it was at around 14-14.5 before being forced out of iOS 9. Some reports on iPadOS 16 of the 1st gen iPad Pros hover around the 5 to 7-hour mark. Is it more or less in that range?

 

[headlessmike]

This surprises me. A lot. Like I said on my previous comment, there were wide reports beginning from iPadOS 13 about standby time, especially on older iPads. You have iPadOS 16 and it is good, with many features turned on. I wouldn’t have ever expected this. Perhaps the 10.5-inch iPad Pro is significantly better than the 9.7-inch iPad Pro in terms of standby, but I wouldn’t know.

Do you know how’s screen-on time? How many hours do you get? Like I said, my 9.7-inch iPad Pro gets 10.5 hours of light use on iOS 12 (it was at around 14-14.5 before being forced out of iOS 9. Some reports on iPadOS 16 of the 1st gen iPad Pros hover around the 5 to 7-hour mark. Is it more or less in that range?

I couldn’t say at the moment as I mostly use my iPad mini now and the Pro is mainly a backup device. In the last week I’ve actively used it for about an hour in total, mostly YouTube, and the rest of the time it’s been on standby. The battery level is at 51% after 6 days. If I had to extrapolate I’d guess that I could get about 10 hours of continuous light to moderate use out of it.

One key difference between our devices is that the A10X has 3 efficiency cores which must help improve the standby time over the A9X in the 9.7” Pro. That, and the fact that it’s a year younger in terms of wear. The batteries in these things are getting pretty old, which certainly doesn’t help either. I just had the battery replaced in my iPhone 11 after 3 years of use and that nearly doubled the usable battery life even though the old one reported a 72% battery health.

 

[FeliApple]

I couldn’t say at the moment as I mostly use my iPad mini now and the Pro is mainly a backup device. In the last week I’ve actively used it for about an hour in total, mostly YouTube, and the rest of the time it’s been on standby. The battery level is at 51% after 6 days. If I had to extrapolate I’d guess that I could get about 10 hours of continuous light to moderate use out of it.

One key difference between our devices is that the A10X has 3 efficiency cores which must help improve the standby time over the A9X in the 9.7” Pro. That, and the fact that it’s a year younger in terms of wear. The batteries in these things are getting pretty old, which certainly doesn’t help either. I just had the battery replaced in my iPhone 11 after 3 years of use and that nearly doubled the usable battery life even though the old one reported a 72% battery health.

Perhaps the efficiency of the A10X plays a part there, agreed. It’s hard to extrapolate from a high standby number, especially if it is 1 hour in 6 days.

In terms of battery health, in my experience the only factor that predicts battery life regardless of battery health is the iOS version: my 9.7-inch iPad Pro had the exact same screen-on time throughout its entire lifetime on iOS 9, and it has had the exact same screen-on time since it was forced into iOS 12 (more or less a 4-hour immediate decrease). Battery life today is exactly what it was back in 2019. So much so, that I can predict screen-on time at every percentage point, with a very small margin of error, with my usage.

My iPhone 6s runs iOS 10 with 63% health and battery life is almost like-new, hovering at about 7-7.5 hours of screen-on time with light use. It got around 8 on iOS 9 (on a different 6s, that one debuted with iOS 10.0 and it’s still there). It has 1400 cycles, nearly three times its alleged useful life spec-wise.

I’ve been unable to test an iPad with an extremely degraded battery running the original version of iOS (it takes too long to degrade them, and the only eligible iPad was the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, which isn’t eligible anymore), but going by my 6s’ results, and considering the iPad battery is a lot more robust (due to sheer size), I’m inclined to believe that the threshold is almost unreachable. Going by the 6s, I reckon 3000 cycles wouldn’t be enough, and I’d need a very, very long time to reach that number (my 9.7-inch iPad Pro hovers at around 650). A heavier user could have around twice that, and I reckon it wouldn’t be nearly enough. Do you know what’s your battery health and cycles on the 10.5-inch iPad Pro?

iPad 2 users have reported decent battery life in both usage and standby 11 years later, which would agree with my assessment that degrading a battery to useless levels is impossible if the device isn’t updated (the iPad 2 is still good on iOS 9, that might change if iOS support extends too much for more current iPads, like the 1st gen iPad Pros. That remains to be seen).

