How to know the charge cycles on your iPad and prolong battery life

In this post we are going to talk about the iPad charging cycles, a fundamental aspect in good performance and battery life. The batteries of our mobile devices are becoming more powerful and durable. However, they are subject to increasing demands, so users' concerns about their autonomy and longevity remain the same as always.

Unlike other Apple devices such as the iPhone or Apple Watch, the iPad It offers its users a lot of information about the characteristics and status of the battery. That is where we can also find the data related to the charging cycles.

What are the charge cycles of a battery?

It is known as the charging cycle. process by which all the energy of a fully charged battery is consumed. This concept should not be confused with "running out of battery", that is, leaving it at zero. For example, if we use half of the battery, charge until it reaches 100% and then consume again until it reaches half, we will have consumed an entire cycle.

The iPad battery comes equipped with a certain amount of milliamps (mAh), depending on the version. The higher this value is, the longer its useful life will be. It must also be said that this life can be longer or shorter depending on how each user treats it.

The big question is: How many charge cycles does an iPad have? If we take as reference the data provided by Apple's support service, the battery of this device is designed to offer 80% of the useful life after 1.000 cycles. Once this figure is exceeded, the recommendation is to replace the battery.

How to find out the charging cycles of an iPad battery

To access all the information we need about the iPad battery, there is two possible methods. We are going to show both below, so that everyone can choose the one that best suits them.

Method 1

This method is executed directly from the settings menu. These are the steps to follow:

1. To start, let's go to Settings menu of our iPad.
2. There we select the option "Privacy".
3. Then we go to the section «Analysis and improvements».
4. From the different options shown, we choose «Analysis data» and we look for the file there “log-aggregated”, which is usually located towards the end of the list. You have to copy the text from the file and paste it into the Notes app.
5. In the Notes document, press the three dots icon in the upper corner or use the key combination cmd +F to search for the following text: batterycyclecount. The number that appears at the bottom tells us the number of charging cycles.

Method 2

The other way we have to know the charging cycles of an iPad is to use a tool PowerUtil, which we find within the app Shortcuts (the download link, here). It works in the following way:

1. First we have to download the shortcut from the link indicated above and execute it. Normally, a window opens in settings where the entire process is explained. We close it by clicking "OKAY".
2. Then we go to the section «Analysis data» where is the file list “log-aggregated”. There we must choose the last one in the list, whose date is the most recent.
3. Next, we open the file and press the option "Share" through the icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
4. Then we press PowerUtil to start the battery analysis process in which we will know the total, consumed and pending charge cycles.

Tips to prolong the battery life of an iPad

Prolonging battery life is synonymous with extend the life of an iPad. And replacing the lithium-ion batteries in these devices is neither easy nor cheap. That is why it is so important to ensure that our battery is in good health. Just following a series of basic tips We are going to be able to increase its longevity considerably. We are talking about months, even years.

• Control the temperature. Excessive cold and excessive heat are natural enemies of batteries, which suffer notable deterioration in extreme thermal conditions.
• Avoid fast charging. Although it can be a useful resource on certain occasions, it means subjecting the battery to unnecessary stress.
• Reduce screen brightness, since this is the component that usually consumes the most battery. It is best to change the intensity of the screen brightness when light conditions change.
• Disable WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS when you don't need them.
• Turn off visual and sound effects. Most of them are totally expendable.
• Use the iPad's "battery saver mode." That's what it's for.