Here’s the situation. Your iPad battery reads 22%, dangerously close to the dreaded low battery warning. But didn’t you charge it just a little while ago? It seems to be going pretty quickly these days.
Before you go wondering if your iPad is broken, we’re here to help you with getting it back up to speed. We’ll go over everything related to your iPad battery, including how long it should normally last, what can cause it to drain quickly, and possible solutions to the problem.
We can help with your iPhone battery health as well!)
Contents
How Long Does an iPad Battery Last?
What Causes an iPad Battery to Drain?
Common Fixes to iPad Battery Drain
How to Replace Your iPad Battery
Apple’s Solution for iPad Batteries
An Alternative Solution: Sell Us Your Older iPad and Get a Brand-New One
How Long Does an iPad Battery Last?
In the owner’s manual, Apple claims an iPad battery can last up to 10 hours. However, as any gadget owner can attest, that number isn’t always accurate. In addition, there are other factors to keep in mind as well – namely, how you use your iPad.
If you’ve ever just left your iPad on (without using it), its battery life shoots up far past 10 hours. On the other hand, if you’re frequently playing games or movies while also leaving YouTube and Facebook open in the background, you could find your iPad’s battery drained in as little as two or three hours. Maybe even less than that!
In general, you should be concerned if your iPad battery is draining fast when you’re not actively using functions that suck up battery life. For example, imagine your battery is fully charged and you use Safari to browse the news for an hour. Yet when you get back, it’s suddenly around 50 percent or less. Let’s fix that, shall we?
What Causes an iPad Battery to Drain?
An iPad battery can drain for a number of reasons. Sometimes, the solution to your problem is obvious. For instance, if you have your display set to never lock automatically, accidentally leaving the screen on for too long may be the source of your worries.
Other times, however, this problem isn’t so easy to solve. When the answer doesn’t present itself immediately, your first step is to pay attention to the apps which are eating up the most battery. If you use an app frequently, it will likely consume a lot of your battery. Your best bet is to close them by pressing your home button or pulling up on a page, then swiping up to close it.
Still not solving the battery problem? Let’s go to the next step
Check iPad Battery Health
Knowing how to check your iPad’s battery health is crucial to ensuring its long life. To check your iPad’s battery usage, follow these steps:
Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Settings > Show Detailed Usage > Last 7 Days.
Once there, you’ll notice a few graphs which indicate which aspects of your iPad usage patterns are causing the most strain on your battery.
Common Fixes to iPad Battery Drain
Now that you know what’s causing your draining iPad battery, it’s time to figure out how to make it stop. Fortunately, the answer sometimes is easier and far less technical than you might imagine.
Disable Background App Refreshing
Remember those problematic apps that suck up your iPad’s battery even when you’re not using them? They should be your first stop when it comes to prolonging iPad battery life. While the easiest option is to just delete them, if you need them (or just want to keep them), there is still hope: You can simply disable Background App Refreshing.
Wait, what’s Background App Refreshing, you ask? Think about how your email app knows that you just received a new message. The app queries the email server every so often then sends you a notification once a new email hits your inbox. Convenient? Yes! A huge drain on your iPad battery? Also yes.
For essential apps like your email, allowing your apps to refresh in the background is incredibly helpful. Certain apps, however, may be doing it too often. In fact, you may have dozens of applications performing a background refresh unbeknownst to you every couple of seconds, ultimately killing your battery life.
To prevent an app from running background refreshes, go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh, then disable the function on problematic, battery-sucking apps.
Restart Your iPad
Turning something off then back on again is an oldie-but-goodie troubleshooting tip for a reason: It works. To restart your iPad and give it a fresh new start:
For an iPad without a Home button: Press and hold the Top button and Volume button at the same time until the Power Off slider appears, then drag it all the way to the right. To force restart, quickly press and release the Volume Up button. Then, quickly press and release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Power button until the device restarts.
For an iPad with a Home button: Press down and hold the Top button until the Power Off slider appears, then drag it all the way to the right. To force restart, press down and hold the Home and Top (or Side) buttons until the device restarts.
Update Your iPad
Similar to a good, old-fashioned restart, sometimes all it takes to fix the iPad is to install the latest iOS update.
To do that, go to Settings > General > Software Update, then install the update if one is available.
Reset Your iPad
Even after disabling background app refreshing and restarting or updating your iPad, it may still struggle with battery drain. When that happens, your last line of defense could be a clean slate. Or in other words, a factory reset.
To restore your iPad to factory settings, go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings > Erase iPad, then tap Erase iPad again to confirm.
Please keep in mind that a factory reset will restore your iPad to its original settings and delete absolutely everything on your device. So, only use a factory reset as a last-ditch effort.
If you do choose to go this route, make sure to move any important files off of your iPad and make sure you have a back-up copy of your device saved somewhere before you pull the trigger. Backup to a nearby computer, or maybe even the iCloud if you can. It’ll save you a burden later on!