 

[RevTEG]

I have no clue what standby time is… no, but really, my 12.9 iPad is my daily driver. I’m on it 8-10+ hours a day. I plug it in beside my phone when I go to be every night. So standby what? 😀 As long as I have access to power, standby time doesn‘t my personal needs.

 

[rui no onna]

My 10.5” iPad Pro from 2017, running the latest iPadOS version 16.2, still gets about a three or four weeks of battery life when on standby and I haven’t disabled anything. It rings whenever my phone rings, notifies me about various things, and syncs photos etc., but doesn’t get used as much anymore since I got my iPad mini. The battery life isn’t what it used to be when I actively use it, but the battery is more than five years old. I can’t see what the problem is on my end.

Standby battery drain on my Pro 10.5 sucks. It drops anywhere from 15-25% every 24 hours. It’s the LTE version but doesn’t have a SIM card anymore.

 

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

If it’s just going to be lying around unused, why would people keep an iPad in standby?

That’s a genuine question, I’m not being facetious.
Whenever I know I’m not going to use my iPad for a long time (like overnight), I turn it off completely. They take longer to boot up than a MacBook or so but not thaaat long.

 

[headlessmike]

Perhaps the efficiency of the A10X plays a part there, agreed. It’s hard to extrapolate from a high standby number, especially if it is 1 hour in 6 days.

In terms of battery health, in my experience the only factor that predicts battery life regardless of battery health is the iOS version: my 9.7-inch iPad Pro had the exact same screen-on time throughout its entire lifetime on iOS 9, and it has had the exact same screen-on time since it was forced into iOS 12 (more or less a 4-hour immediate decrease). Battery life today is exactly what it was back in 2019. So much so, that I can predict screen-on time at every percentage point, with a very small margin of error, with my usage.

My iPhone 6s runs iOS 10 with 63% health and battery life is almost like-new, hovering at about 7-7.5 hours of screen-on time with light use. It got around 8 on iOS 9 (on a different 6s, that one debuted with iOS 10.0 and it’s still there). It has 1400 cycles, nearly three times its alleged useful life spec-wise.

I’ve been unable to test an iPad with an extremely degraded battery running the original version of iOS (it takes too long to degrade them, and the only eligible iPad was the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, which isn’t eligible anymore), but going by my 6s’ results, and considering the iPad battery is a lot more robust (due to sheer size), I’m inclined to believe that the threshold is almost unreachable. Going by the 6s, I reckon 3000 cycles wouldn’t be enough, and I’d need a very, very long time to reach that number (my 9.7-inch iPad Pro hovers at around 650). A heavier user could have around twice that, and I reckon it wouldn’t be nearly enough. Do you know what’s your battery health and cycles on the 10.5-inch iPad Pro?

iPad 2 users have reported decent battery life in both usage and standby 11 years later, which would agree with my assessment that degrading a battery to useless levels is impossible if the device isn’t updated (the iPad 2 is still good on iOS 9, that might change if iOS support extends too much for more current iPads, like the 1st gen iPad Pros. That remains to be seen).

The extrapolation was based on periods when I use the device more actively, so I’m reasonably certain about it.

My anecdotal experience is a bit more mixed than yours. I’m quite proactive in getting batteries replaced in my devices. That makes a huge difference in my experience. Before I got my iPhone 11 I had a 6S and I replaced its battery twice during the time I had it. When I got my new phone I gave the 6S to a family member. With the new battery, it got basically the same battery life as it did when new with iOS 9. Even iOS 15 runs well on it and it’s possible to get a couple days of use out of the phone. With the old battery that was impossible.

