How to Check Your iPad’s Battery Health and When to Replace It

Age does not leave batteries unscathed. Then not only does it have to be charged more often, because the capacity can decrease – the performance can also suffer.

With the iPhone, you can see how much capacity the battery has left by looking at the battery settings. Even those who own a newer iPad Pro (M4), iPad Air (M2 and M3), iPad mini (A17 Pro) or an iPad (A16) can watch there. With older iPads, however, a trick is necessary, reports “Computer Bild” (issue 10/25):

Via detours to the battery check goal

• Go to “Privacy & Security” in the settings
• Select “Analysis & Improvements”
• Activate the “Share iPad analysis” item
• Now click on the share icon (the box with an arrow sticking out of it) and send the analysis data to your own email address. Attention: There are several analysis files to be found there. It is the one that begins with the name “analysis”.
• This file can only be found if the slider for “Share iPad Analysis” is activated and if an analysis file has already been written. This may take a while. If you can’t find the file, just try again later.

Open analysis data file in word processor

The attached file of the e-mail is now opened with a word processing program, for example the Notepad from Windows, or Pages, OpenOffice and Co.

Now search for the term “MaximumCapacityPercent” in the document. The number given there after the colon stands for the remaining capacity of the battery, based on 100 percent.

If the battery condition is less than 80 percent of the maximum capacity, the computer magazine recommends replacement. Apple also cites this value as a limit for a replacement. The cost of this can vary depending on the model. A battery replacement for the current iPad Mini costs about 135 euros, for the larger iPad Air it is 169 euros, for the large iPad Pro 225 euros.

Doesn’t work? There are also programs from other providers

If all this is too complicated, or the analysis file does not appear, there are two programs, “CoconutBattery” or “iMazing”, that can also read analysis data from the device. To do this, download the program from the manufacturer’s website on Mac or PC, connect the iPad via cable and follow the instructions on the screen. In “iMazing”, for example, you have to look at “Battery diagnostics”.