strange charging issues

By Sabrina, 20 September, 2019

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hello all.
I have an iPhone SE and an iPad pro 9.7.
The iPad I have had for three years and the battery lasts long. Sometimes all through the day. The problem is that it takes several hours to recharge.
Then I have my iPhone SE that also takes ages to recharge. I had it since october last year.
Is this because they are outdated or should I get them checked?

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Comments

By Lukas on Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 17:36

Get a stronger charger. If you are using QI chargers or the standard weak 5W adapters that come packaged with the hardware when purchased, then it's no wonder it takes so long. I have personally started using the 30W USB-C adapter you can purchase separately from Apple as an extra accessory. I think these are being packaged with some macBook Airs, if memory serves. The only downside to this is that you also have to get an USB-C to Lightning cable. These are even stronger than the 18W adapters that seem to be shipped with iPads by default. With the 30W one, it really takes like two hours or two and a half at most to charge my iPhone XS Max from literally zero percent to full capacity. An older battery (which is the case with your iPad) is bound not to last for as long as when it was new any more, though. It might show a high percentage but that will keep dropping faster than it once used to. If the device still seems to take longer to charge than you'd like, it might help not to be using it while charging, and my personal best strategy is to simply plug it in over night and pick it up fully charged in the morning. That way, I don't have to care about anything through the day. I only have the XS Max, though. Not sure if your SE is going to be able to last an entire day without charging. That heavily depends on everyone's individual usage.
Lukas

By Sabrina on Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 17:36

I can use my iPad for about 8 hours when it has been fully charged. It just takes ages to charge.

By Justin on Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 17:36

Well, go into settings, scroll to battery, then go to battery health. There you'll see a percentage. As thomas demonstrates in his podcast on maximizing battery life, check the battery life percent. If it's near 80% then you'll want to either upgrade to a newer device, or get your battery replaced. But if it's just taking longer to charge, then get a higher power adapter. Anker sells some 2 port USB adapters that you can plug your device into to charge. They work well, when i use them.

By Ishkabibble on Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 17:36

I have an iPhone 8, so this might not apply as much for you, but Apple has built faster charging speeds into their newer phones, so long as you buy a higher-powered adapter. I'm not sure how many watts of power my phone is charging at but it's definitely extremely fast. You might want to purchase an 18-watt power adapter to charge your phone from instead of using the one that came in your phone's package, as that is only capable of slower charge speeds.

By KE7ZUM on Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 17:36

The ipad should take maybe 3 hours to charge. The SE is old so I would have the battery checked.

By OldBear on Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 17:36

You might also try gently cleaning the lightning ports on your devices with a wooden or plastic toothpick. Lint can get jammed in there and interfere with conductivity. Same with the USB port on the charger and other end of the cable.
The people at the Apple stores have a tool to do this, if your afraid.