It’s clear though that newer OS versions drain the batteries in different ways. New features add to the number of processes running which may increase battery drain. But in my experience, installing a fresh new battery largely negates this and does wonders in restoring the battery life of a device.

 

[headlessmike]

If it’s just going to be lying around unused, why would people keep an iPad in standby?

That’s a genuine question, I’m not being facetious.
Whenever I know I’m not going to use my iPad for a long time (like overnight), I turn it off completely. They take longer to boot up than a MacBook or so but not thaaat long.

Leaving an iPad in standby overnight isn’t that crazy. But sure, if you’re not gonna use a device for a long period of time the you might as well shut it off.

 

[BadMacRumours]

Oh no, you have to charge your iPad once a week.

More powerful chip and more capable/demanding OS is what happened.

My iPad has to be charged daily - in low power mode - with minimal usage. Pro 11” 2018. Apple claims battery is fine but I’m skeptical.

 

[Digitalguy]

Standby battery drain on my Pro 10.5 sucks. It drops anywhere from 15-25% every 24 hours. It’s the LTE version but doesn’t have a SIM card anymore.

Same for my 10.5 pro, LTE with SIM card on 16.2. No better than the 9.7 pro.... It won't last a single week on standby. So very surprised that someone has IOS 9 like standby time....
Anyway not a big deal to me, since I only need it for a short time every evening for my business (Word, Remote desktop, some Safari and sometimes some video) and then I charge it, it's not my daily driver (more my evening driver...😅).
So until battery degrades to a point where it becomes unusable even for that, it's fine (and even then I always have a small power bank with me).

 

[sracer]

If it’s just going to be lying around unused, why would people keep an iPad in standby?

That’s a genuine question, I’m not being facetious.
Whenever I know I’m not going to use my iPad for a long time (like overnight), I turn it off completely. They take longer to boot up than a MacBook or so but not thaaat long.

Why keep it on standby? Because I can, with little to no cost in battery life.

I can keep my iPad in standby for over 8 hours (overnight) and it drop only 1% during that time. Why would I power it down?

 

[FeliApple]

The extrapolation was based on periods when I use the device more actively, so I’m reasonably certain about it.

My anecdotal experience is a bit more mixed than yours. I’m quite proactive in getting batteries replaced in my devices. That makes a huge difference in my experience. Before I got my iPhone 11 I had a 6S and I replaced its battery twice during the time I had it. When I got my new phone I gave the 6S to a family member. With the new battery, it got basically the same battery life as it did when new with iOS 9. Even iOS 15 runs well on it and it’s possible to get a couple days of use out of the phone. With the old battery that was impossible.

It’s clear though that newer OS versions drain the batteries in different ways. New features add to the number of processes running which may increase battery drain. But in my experience, installing a fresh new battery largely negates this and does wonders in restoring the battery life of a device.

I have never denied that replacing the battery helps (if the device is updated, which is a key point). We’ve had different experiences in how much it helps, however. I have seen many, many screenshots with newly replaced batteries from both the 6s and the 6s Plus. Neither of those were anywhere close to iOS 9 (or 10, which is just like iOS 9). The 6s got between 2.5 and 3 hours of screen-on time, which is less than half what I get; moreover, the 6s Plus got about 7 hours of screen-on time. I used a Plus model on an original iOS version (a 7 Plus on iOS 10), and it got 11-12 hours. Unless used extremely heavily, a Plus model wouldn’t get 7 hours, and the examples I’ve seen were anything but heavy. Are you sure your 6s got the exact same battery life on iOS 15 with a replaced battery? Do you have a screenshot? Forgive my skepticism, but it would be the first time ever somebody confirmed it, even people who have replaced batteries have said it is a lot better but not like it was when new. iOS 15 just can’t match iOS 9 and 10’s power draw.

