iPad Pro battery life crashed after 18.4

[epirali]

I have two iPad Pros (current gen) and both now barely last around 1.5-2 hours for exactly the same browsing and other light tasks that used to last throughout the day. This is a couple of days after update (for background process, also left them on overnight and plugged in), restarts, etc. I am a tech professionals so I have checked all the basics, and the battery is in great health (>96% as I use 80% charge limit). Something is broken/stuck and both (specially the 11") get warm to touch from reading pages on Safari (which they did not before), so some power management is not working.

Right now I just have used 50% of the charge on 13" iPad Pro in 1.5 hour of light web surfing.

Anyone else notice this dramatic (factor of 3 or more) loss of battery life?

 

[sdz]

My impression is that the battery life is generally not so good. I hope they update asap

 

[TacoFan]

Yeah I noticed a significant drop in battery life (pro m2)

Didn’t try to let it plugged in overnight though

 

[epirali]

Well I seem to have narrowed the incredible battery drain to Safari. If I am using other apps, watching videos, etc the battery drain is normal and no heat. But when I am using Safari with multiple tabs across the two devices the battery plummets at an incredible rate (more than 40% per hour).

I am surprised no one else is reporting this. I have turned off Firewalls and anything else that may be involved but no change.

 

[sdz]

safari it is also for me

 

[Isamilis]

Have you tried backup and erase all contents & settings? I updated my ipad pro and mini with no issues at all. Battery life is pretty good.

 

[epirali]

Have you tried backup and erase all contents & settings? I updated my ipad pro and mini with no issues at all. Battery life is pretty good.

I have not, I’d rather not go down the Microsoft standard approach to all problems just yet. I’m hoping it’s unknown power management bug, and it may be addressed in the incremental update.

 

[sdz]

I have not, I’d rather not go down the Microsoft standard approach to all problems just yet. I’m hoping it’s unknown power management bug, and it may be addressed in the incremental update.

exactly! I hate these kinds of "recommendations"

 

[epirali]

Update: I downloaded and tested DuckDuckGo browser and the battery drain immediately stopped. So it is definitely a bug in Safari and its power management.

 

[sdz]

Update: I downloaded and tested DuckDuckGo browser and the battery drain immediately stopped. So it is definitely a bug in Safari and its power management.

I will Wait for Bug fix in Safari

 

[FeliApple]

Update: I downloaded and tested DuckDuckGo browser and the battery drain immediately stopped. So it is definitely a bug in Safari and its power management.

That’s definitely odd! Safari has never brought about any battery life issues for me. Perhaps it’s a specific issue on iPadOS 18.4, but I haven’t seen it reported elsewhere. I’m running iPadOS 18.3 on my 11th-gen iPad and it’s fine.

 

[goldmac2006]

Update: I downloaded and tested DuckDuckGo browser and the battery drain immediately stopped. So it is definitely a bug in Safari and its power management.

Do you keep lots of apps open on your iPad Pro?

 

[goldmac2006]

exactly! I hate these kinds of "recommendations"

Agreeable I just don’t like when they suggest y’all to offload your apps automatically which offloads the ones you still need. It’s just annoying.

 

[epirali]

Do you keep lots of apps open on your iPad Pro?

This is a bit of a misnomer that gets repeated. Apps are not "open" on iPadOS/iPhoneOS. They are in a suspended state, with a stored state. They activate when you bring them to the front. So most applications do not use any power/battery, and there are services for background activity.

That’s definitely odd! Safari has never brought about any battery life issues for me. Perhaps it’s a specific issue on iPadOS 18.4, but I haven’t seen it reported elsewhere. I’m running iPadOS 18.3 on my 11th-gen iPad and it’s fine.

Yes, this is specific to 18.4 and Safari, and I have not had this issue before this version and now its on two M4 iPads.

 

[goldmac2006]

This is a bit of a misnomer that gets repeated. Apps are not "open" on iPadOS/iPhoneOS. They are in a suspended state, with a stored state. They activate when you bring them to the front. So most applications do not use any power/battery, and there are services for background activity.



Yes, this is specific to 18.4 and Safari, and I have not had this issue before this version and now its on two M4 iPads.

Do you use any intensive apps or games like Logic Pro, Final Cut, or any Apple Arcade games? Also, do you play games like PUBG or Asphalt?

The iPad Pro is great for these types of things, but running them for a long time can drain the battery.

Also, are you using the iPadOS version that’s currently in beta or the public release?

 

[epirali]

Do you use any intensive apps or games like Logic Pro, Final Cut, or any Apple Arcade games? Also, do you play games like PUBG or Asphalt?

