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Magic Keyboard Battery Life
- Thread starter PhoneI
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It doesn’t have a battery - it is powered by the iPad Pro via the Smart Connector
The Magic Keyboard does not come with a battery. it works with three dot smart connectors on the iPad.
I’m having much worse battery life on my iPad Pro 12.9” 2018 since starting to use the magic keyboard. I’d say I’m getting about 2 hours less battery life on my iPad. I have rebooted my iPad Pro and I keep the keyboard backlighting off completely. Any ideas or suggestions?
I think it’s the trackpad, it seems to push the cpu to around 30% usage whenever I scroll around using it. I don’t see that when using my finger to swipe or otherwise interact with my iPad Pro 11 (2018).
I just got off the phone with Apple Support. I reported the excessive power drain and that I had read that other users with the same problem had reported that switching to another magic keyboard solved their power drain and thus there was probably a mechanical problem with their original unit. I had read this article http://ipadinsight.com/ipad-accesso...he-ipad-pro-looking-for-battery-life-answers/ on ipadinsight.com where the writer reported the same problem I’m having. They got another Magic Keyboard and had normal power drain.
In just typing and surfing for around an hour using the Magic keyboard backlighting off, my power drops about 15% which is way way more than what I would have with the smart keyboard.
Anyhow, Apple is sending me a replacement unit and once I receive it and test it I will send back the original. Thank goodness for Apple Support.
In just typing and surfing for around an hour using the Magic keyboard backlighting off, my power drops about 15% which is way way more than what I would have with the smart keyboard.
Anyhow, Apple is sending me a replacement unit and once I receive it and test it I will send back the original. Thank goodness for Apple Support.
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I’ve just posted that I contacted Apple Support about this same issue after having read a report from iPadinsight.com and using another magic keyboard showed no power drain. Based on that they are sending me another magic keyboard to exchange for the original. You should contact Apple Support.
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Yes I agree that it is the trackpad. If I just use the keyboard for typing and then use touch to control screen elements the power draw is normal. I suspect that there may be a electrical fault with my unit and when using the trackpad it draws excessive power or continues to draw power after being used for a while. I guess I’ll know when I get a new unit.
The iPad Pro 11 has a battery of 36.7wHr capacity and a rated battery life of 10 hours. That means it consumes about 3.6W of power under typical use. If the magic keyboard increases that by just 0.5W, that will cut battery life by 1.25 hours. I’d bet that with heavy trackpad use it’s much more like 1W, which would reduce battery life by over 2 hours - or 20%.
This seems well within what would be expected to me.
This seems well within what would be expected to me.
I will report back once the replacement arrives and I have enough time to test it to get a good idea of any improvement.
How to know If the issue is hardware or software...mone I’m getting 7-8 hours screen time with the magic keyboard.
I guess if you tried another magic keyboard and it was the same, chances are it is software. If another unit is significantly better, then more likely hardware. FedEx says my replacement should arrive today.
I’d like to offer a different understanding of the situation.
The Magic Keyboard uses the light sensor for auto-brightness. There’s a bug on iOS (on both platforms) where the light sensor gets stuck and the auto-brightness function stops working.
To get it back working again, you have to go to Settings/Accessibility/Screen/Auto-Brightness and turn it off and on again. This bug is on every iPhone and iPad that I had, maybe that’s the real issue here.
I can't say I am or have experienced that bug. I have, however, noticed a difference in battery life since getting the Magic Keyboard, but it doesn't seem like anything unexpected.
I really do hope its not a hardware issue with the magic keyboard, I don’t want to have to go through trouble of doing a warranty claim with apple. I did pick up a brand new 2020 iPad pro just to see if it was any better. I was getting about an hour more battery life with it. Makes sense the battery one my 2018 is at about 95%. On another note I was getting 1-2 hours less whenever I was using the Magic Trackpad 2 with my iPad Pro. I think the same thing happened even when I used a logitech mouse. I think its a software bug that hopefully apple can fix some day. I guess that’s price we pay for being able to use a trackapd or mouse.
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I still have the same worse battery life when I disable auto brightness so I don’t think that’s the issue here.
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I still have the same worse battery life when I disable auto brightness so I don’t think that’s the issue here.
Well I have the replacement magic keyboard now. I’ve been using it for 40 mins and battery has dropped only 100-98% with use. As I stated earlier, I don’t have the keyboard back lighting on at all. So far this seems more normal to me so far. I’ll report back after a bit more use.
Anybody turned off auto brightness and just adjust the keyboard backlit manually or does it still go up and down?
will test it tomorrow to see the differences.
will test it tomorrow to see the differences.
I just got off a call with Apple Support. They contacted me about the iPad Pro battery drainage problem I reported when using the original magic keyboard. They were requesting that I help them figure out what is happening as they would like more data to see why this is happening. They are asking, and I agreed, to keep a log of my usage and the battery % to see over the next hours the difference between the original magic keyboard and the new one. The new one with screen on time of 1hour 46 min dropped from 100% to 88%. So I’m back on the original magic keyboard now. I’m going to log screen on and off times with the battery % readings for them on the original and new magic keyboard. In the time it took me to type this short post, my battery dropped from 86% to 84%. Again this is with keyboard backlighting off.
I tried calling Apple about it but got nowhere, the person I spoke with didn't know about the magic keyboard at first then eventually just told me to go to Settings, Keyboards, Hardware Keyboard and adjust the slider, I tried explaining that that wasn't an adequate solution but I gave up on it eventually