Why did I say that replacing the battery helps? Because heavily degraded batteries on fully updated devices are unusable: due to increased power draw, they cant sustain the load so they shut down, and when they don’t shut down, battery life is abhorrent (one hour, more or less). iPads do not have that issue, because their batteries are larger.

Interestingly, like this thread has shown, iPadOS might change that. Standby time is already undeniably worse. Like many here have said, even new iPads on original versions of iOS can’t match older iPads even when they are updated to iOS 12 or earlier. Screen-on time on fairly new, updated iPads is worse too. I have no reason to believe that this will not get worse, especially if iPadOS support extends even further (the 1st-gen iPad Pros are the most supported iPads ever, alongside the Air 2 - 9 to 16 and 8 to 15, respectively). I have a theory for that: whilst battery life is similar when comparing them on original iOS versions, that’s due to the efficiency gained by the new processors coupled with the iOS versions designed for those iPads: update far enough, and that efficiency-driven process that Apple follows is blasted into oblivion, and the smaller batteries on current iPads fail to offset the increased power draw.

 

[kevcube]

When I made the upgrade to an iPad Air 4

if you are using a Magic Keyboard or an Apple Pencil those just constantly suck battery. really annoying, my iPad Pro would last like 1-2 days in standby with either of those attached.

 

[darngooddesign]

My iPad has to be charged daily - in low power mode - with minimal usage. Pro 11” 2018. Apple claims battery is fine but I’m skeptical.

My 9.7" iPP only lost 3% over 12 hours sleep in low power mode. Background app refresh off, notifications off, bluetooth off, off the Smart Keyboard because its old and when laying down as a cover it keeps dinging saying accessory isn't supported.

But if I use it moderately it plows through the battery.

 

[rui no onna]

Same for my 10.5 pro, LTE with SIM card on 16.2. No better than the 9.7 pro.... It won't last a single week on standby. So very surprised that someone has IOS 9 like standby time....
Anyway not a big deal to me, since I only need it for a short time every evening for my business (Word, Remote desktop, some Safari and sometimes some video) and then I charge it, it's not my daily driver (more my evening driver...😅).
So until battery degrades to a point where it becomes unusable even for that, it's fine (and even then I always have a small power bank with me).

Yeah, I don't use my Pro 10.5 much either. It's just a night time ereader now. It's scheduled to charge for 30 minutes everyday which mitigates the standby drain. If I use it for reading, I just top it up a bit more.

My favorite epub reading app hasn't been updated since 2017 so I'm keeping the Pro 10.5 for that.

 

[jonblatho]

I think iPadOS happened.

It could be a bug and/or coincidence related to the version jump from 12.x to 13.x, but “iPadOS” so far is still iOS with certain features enabled and disabled, just like before they renamed iOS on the iPad. That’s why the build numbers are identical, “iPadOS” still reports itself to apps as iOS, etc.

 

[FeliApple]

It could be a bug and/or coincidence related to the version jump from 12.x to 13.x, but “iPadOS” so far is still iOS with certain features enabled and disabled, just like before they renamed iOS on the iPad. That’s why the build numbers are identical, “iPadOS” still reports itself to apps as iOS, etc.

It is still iOS, but they added something or did something. It’s too glaring to be a coincidence. By now, it’s not a bug. iOS updates have directly been the sole culprit of reduced battery life in both screen-on and standby time, for the entire history of iOS. iPadOS is merely another step in that direction, but like I said: my Air 5 is worse on standby on iPadOS 15 (original version) than my 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12 (fourth major version). That is not normal.

 

[jonblatho]

It is still iOS, but they added something or did something. It’s too glaring to be a coincidence. By now, it’s not a bug. iOS updates have directly been the sole culprit of reduced battery life in both screen-on and standby time, for the entire history of iOS. iPadOS is merely another step in that direction, but like I said: my Air 5 is worse on standby on iPadOS 15 (original version) than my 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 12 (fourth major version). That is not normal.

