iPad Users Reporting Nearby AirTags Causing Battery Drain on Their Devices

Many iPad users are reporting an issue where having an AirTag registered to your Apple ID in close proximity to your iPad results in unusually high battery drain.

“The past months I’ve been wondering why my iPad Pro always needed to be recharged when I used to use it without charging for weeks,” said Philipp Defner over at Annoying Technology.

Defner shared a screenshot of background activity from Apple’s Find My app accounting for 34% of the battery his iPad Pro discharged over 25 minutes of screen off time.

Image: Annoying Technology

Several other users on the Apple Support Community, the MacRumors Forums, and Reddit have reported seeing similar levels of battery drain, even with their iPads sitting idle overnight. The reports date all the way back to shortly after the AirTag’s release.

Apple launched the AirTag for $29 USD ($39 CAD) in April of last year as a tracking device to help customers locate items using the company’s Find My network, which boasts over one billion Apple devices globally.

AirTags are designed to communicate with other Find My devices over the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol. This means that your iPad communicating with an AirTag registered to your account shouldn’t use up much of your battery, so what affected iPad users are seeing is likely a bug.

If it is a bug, Apple can be expected to address it in a future software update. That said, the tech giant is yet to officially acknowledge the existence of this issue.

Apple’s AirTags have waded through troubled waters as of late after successive reports of the coin-sized tracking pucks being used to stalk individuals or even mark and track cars for theft.

Apple last month announced a slew of privacy and anti-stalking improvements for the AirTag, due to ship in an upcoming software update.

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