The iPad Pro is great for these types of things, but running them for a long time can drain the battery.

Also, are you using the iPadOS version that’s currently in beta or the public release?

I am not running any betas, and AGAIN for clarification this problem is specific to using Safari. This is NOT a general issue with battery life, rather when browsing with Safari it almost seems like all processors are pinned, the unit gets hot while on idle pages (which are your basic non dynamic web pages) and drains the battery.

So this is Safari. And switching to another browser restores the normal life/usage of the iPad and the unit no longer gets warm to the touch.

 

[goldmac2006]

I am not running any betas, and AGAIN for clarification this problem is specific to using Safari. This is NOT a general issue with battery life, rather when browsing with Safari it almost seems like all processors are pinned, the unit gets hot while on idle pages (which are your basic non dynamic web pages) and drains the battery.

So this is Safari. And switching to another browser restores the normal life/usage of the iPad and the unit no longer gets warm to the touch.

My apologies, sir. Based on the initial post, does it take 90 to 120 minutes for the iPad to drain completely?

Could you please clarify if this happens when your iPad Pro is fully charged and then rapidly drains to a low percentage every time?

The heat generated while using the iPad and the degradation of the battery health to 96% prompt me to ask this question: how long have you owned this iPad Pro m4, on its launch day or a few months ago? How frequently do you use your iPad? Do you leave it off or idle every few days?

 

[epirali]

My apologies, sir. Based on the initial post, does it take 90 to 120 minutes for the iPad to drain completely?

Could you please clarify if this happens when your iPad Pro is fully charged and then rapidly drains to a low percentage every time?

The heat generated while using the iPad and the degradation of the battery health to 96% prompt me to ask this question: how long have you owned this iPad Pro m4, on its launch day or a few months ago? How frequently do you use your iPad? Do you leave it off or idle every few days?

Yes this happens reproducibly, every single time. I use both daily, and now I have to switch between them every couple of hours. Both are almost one year old and for that age that is not a lot of battery degradation (one has a cycle count of 207). The heat generation is BECAUSE some process related to Safari seems to be running wild, which would explain both the heat and the drain.

I am a professional developer (and have been for many years). I am more than familiar with troubleshooting, hardware health, power management, etc. Only thing I have not tried is to stop syncing both Safari bookmarks to the cloud, but the drain happens when Safari is in the foreground and active.

 

[goldmac2006]

Only thing I have not tried is to stop syncing both Safari bookmarks to the cloud, but the drain happens when Safari is in the foreground and active.

⚔️ seems like a red flag 🚩! I seen that it’s completely understandable if it’s logging stuff in beta versions, but I don’t do safari iCloud bookmarks.

Do you also have iCloud tabs and handoff?

 

[epirali]

I can confirm that iCloud safari sync indeed was the problem. The minute I turned off iCloud syncing for Safari both iPads reverted back to the normal drain for Safari usage.

I do not have handoff but do sync my bookmarks etc. It appears turning them off then back on hasn’t retrigerred the issue, but I’ll test that more later.

 

[sdz]

I can confirm that iCloud safari sync indeed was the problem. The minute I turned off iCloud syncing for Safari both iPads reverted back to the normal drain for Safari usage.

I do not have handoff but do sync my bookmarks etc. It appears turning them off then back on hasn’t retrigerred the issue, but I’ll test that more later.

where do you turn off that sync?

 

[epirali]

where do you turn off that sync?

Go to settings, you account name at the top, iCloud, select see all and find Safari.

 

[goldmac2006]

I can confirm that iCloud safari sync indeed was the problem. The minute I turned off iCloud syncing for Safari both iPads reverted back to the normal drain for Safari usage.

I do not have handoff but do sync my bookmarks etc. It appears turning them off then back on hasn’t retrigerred the issue, but I’ll test that more later.

Keep that syncing off and also bust out any other culprits that cause this battery drain, off that iPad.

Also try using other browsers.

 

[epirali]

Keep that syncing off and also bust out any other culprits that cause this battery drain, off that iPad.

Also try using other browsers.

Thanks but to be clear again this is not a generic "battery optimization" issue, there was/is a significant glitch/bug that is causing out of control battery drain. It is important to differentiate a power management/bug draining battery from generic battery optimization advice floating around.

Safari is usually incredibly power efficient.

 

[goldmac2006]

Thanks but to be clear again this is not a generic "battery optimization" issue, there was/is a significant glitch/bug that is causing out of control battery drain. It is important to differentiate a power management/bug draining battery from generic battery optimization advice floating around.

Safari is usually incredibly power efficient.

You cleared the cache and history off safari when you removed synced bookmarks and tabs iCloud, right?