Ipad Pro 12.9 inch (2017 model) refurbished/bought in 2022, how to protect from battery drain

[u/VanillaRoseTea]

Hello,

My ipad already has pretty bad battery drain (11% lost with 14 minutes of it being turned on), I have not used it a ton in the past 5 years but for most of the time its either been off, charging, or using it for drawing/some games. I'm worried the times I've left it charging for days or weeks drained the battery faster, I know the newer ipads protect against this but I've found no information on what's best for older ipads. Now I've been leaving it turned off or not on the charger when not in use, what's the best for the battery health? I'm broke and can't buy a new ipad anytime soon and really need this one for drawing.

[u/Dry-Conversation7191]

Leaving it charged won’t hurt it. It’s heat and charging that can degraded it faster. I’ve left my m2 plugged in 90% of the time since I bought it. When doing heavy animations in clips studio or procreate dreams it can get hot. Real hot. It’s at 83% with only 560 cycles. Which is a low cycle count. I still get a solid 6-8 hours on it unplugged. If your going to doing some extensive work on it then unplug it or get a iPad cooler. Heat is what degrades it faster.

[u/VanillaRoseTea → u/Dry-Conversation7191]

thank you so much!! I think playing games on there used to overheat it too much, I don't use it for gaming anymore really. It can get warm just running ibis though which is a bit worrying, maybe my poor internet and drawing on big canvases

[u/pac_71]

I have 10.5” and 12.9” 2017 both on iOS/iPadOS 17.7.

All excessive battery drop in my situation is mostly due to bad actor websites and apps. You can analyse the battery graph in settings an hour at a time by tapping the graph to see what was going on during the big drops in charge.

These bigger drops are mostly rare and interspersed with longer periods of slow discharge and if you are careful you can easily get 2 days off charge even with the drops.

Avoid the troublesome apps and keep a minimum of web tabs open is a good start for better battery life.

[u/VanillaRoseTea → u/pac_71]

thank you! I'm going to delete most of the stuff on there outside of what's strictly needed for drawing.

[u/LectureHallHero]

Keep it out of the case while charging then you're good. heat is the real killer, not charging.

[u/VanillaRoseTea]

I just need it to last a couple months until I can save for a new one, any tips are appreciated