IOS 18.x IPad Mini 6 Battery charge

[Hermann]

Since the update to IOS 18.x, the battery of the iPad Mini has suffered drastically. 18 hours of continuous streaming reduces the charge to 9% from 97% previously. There are a few questions posted online about the rapid discharge, so this seems to be a common problem.

I'm not sure how it behaved under IOS 17.x. But due to the fact that this occurred right at the start of IOS 18.x, I don't think it was relevant.

Under IOS 16.x, the battery lasted significantly longer, which often surprised me. A charge was necessary perhaps every 3 weeks. Our behavior regarding the length of music sessions has not changed.

Has anyone noticed this behavior of the iPad Mini 6?

[David Neel]

Has anyone noticed this behavior of the iPad Mini 6?

I've always just charged when needed, not thought about how long it lasts. But yes, recently it's a LOT more frequent...

[matthias]

I always have "Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode" enabled when unplugged.
With this setting background refresh for all apps is also disabled.

[tokenbrit]

I tend to leave mine plugged in when not using it -hopefully not a bad thing... It seems to do quite well unplugged if nothing is running, but the drain does seem quite quick when in use.

There are plenty of articles about iPhone/iPad settings to extend battery life - I disabled background refresh for all apps, and make a point of stopping apps when not actively streaming.

[lejonklou]

I have not noticed any change in battery drain on my iPad mini 6.

I would check under Settings - Battery which app is consuming the most. Is something running that you weren’t aware of?

[Hermann]

After the updates, no changes were made to the setup. Energy saving mode was never activated either. In the settings, all unnecessary activities that I can think of are disabled, except for background activities. Although the description says there is no need to explicitly stop apps, as iOS automatically puts them into sleep mode when not in use. However, only Spotify is running on the iPad and no other app is active.

Background activities are now disabled. Under battery settings, Spotify is shown as 98% and the screen as 2%.

iPads obviously react differently, as the rapid discharge was immediately visible after the update.

[Hermann]

After further research, I hope that the iOS 18 will soon complete the learning process for app usage in terms of battery and will reach the same performance capacity as before. I don't believe this advice, but I'm being patient. After more than two months and almost daily use, this learning process should have been completed long ago.

By the way, the iPad mini 6 doesn't show any battery capacity.

[lejonklou]

Played for hours on the iPad mini 6 to Källa today on the lab. The battery appears to drain as much as it has always done.

But then I have always felt that the battery life of this unit is rather limited. Far from how long big iPads last and my phone also appears to be lasting a lot longer.

Perhaps we can make a comparison between our mini 6's? If we charge to 100%, close all apps except Spotify and play for 3 hours straight with screen mainly off - what charge is left then?

Strange that there is no 'Battery health' under Settings-Battery on iPadOS.

[willem kuis]

Hi Fredrik,

I just tried this on my mini 6, and there’s 90% left after 3 hours continuous playing

[tokenbrit]

Not a proper comparison; just a data point to add: streaming music for an hour or so while doing a workout so Spotify in background with the screen & BT connections on for the workout... I don't know how accurate the battery usage reporting is on a Mini 6, but it attributed no more than 2% to Spotify in the hour (lower than I expected)

I'll report numbers when I do the comparison properly to Fredrik's guidelines.

[Spannko]

I’ve also noticed that my iPad Pro 11” is losing charge very quickly just recently. I put it down to it being an older model and that maybe the battery is starting to fail. But it’s quite possible that the problem is related to an iOS upgrade too.

[Hermann]

The scenario suggested by Fredrik produced an interesting result on my iPad Mini. After 3 hours of music, the charge level was at 98%. The battery is obviously now "tuned". That would be very welcome indeed.

I'll repeat the test tomorrow.

[lejonklou]

iPad mini 6 on iPadOS 18.3 charged overnight to 100%.
No power save mode.
All apps closed except Spotify.
Streaming with Källa from my Liked playlist for 3 hours. Switched the screen on only once for 5 seconds.

Battery 99%

Huh! I thought it would be a lot lower.

Battery use:
Spotify 93%
Home and lock screen 6%
Find (background activity) 1%

[Hermann]

One day later,, the charge was at 95%, after 3 hours of playing it was at 76%. Apparently the charge level display is not linear, because from around 90% the charge drops rapidly. This morning it was at 67% even though the iPad was not being used. Obviously not tuned.

[tokenbrit]

iPad Mini 6, strong WiFi6 signal.
Playlist (4hr) started while charging (@ 100%); unplugged & ensured the screen was off... After 3 hours, battery @ 99% (Spotify 100%)

[lejonklou]

One day later,, the charge was at 95%, after 3 hours of playing it was at 76%. Apparently the charge level display is not linear, because from around 90% the charge drops rapidly. This morning it was at 67% even though the iPad was not being used. Obviously not tuned.

I agree, the displayed charge level is far from linear. An overnight charge to 100% makes it last much longer than my usual shorter top ups to above 90.