I've heard anecdotally that — if your use case allows you to feel comfortable doing so — turning off Find My iPad can help significantly. Not that you should have to.

 

[FeliApple]

I've heard anecdotally that — if your use case allows you to feel comfortable doing so — turning off Find My iPad can help significantly. Not that you should have to.

That’s interesting. That has never been the case before. Was it a recent occurrence? (Find my iPad being heavy on standby, I mean).

I’d heard that Screen Time was heavy on the battery, too, but I tried it and it didn’t change anything (this was back when Apple had just forced my 9.7-inch iPad Pro from iOS 9 into iOS 12. It brought about a nearly 4-hour decrease in screen-on time - from 14 to 10.5 hours - and I tried everything I could to get that time back. Of course, I failed).

 

[contacos]

I have something really odd happening on my iPad Air 4. I rarely use it and when I check it a few days later, it already lost like 60% and when I check the battery stats, it shows HOME and FIND MY running constantly. The weird thing though, I have Find My and Location Services completely OFF (the device does not leave the house) and the Home app has also been removed

 

[Macyourdayy]

Happy New Year, everyone. Long time lurker shaking off some dust!

I know we talk a lot about batteries; however, I have some questions about what I'm gonna call "The iPad falloff."

I've had an iPad 4th Generation for literally a decade now. I don't use it as my daily driver anymore, but it still gets some use as a music streamer, remote and alarm clock. The battery even after a decade is still holding up really well. The standby time is legendary. I charge it around once a month. When I made the upgrade to an iPad Air 4, I was expecting to be blown away, but alas, I am not.

iPad 4 drains around 1% per day.
iPad Air 4 drains around 1% every couple of hours.

So every time I read battery threads, the automatic thing people say is "turn this off, turn that off" and it shouldn't be that way. I haven't turned anything off on my iPad 4 since 2012. (Wifi is always on, email fetch is on, Bluetooth is on, Hell even background refresh is on.) Battery life isso damn good, I didn't have to turn anything off. Even the generational jumps from iOS 6 to iOS 10.3.4, just amazing.

The next argument is "iOS 10 is ancient, iPad OS 14-15 has way more features" This is a gray area depending on how you perceive ancient. There's still some decent support for app updates. iOS 10 itself was no slouch. There was way more going on in iOS 10 versus iOS 6, yet... battery hasn't taken a hit, like at all. Let's not pretend that iOS 10 doesn't have some of the same core features as iPad OS 15.

Moving on to the iPad Air 4. My expectation was really high, and after my first night with it, I was confused. A 5% drop overnight is a lot compared to a 1% drop for an entire day. I always update to the latest OS whenever possible, especially for a new device, so I chalked it up to extra background processes because of the update. I wait a week. Same thing.


The next argument is "The A 14 Bionic is way more powerful than the A6X". True, but after a decade, shouldn't power optimization gains play a role as well? A 14 Bionic has a 4 x 4 (Power x Efficiency cores) the A6X just has two cores. No fancy Firestorm or Icestorm magic.
I guess my expectations on those Icestorm cores were way too high.

Then comes iPad OS 15. Low Power Mode. First time ever on an iPad. So a newer iPad + newer OS + Low Power Mode can surely beat out a decade old iPad with none of this stuff, right? Low Power Mode took drain from 5% down to 3% with the same settings as my 4th gen.

Not bad, but spending the amount of money I did, I was expecting so much more.

The next group of people are the "just charge it" crowds. The whole point of this thread is I barely ever had to charge it in the past. lol.
Now I have to do it once a week, roughly. That's terrible for an "iPad", especially considering it's just sitting in standby most of the time.
And it's only gonna get worse as the device ages.

I will say, on screen time is decent. For people like me who like to hold on to devices as long as possible, standby is even more important. The better the standby, the less I have to charge, which equates to less wear on battery, which equates to a device I don't have to replace for the next decade to come.

