iPad Pro Pencil losing connection and sudden reboots--reinstall PadOS or...?

[Makosuke]

Setup: Brand new iPad Pro 2020 11” and brand new Apple Pencil 2. PadOS fully up to date. More or less the only things installed on the iPad are default apps, Skype, and Clip Studio Pro. iPad is set to Indonesian region.

Problem: The iPad has been losing connection with the Apple Pencil every day or two. Sticking the Pencil to the side of the iPad doesn’t work. Opening up the Pencil settings in the Settings app generally will get it working again. Apparently Wifi was dropping out occasionally as well, but the internet tells me that’s not unusual with iOS 14 and some routers, so may be a red herring. I was suspecting maybe it was wireless interference...

Until today, when the iPad spontaneously rebooted when the user brought up the Settings app. It’s working again now, but in 7 years of using iOS daily I’ve seen maybe two kernel panics.

So now I’m down to:

1. Pencil is a lemon and somehow managed to crash PadOS.
2. iPad is a lemon and needs to be repaired.
3. The OS install is hosed somehow.

Complicating things I’m helping a friend and collaborator remotely, so I can’t mess with it directly, and they’re in Indonesia which has a miserably bad Apple presence (no first-party service in the country).

Is there an easy way to do a PadOS reinstall to rule that out before going the hardware service route? The only computer available is a garbage Win10 laptop.

Any other suggestions that I’ve overlooked? I’m assuming this is not just teething problems with the new(-ish) version of PadOS, since I couldn’t find other complaints about similar issues.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I would try wiping the iPad, put it in recovery mode, and set up as new. If it still acts the same way, I would rule out a corrupt user iCloud account and try setting up a new user account. If that fails, replace the pencil.

 

[Makosuke]

I would try wiping the iPad, put it in recovery mode, and set up as new. If it still acts the same way, I would rule out a corrupt user iCloud account and try setting up a new user account. If that fails, replace the pencil.

Restoring from Recovery Mode was going to be my next recommendation. I figure if that doesn't resolve the problem, it's got to be hardware. Although it seems a lot more likely to be the iPad than the Pencil--what could even a malfunctioning Bluetooth device do to kernel panic the entire OS?

I'm skeptical that the iCloud account could be doing much since it as well is brand new--created less than a month ago, and literally just used for a couple of app downloads and iCloud Drive.

 

[AutomaticApple]

Restoring from Recovery Mode was going to be my next recommendation. I figure if that doesn't resolve the problem, it's got to be hardware. Although it seems a lot more likely to be the iPad than the Pencil--what could even a malfunctioning Bluetooth device do to kernel panic the entire OS?

I'm skeptical that the iCloud account could be doing much since it as well is brand new--created less than a month ago, and literally just used for a couple of app downloads and iCloud Drive.

Recovery Mode is your best bet at this point. I wish you luck!

 

[Makosuke]

Just following up on this, it turns out that the problem apparently wasn't any of the above!

The user had a silicon case on the iPad, which was as best I can guess interfering with the Pencil's pairing when attached to the iPad.

Honestly, it makes no sense to me that this would be the symptoms. Nonetheless, the problem stopped when the case was removed and hasn't reoccurred after a couple of days of use, so unless this was a fluke period of good luck, I can't argue with the empirical evidence.