How About a Portable Charger?
Sometimes the problem with keeping your iPad battery up and running is the inability to keep it charged over the course of the day. Not every place has a plug-in port handy (like, say, a restaurant or traveling on certain airlines), and your iPad could be running on empty before you know it. The solution? A portable charger!
Perhaps the best one for our money is the Anker Portable Charger, which is available for $59.99 over at Amazon. Featuring Ultra High-Cell Capacity that can charge your device up to four to five times before it runs out, it features two USB ports, so you can power up your cell phone and tablet at the same time. It also supports USB-C and Micro USB with their own individual ports, so it supports a number of devices.
Several other chargers are also available for a lower price, but when it comes to keeping your iPad running through even the longest of flights, you can’t go wrong with Anker.
Smaller Fixes?
Some technicians recommend trying a whole bunch of tiny fixes as well, like changing up the method for fetching emails or other obscure things. However, these small problems are almost never the cause of significant battery drain. If you have assessed your battery’s health and performed the four fixes above only to find that your iPad battery is still draining fast, you may just need a new battery.
How to Replace Your iPad Battery
Rechargeable batteries aren’t perfect. As they continue to run, they lose their capacity to hold a charge over time. So, if you’ve owned your iPad for a couple of years and have used it frequently during that time, you might just need a new battery. Unfortunately, while it’s a common repair, it is not a particularly easy one to carry out.
To replace an iPad battery, you need to first open up the iPad with specialized tools before carefully removing the old battery and swapping it for a new one. (In need of a repair kit? The ORIA Precision Screwdriver Set is an excellent choice — and you can use it to repair your iPhone or game consoles as well, if you’ve got the know-how!
If you don’t, however, there’s the chance that you damage your iPad irreparably if you do something wrong – not great when all you’re trying to do is fix your battery. So if you’re not repair savvy, take it to someone that is.
A popular solution is hiring a third-party technician to change out your iPad’s battery. Sadly, this can get costly, as an iPad battery costs around $25 and you then have to pay the technician another $50-100 to make the repair.
While you’ll almost certainly have fixed your iPad’s battery problems, the cost to do so might not be worth it for you, especially if your iPad is an older model.
Apple’s Solution for iPad Batteries
If your iPad is under its original warranty, or you opted to go for an extended AppleCare warranty, you’re in luck. You can make an appointment at the Apple store (depending how busy they are in these COVID times) and get your battery (actually, your entire iPad) replaced for free.
Please note that Apple will, in fact, check to make sure the problem with the battery was caused by something under warranty. If it wasn’t, you’ll have to pay for a battery replacement, which costs $99. That’s still cheaper than going third-party though.
Even if you don’t have any official support from Apple, you can still hire them to replace your battery. Just make an appointment, take your iPad into them, and you’ll have a fresh battery in three to five business days. So, while using Apple to replace your battery is usually slightly more expensive than using a third-party repair service, the peace of mind may be worth it.
An Alternative Solution: Sell Us Your Older iPad and Get a Brand-New One
If your iPad battery has been draining fast for quite some time, chances are you’re probably tired of it at this point Or, maybe you find it hard to justify a $100 repair for a device that could only cost a couple times that amount if you bought a brand-new one. Either way, we don’t blame you. Troubleshooting can be super annoying and time-consuming.
If you want to start from scratch, we’re here to help. Here at GadgetGone, we buy old iPads (along with smartphones, MacBooks, Apple Watches, and video game consoles) for top rates, getting you closer to a new device! Whether you choose to receive credit for your old iPad in cash or you decide to use it as a bonus towards purchasing a newer iPad, it’s a win-win!
Selling your iPad to GadgetGone is easy! Just follow these simple steps:
| Click here to go to our homepage. | |
| 1. | |
| 2. | Select your iPad generation. |
| 3. | Input a few more details about your iPad and its condition. |
| 4. | Get your offer instantly! |
After you’ve accepted the offer, shipping your iPad to us is a snap thanks to our prepaid shipping label. Simply toss your iPad into a box, put the shipping label on, and drop it off at your nearest post office.
When we receive your iPad, we’ll assess its condition within two to three business days and, if necessary, send you an updated offer (depending on any items you didn’t note in its condition). Once your final offer is accepted, all that’s left to do is sit back and wait to receive your PayPal payment, Amazon gift card, or check. (You can choose which method.)
If one of the iPad battery saver solutions above solved your battery life woes, we’ll let you get back to your movie streaming. If not, consider getting a new battery or selling us your iPad and upgrading to a brand-new one. Whichever you choose, you’ll soon be well on your way to enjoying your iPad without the fear of a dying battery!
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iPad battery not doing well? Sell your iPad to GadgetGone and upgrade!
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