While it is extremely easy to read the percentage of battery capacity on the iPhone, this function is unfortunately missing on the iPad. But there is a trick how you can still get this information.
In the wake of the Batterygate scandal in 2018, Apple provided iPhone users with a handy overview of battery health. Unfortunately, since the iPad was not affected by the controversy, this option is missing from the settings. However, since iPadOS is only a branch version of iOS, information about the iPad battery capacity can also be found here – albeit somewhat hidden.
How to find out the iPad battery capacity
Note: We recommend using an external keyboard for this guide. It doesn’t matter whether this is connected via Bluetooth, USB-C/Lightning or the SmartConnector. It is only required for a key combination.
Here you will find a brief summary of the instructions as a video:
1. Open the iPadsettings.
2. Scroll down until you get to the point privacy arrive and select it
3. Choose the option Analysis & Improvements out.
4. Make sure that in the next step the option Share iPad analysis is activated.
5. Click analysis data.
6. Select one of the entries that has one of these shapes:
log aggregated–xxxx-xx-xx-xxxxxx.ips
Analytics-xxxx-xx-xx-xxxxxx.ips.ca.synced
The “x” stand for the date and time when the log files were created.
7. Copy the content of the log file using the key combination cmd–c on the connected keyboard.
Alternative: If you don’t have an external keyboard, you can also send the log file to a computer via email or AirDrop. There you can simply open the file with the pre-installed text editor.
8. Paste the copied text into a text editing app. We recommend the pre-installed Notes app or Apple Pages.
9. In the Notes app, click the circular menu button.
10. Choose the option Seek out.
11. Now you have the following options:
- Give MaximumCapacityPercent as a search term to find out what percentage of its original capacity the iPad battery still has. The percentage can be found after the colon.
- Give NominalChargeCapacity to find out how much capacity the iPad battery still has in milliampere hours (mAh).
Instructions for checking the battery capacity of the iPhone can be found here.
What does this information mean?
The maximum capacity in percent indicates how much of the original capacity of the battery is still available. The lower this number, the shorter the battery life. With each charging cycle, the iPad loses a little battery capacity. The battery can then store less electricity and has to be charged more frequently. If at some point it can no longer hold its voltage, this can even lead to system crashes in extreme cases. Apple itself guarantees that iPad batteries will still last after 1000 full charge cycles reach 80 percent of their original capacity – by the way, that’s twice as many cycles as with the iPhone.