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iPad mini iPad Mini with retina display, battery life help

I

ipadminigirl

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 10, 2014
9
0
Hi all,

I have an ipad min with retina display. I got it for my birthday in December. I was averaging 15 hours of usage and 3 days of standby with 30% battery left. Now I'm getting a day of standby and 12.hours of usage. This began to happen at the beginning of May. I noticed it after I bought a game. The battery was draining quickly. I beat the game and deleted it. I also detected the apps I don't use. The battery life seems to have gotten worse after the 7.11 update. I have did resets and a few discharges and recharges too. No change. It seems to drop 6% an hour. Right now it's at 7 hrs 52 mins usage 1 day 13 hrs standby 46%. Any advice on how to extend my life. I've cut off app refresh Bluetooth lowered brightness etc. I shouldn't have to charge it everyday. I want to be able to keep my ipad for a few years
 
ipadminigirl said:
Hi all,

I have an ipad min with retina display. I got it for my birthday in December. I was averaging 15 hours of usage and 3 days of standby with 30% battery left. Now I'm getting a day of standby and 12.hours of usage. This began to happen at the beginning of May. I noticed it after I bought a game. The battery was draining quickly. I beat the game and deleted it. I also detected the apps I don't use. The battery life seems to have gotten worse after the 7.11 update. I have did resets and a few discharges and recharges too. No change. It seems to drop 6% an hour. Right now it's at 7 hrs 52 mins usage 1 day 13 hrs standby 46%. Any advice on how to extend my life. I've cut off app refresh Bluetooth lowered brightness etc. I shouldn't have to charge it everyday. I want to be able to keep my ipad for a few years
Click to expand...

Sounds like awesome battery life to me....not sure why the complaints?
 
Dropped 3 percent since post.

It's dropped 3 percent in 15 mins from just reading that can be normal. Will I get 5 yearsish out of my ipad if it's charged everyday?
 
ipadminigirl said:
It's dropped 3 percent in 15 mins from just reading that can be normal. Will I get 5 yearsish out of my ipad if it's charged everyday?
Click to expand...

Don't worry about the percentage points, just enjoy it. The odds are probably against the iPad's batter lasting 5 years. My cell phone which gets used every day and charged every day, its battery starts showing wear and tear after 2 years
 
The iPad Mini Retina has the best battery life of every iPad running iOS 7.1/7.1.1. But if you wish to squeeze extra life, turning off push notifications work, also did you happen to turn up the brightness?
 
sherlockeb said:
Hey what's you brightness level??
Click to expand...

I keep it at lass than 40

----------
maflynn said:
Don't worry about the percentage points, just enjoy it. The odds are probably against the iPad's batter lasting 5 years. My cell phone which gets used every day and charged every day, its battery starts showing wear and tear after 2 years
Click to expand...
Hopefully I can get a few good years out of it. 550 bucks isn't cheap.
 
Help iPad mini with has good battery life for an hour bag then the battery drains

Hi everyone, I don't know if you see my post about my iPad batteries battery life I was getting 15 hours after the 15 hours my battery would be at 30%. no, after I charge it it stays at percent for about an hour and 20 minutes. Then after that it starts to drop off draining 6% an hour. Sometimes more. I have done everything shut off everything done resets I don't know what else to do people on the forum tell me I'm being paranoid but this can't be normal. I went from 85% to 83% in the few minutes just typing this post. It's the new iPad mini with retina display and I've only had it since December. This problem started at the end of last month
 
Excessive battery drain can be caused by many factors.

1) How many background apps do you have running?
2) Do you have App refresh running in the background?
3) What's the brightness level?
4) If you are listening to audio, how high is the volume?
5) Did you try a hardware reset? Home + Power button?

http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipad.html
 
Rodster said:
Excessive battery drain can be caused by many factors.

1) How many background apps do you have running? None
2) Do you have App refresh running in the background? No
3) What's the brightness level? Below 40
4) If you are listening to audio, how high is the volume? Not listening to anything
5) Did you try a hardware reset? Home + Power button? Yes

http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipad.html
Click to expand...
idk what to do
 
Check your apps and see if any have push notification enabled i.e. Mail apps, news reader as well as social type apps that alert you to messages or alerts.
 
Try running down the battery until it shuts off, and then recharge it back to 100%. That should help caliberate the battery meter.

But it's normal for the battery usage to vary quite a bit. Like your example of the battery going from 85% to 83% while you were typing your post -- that by itself tells us nothing about how your battery is doing. The thing to do is to start with your iPad at 100% battery, and keep using it like normal until you get the 5% left warning. Then check Settings > General > Usage > Time Since Last Full Charge. If that is less than nine hours, you might want to call Apple. And btw, this is a new iPad? Is it still under warranty?

Also, a battery saving tip for iOS 7.
Check Settings > General > Background App Refresh, and turn off all apps other than the ones you absolutely know that you want them to be refreshing in the background.
 
Last edited:
I didn't see your post sorry like 9ish hours if I don't fully drain it. It just seems drastic to go from 15 to that
 
ipadminigirl said:
I didn't see your post sorry like 9ish hours if I don't fully drain it. It just seems drastic to go from 15 to that
Click to expand...

15 is insanely good. 11-10 hours is about normal. 9 is pushing the edge of acceptable. If it bothers you, you should call Apple. If they think that's outside the acceptable range, they'll replace it. But I'm not sure if 9 hours will be considered acceptable or not.
 
TWO2SEVEN said:
I turn off the battery percentage on my phone and iPad. It's easier to just use it until it needs to be charged.
Click to expand...

This.

The battery percentage meter calibrates based on an algorithm of usage up to that point. It uses this algorithm to estimate the percentage of the battery, and that doesn't always mean it's accurate.

You're talking about 15 hours of usage, which is excellent. Go turn off the percentage and stop stressing over your iPad that's working perfectly.

The amount of people that attempt to find something wrong when there's no real issue is simply astounding.
 
If you are that worried, do as what others mentioned. Turn off the battery percentage display and just use your device. Stop stressing over battery life.
 
A possible explanation for the shorter battery life are "runaway" apps using more memory than normal. If you're really concerned, I would do a clean install.

Honestly, the battery life isn't so horrible that it's unusable, so I'll say live with it and wait for the next iOS update.
 
Rodster said:
Check your apps and see if any have push notification enabled i.e. Mail apps, news reader as well as social type apps that alert you to messages or alerts.
Click to expand...

Push notifications do not drain the battery.
 
And really, stop closing your background applications. This is NOT a good idea. Further, to agree with what's already been said, 9 hours is pretty good battery life. 15 was insanely good, but honestly, you're now complaining that your previously above expected battery life has dropped closer to normal in 6 months of use. Batteries are consumable items, you can hope to get a few years out of your device, but you need to realize that batteries are going to wear out.

http://lifehacker.com/quitting-apps-in-ios-actually-worsens-battery-life-1560086834
 
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