Why Does My iPad Battery Drain So Fast? Tips to Fix this Problem!

In this article I am going to explain to you how to explain to you why your iPad Air battery drains so fast and what you can do to prevent this. You can actually prolong battery life and enjoy your iPad/iPhone more without sacrificing functionality.

Most battery issues is  related to the iPad’s iOS Software and Hidden Services

I know from my experience that battery issues are usually related to the iPad Air’s software. In this article I will give you a couple of efficient ways on fixing your iPad’s battery power, so it won’t run out of battery that fast.

For iOS 9, there is a section in Settings called Battery where you can find a lot of useful information, but that doesn’t actually help you prolong battery lifespan. This article is written for iOS 9 iPad and I promise that if you put these suggestions into practice, you will enjoy having a longer battery life.

For example: You might not know that your Apple devices, constantly monitors your location wherever you go. This GPS service is call – Location Services, you can disable it by going to Privacy -> Location Services. But I won’t recommend disabling it if you need to use Apps like Google Map and other map services. But having Location Services ON will slowly drains the battery very quickly.

Find out the REAL reasons why your Apple device’s battery goes out so quickly!

2. Hidden Location Services

It is important to mention right from the start that location services are very useful, so turning them off altogether is not actually a good idea. However, I will teach you how to be more selective with the apps that are asking for your location.

Some hidden services constantly drain battery power and it is very likely that you have never heard of them. Here is how to optimize the hidden location services to improve battery life.

Fixing location services can be a breeze and significantly prolong battery life

• Go to Settings, Privacy Tap onto Location Services
• Enabling Share My Location. This will allow you to share your location with your friends and family members. However, this option can be dangerous as it is what hackers use to trace you if they want.
• Scroll down and enable System Services. I’ll let you in a little secret here: the majority of these settings will send information to Apple about marketing and research. If you turn them off, nothing bad will happen with your iPad.

Therefore, disable all these options with the exception of “Find My iPad“, so that you can locate your iPad if it get stolen. If you don’t use your device’s pedometer then disable Motion Calibration & Distance as well. Again, your device will work just as before, so don’t be afraid to disable these features to prolong battery life.

• Go to Frequent Locations. Your iPad is tracing you wherever you go and records your location details. It is advisable to turn off Frequent Locations to maximize battery life.
• Scroll down and turn Status Bar Icon on. If your location is being used, you will see a little arrow next to your battery icon.
• You can also turn off location services for various apps you are using. For example, if an app is using your location, you will see a little purple arrow next to that app.
• Examine your apps and decide if they really need to know your location. For example, a gray arrow means that an app has been using your location in the last 24 hours. If you don’t need location services for a particular app then tap the app and select “Never” to stop it from tracing you.

Learn what Geo fences are

A geofence is basically an area around a location which can be used to send you alerts and notifications if you are near them. Although this might sound like a good idea, your iPad’s battery will be drained even more as the GPS is constantly busy, receiving alerts and looking for geofences. I personally recommend don’t use apps thave have geofences to prolong your device’s battery life.

2. Remember to close your apps

It is a good idea to close your apps once in a while to prolong battery life. Although Apple employees say this is not required, you wouldn’t be reading this article if they were right.

3. Diagnostics & Usage Data

This is quick and simple. Go to Settings and Privacy, scroll down and tap on the Diagnostics & Usage option. Pick Don’t Send to prevent your device sending info to Apple about how you use your iPad.

4. Push mail

If your email is switched to the “Push” mode, it means that your iPhone/iPad is constantly connected to the mail server, so when you receive a mail, it will immediately be displayed on your device

However, although this might be a good feature, it can drain your battery very quickly. An Apple pro explained to me that what your iPad does is to constantly “ask” the mail server if there is a new mail in the box. This might happen every second or few seconds and sends a constant amount of data (which requires more battery power). As a result, your battery dies quicker and you end up more frustrated.

Fixing Push Mail is easy

To solve this problem, all that you have to do is to change your setting from “Push” to “Fetch” which is far more economical. In other words, your iPad will check for a new email every 15 minutes or so, instead of every few seconds. Also, your device will verify the inbox when you open your email app as well. Here is how you can change to “Fetch” mode.

• Go to Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars and then Fetch New Data.
• Make sure that you turn off “Push” at the top of the menu.
• Scroll down and enable “Every 15 minutes” option under “Fetch“.

Although you might have to wait a few minutes for a new mail to arrive, this is a much better and more economical option. You will enjoy a longer battery life and still get your emails in your inbox regularly!

Keep in Mind That Apps Doesn’t Close Automatically When You Go Back to Home Screen

In fact, the apps go in a “suspended” mode which basically means that they are still loaded in the memory, so that you can open them quicker next time. However, many apps have bugs and crash on a regular basis. If some of the apps supposed to be closed, but they remained in the device’s memory and crash, this will significantly drain battery.  Additionally, an application that crashes might also heat up your iPhone or iPad.

Learn how to close your apps

Closing apps is very easy. All that you have to do is to double-click the Home Button and activate the App Switcher. This is basically a list of apps that are open and loaded into memory. Swipe apps left or right with your finger to explore how many apps you can possibly have open at the same time.