Gonna close the post with these questions. "What the F happened?" What is going on in iPad OS behind the scenes that just killed off the former standby behemoth?

Exactly. My M1 12.9" uses power on standby like it’s in active use, and with screen on at normally 25-35% brightness, it sucks power like an intel Macbook air. I think it lights the screen for every notification like a MacBook on standby and it’s like it reboots almost every day as I have to keep reactivating face recognition, unlike my 13 pro where I almost never have to reauthorise face recognition.

 

[Isamilis]

It might have started with iPadOS 15. I’m going on other people’s experiences here when I say iPadOS 13: like I said, I had my 9.7-inch iPad Pro on iOS 9 and never updated it willingly (nor did I intend to, ever), but was forced to go to iOS 12 after the infamous A9 on iOS 9 activation bug hit (Devices with that combination would be deactivated and they would be forced to update). This happened three days before the release of iPadOS 13. Fearing it wouldn’t be a good version due to new features, and with time pressing me (this happened three days before the release of iPadOS 13. Even though Apple signs the previous major version for a little while, I wouldn’t ever risk it) I spent two days of pledging for help to everyone I could think of, and failed, so I updated one day before the iPadOS 13 release.

That device is still on iOS 12, and I only gained access to a new version when I bought my iPad Air 5, which is (and hopefully will be, forever) on iPadOS 15. That’s when I realized that even with processor improvements, iPadOS is worse on standby. But I can’t tell you what happened in every iOS version since 9: I only ever used iOS 9, 12, and iPadOS 15.

I borrow iPad Pro 11” 2020 with iPadOS 14, compared with mine, iPad Pro 11” 2021 M1 with iPadOS 15. The iPad 2020 is more responsive and faster than M1. Not much but it’s noticeable. I didn’t run benchmark test though, but honestly I am a bit regret update to 15.

 

[FeliApple]

I borrow iPad Pro 11” 2020 with iPadOS 14, compared with mine, iPad Pro 11” 2021 M1 with iPadOS 15. The iPad 2020 is more responsive and faster than M1. Not much but it’s noticeable. I didn’t run benchmark test though, but honestly I am a bit regret update to 15.

That is odd. I have an M1 iPad on iPadOS 15 (original version for me, it’s the Air 5) and it is flawless in every way. I can’t explain your result. I’m the first one to criticize iOS updates, but the M1 iPad Pro is too new to feel the impact, in my opinion.

 

[spiderman0616]

OP--I've noticed this too for sure. I remember the days when I could put my iPad away in standby and get it out 3 days later with no more than 3-4% drain. For me those days ended with the iPad Pro, especially from the 10.5" model and forward. I tried and tried and tried to figure it out. Replacements never fixed it, DFU restores never fixed it, I tried everything under the sun to troubleshoot these things. It always seemed like certain dot releases of iPadOS would fix it, and then others would reintroduce it.

To be fair, iPads in 2023 are far more sophisticated and have far more powerful radios than the ones from 2012 or 2013, especially if you buy a 5G model. However, I now use a cellular mini 6 regularly and it feels like I've inched back more toward the kind of battery drain I used to get in standby. It still drains more than they used to, but I do leave the cellular on at all times and don't worry too much about power management and can still go days at a time with no charge needed.

I have also noticed Apple doesn't crow about iPad's standby time anymore. Steve Jobs made a pretty big deal about how you could leave one in standby for a month and still come back to a usable device, but that's never talked about these days.

I suspect as others have said--processors are different, battery tech is different, designs are different. Who knows what's causing it, but it is annoying for sure.

 

[klasma]

I've heard anecdotally that — if your use case allows you to feel comfortable doing so — turning off Find My iPad can help significantly. Not that you should have to.

Right, since I bought some AirTags, my iPad loses power much more quickly in standby, and battery usage is showing Find My background activity in Settings.