Closing the apps requires you to push it to the top of the screen with your finger. This prolongs battery life, prevents app crashes, doesn’t delete your data and frees up iPad memory. Simple and efficient!

Learn how to check out if apps are crashing on your iPad

Just go to Settings, Privacy, Diagnostics and Usage then Diagnostics and Usage Data. If you see an app frequently listed under Latest Crash then that app is very problematic and drains a lot of battery power.

6. Use only the notifications that you really need

It is very important to be careful next time when an app asks you to send push notifications. If you allow it, the app will run in the background and send you an alert for an event or accomplishment (particularly if you install games).

Being more selective with notifications is paramount to increase battery life

All that you have to do is to go to Settings, Notifications and explore the list of apps you have installed. Turn off apps which you don’t want notifications from. If you change your mind in the future, tap an app and choose “Allow notifications”.

Learn how to turn off your iPad in a correct manner

Powering off your iPad is a piece of cake. Just press and hold the power button and swipe the power icon when it appears on the screen. Do the same to turn it on and release the power button when the Apple logo appears. That is!

7. Learn about Background App Refresh

A lot of applications use your Wi-Fi or mobile data connection to transfer new data to your device. This obviously drains power and even MB of data if you are on a metered connection. To prevent this, you need to be more selective with the apps that feature what Apple calls “Background App Refresh”

Fixing Background App Refresh can save a lot of battery power

Just go to Settings, General, Background App Refresh and explore the options. You can either turn off this feature altogether or leave it on, but disable certain apps to use this feature.

8. Make sure that your Apple device remains cool

Your iPad or other Apple device is specially designed to run at a temperature between 32 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 to 35 degrees Celsius. Temperatures lower or higher than that and your battery can be damaged permanently.  To prevent this, make sure you don’t let your Apple device sitting in a hot car in the middle of summer.

Cold temperatures cannot damage the iPad’s battery

However, low temperatures can make the battery drain faster. In some cases, your iPad might stop working altogether. Once a normal temperature is reached again, the battery will function at normal parameters.

9. Turn off your iPad at least once a week

You might be happy to know that turning your Apple device off from time to time will also  improve battery life. This happens because after a prolonged period of usage, there might be a lot of underlying, hidden-in-the-background battery issues that drain power. When you restart your device, these issues will be erased, freeing up power for your device. However, make sure that you never push the power and the home button together because this will cause a hard reset.

10. Deactivate visual effects you don’t think are necessary

Visual effects are interesting and pleasant to the eye, but after a while they might become boring, not to mention that they actually drain a lot of battery power. The GPU (graphics processing unit) inside your Apple iPad makes those visual effects happen in the first place. However, these little pieces of hardware are also very resources-demanding. You might want to turn off some visual effects to prolong battery life.

To do this, all that you have to do is to go to Settings -> General ->Accessibility and activate the Reduce Motion option.

This saves battery power and allows you to enjoy your device for more hours every day.

11. Use iCloud to restore your iPad instead of using iTunes

It is a good idea to restore your iPad if the battery life still hasn’t improved in the last couple of days. However, make sure that you don’t restore it from an iTunes backup.

To be absolutely clear here, you need to use iTunes to restore your iPad Air. However, we are discussing about how to get data back into it after you have been restored it to factory settings.

A lot of people don’t know when to disconnect their iPad from computer. You can do that after you see the “Set up your iPad on iTunes” or “Hello” screens.

The next step is to use menus in order to link your device to the Wi-Fi network and restore from an iCloud backup.

Remember that iCloud and iTunes backups are pretty similar

These 2 types of backups feature the same type of content. However, it is recommended to use iCloud because it eliminates the likelihood of running into other types of problems when you perform a backup.

12. Restoring your iPad might get rid of deeply-rooted software issues

Sometimes customers still have problems with their iPad even after they have tried everything in the book. In this case, you might need to restore your iPad to factory settings. Basically, to the settings it had when you turned it on for the first time.

Don’t worry, this won’t take that long. You will be able to quickly add your mail accounts and iCloud service to your iPad after you have restored it to factory settings. In most cases, your contacts and reminders are stored in those accounts, so you will easily retrieve your personal information. You might also need to transfer back music to your iPad or download your favorite apps, but hey, at least you have eliminated deeply-rooted software problems once and for all!

13. Sometimes the iPad might have a serious hardware issue (nope, not necessarily the battery)

In most cases, battery life issues are related to software, but sometimes another piece of hardware in your iPad might be the culprit. For example, if you spill something on your iPad or drop it down, this might cause internal damages to components responsible with charging.

Try the battery test from Apple Store

Customers who bring their devices to the Apple store for a repair, the professionals out there run several check to determine the overall iPad’ss health. One of those tests is a simple battery test. During my career at Apple, I’ve literally seen just 2 iPad failing the battery test. All other iPad (and I saw lots of them) had issues related to the software, not the battery.

However, even if your iPad passes the battery test, Apple won’t give you a new battery. Even if the warranty is still active, you will eventually be asked to try the steps I described in this article.

Conclusion

Hopefully you’ve learned a lot by reading this article. It was a joy for me to write it and I am thankful that you have read it completely. Pass on the information to your friends and don’t forget to leave me a message about how you fixed your iPad’s battery problems. I’ll gladly help you if it is necessary!