Dead Apple Pencil

[The-Pro]

Greetings,
So i purchased an Apple pencil with my 12.9" ipad pro quite a while ago and I used it back then briefly, I ended up misplacing the pencil and have now again found it.

Im currently trying to use it but it seems to have a problem with the battery.
When I plug it into the ipad it connects and disconnected constantly every few seconds. The widget briefly shows the battery %, it quickly climbs to 100% after a few connects and disconnects but when i unplug it it doesnt connect anymore. After plugging it in again it shows a message that the Apple pencil battery is low at 1%.
I have all ready left it plugged in to the ipads charger through the adapter for nearly an hour.

Is it possible that the battery has been bricked by it not being used in probably like a year? Doesn't make sense to me as the battery should have an under voltage cut off to prevent this from happening...

Any advice?

cheers

edit, it is now saying 3% every time I plug it into power and it connects. It has not been going above that.

 

[bensisko]

Did you try restarting the iPad? Early on I had a connection issue similar to what you are describing and the solution ended up being to restart the iPad.

 

[mmomega]

Exact. Same. Problem today.
Going to take it to Apple tomorrow I think and see if they'll switch her out.

Again.... exact same issues.

 

[The-Pro]

At least im not alone

I did restart the iPad yeah. It didn't help sadly. Had the pencil on charge (well, plugged in) all night and its not changed. Its just not charging. From my knowledge with batteries this means the cell is dead. Im amazed this can happen though from not using it. Li-ion batteries even when at an empty state should be break if kept at that state for long periods of time.

Ive been reading about quite a lot of people having the pencil replaced due to failing batteries...

Flying to the other side of the world tomorrow, maybe I can get it exchanged there as getting an appointment at the genius bar where I am is impossible.

 

[bensisko]

At least im not alone

I did restart the iPad yeah. It didn't help sadly. Had the pencil on charge (well, plugged in) all night and its not changed. Its just not charging. From my knowledge with batteries this means the cell is dead. Im amazed this can happen though from not using it. Li-ion batteries even when at an empty state should be break if kept at that state for long periods of time.

Ive been reading about quite a lot of people having the pencil replaced due to failing batteries...

Flying to the other side of the world tomorrow, maybe I can get it exchanged there as getting an appointment at the genius bar where I am is impossible.

You don't necessarily need an appointment. With something like that they should accept a walk in - they're not going to repair it.

 

[The-Pro]

You don't necessarily need an appointment. With something like that they should accept a walk in - they're not going to repair it.

Walk ins are worse here. I went there recently, all I needed was a new cable for my Beats solo 2 headphones because the cable was defective when I took it out of the box, at 9:45am, 15mins after store opening and there was a waiting time for walk ins of 2 hrs all ready!!! If you go mid day you need to wait until the evening, its silly. So I asked really politely and that all I want is a cable and I will pay for it if necessary (I couldnt be bothered with waiting plus another 1hr drive) but there was no way, I had to wait. After asking why on earth they dont sell replacement audio cables he told me to order a fake one from amazon so I did.
Ill see how it is when im in Australia

 

[Donka]

I have the exact same issue with my pencil. Did you get it swapped out okay?

 

[Donka]

Took mine to an Apple Store today and they swapped it out for a brand new retail unit even though mine was out of warranty.

 

[The-Pro]

So I called apple support and he briefly put me on hold, then came back about 2 mins later saying they will send me a replacement unit for no cost! Pretty awesome considering its over a year old and out of warranty.
Its arriving tomorrow! (should have been here yesterday but they never sent the link for me to pay the deposit)

My guess is apple has an unofficial exchange program as the dying battery seems to be quite common.

 

[jyperjp]

Same thing happened to me. Went to the Apple store today and the nice staff person said Apple charges $80 for a replacement since it is (3 months) over warranty coverage. I suppose that is a break from the retail price but what is to stop this dead battery issue from occurring again, probably (knowing my luck) just after warranty expiration?

 

[The-Pro]

80????? You dont even get a years worth of warranty with the replacement, my replacement has 90 days warranty and thats it. Now I know I got it for free but it would be no different for you. Id be inclined to pay 20$ more for a years worth of warranty to be honest, especially if you consider they seem to die rather easily...

 

[davidrichter]

My Pencil died too. First i had issues with short connection dropouts while drawing. Then the Pencil disconnected for longer times. I tried charging to 100 after full discharge in the hope it would do some kind of "restart". Rebooted iPad a dozen times and tried to reconnect the pencil. Now it seems completely dead, just few months after the guarantee ended. An over 100,-€ Stylus really should last longer.

 

[Larrupin]

Same issue here - just got back from Apple Store and they confirmed it is dead - 14 months after purchase and 5 of those it wasn't used at all. It is great when it works but not worth $100 a year. I was hoping I could get a replacement, or some kind of deal, since it wasn't very far out of warranty but no dice. Very disappointing for a device with such promise from a company which usually does not skimp on quality.

 

[mattdeezy]

I know you have all probably tried this, but I thought mine was dead. Plugged it in and it wouldn’t charge. Fixed it by leaving it plugged in and connecting to it in Bluetooth settings on the iPad.

 

[Jertom]

Same here, pencil became useless somewhere between 10 and 14 months when most of its time was spent sitting untouched in its box. Battery dead and showing 3%.
The Apple genius seemed surprised too that their product was dead so quickly but could only "offer" a repair costing close to the price of a new pencil (90 USD).

I would expect a longer lifespan for this pencil whether it is used daily or packed in the box. Definitely not willing to buy a new one every year.

 

[jetjungle1]

Same here, pencil became useless somewhere between 10 and 14 months when most of its time was spent sitting untouched in its box. Battery dead and showing 3%.
The Apple genius seemed surprised too that their product was dead so quickly but could only "offer" a repair costing close to the price of a new pencil (90 USD).

I would expect a longer lifespan for this pencil whether it is used daily or packed in the box. Definitely not willing to buy a new one every year.

[doublepost=1504034259][/doublepost]I am a designer who uses an apple pencil for work. I have 2 dead ones here and after hours online with apple the best they can do is offer me full price replacements. thanks apple! these are $100 ea items and I have 2. one never used until i opened the package recently because i needed my 'backup'. both dead with very little/ no use... what a joke. the only reason i bought the ipad pro was the pencil, and now I have 2 $100 plastic sticks/ $1000 ipad... not. unacceptable. at. all. please step up apple. this kind of thing makes you look like samsung....

 

[jetjungle1]

OK- all is forgiven and Apple is once again the best co. on earth. new pencils are in hand and working great. No Charge. So happy!
Thanks Apple for owning this! (still hate that I had to go through a few long, arduous calls to get there.. but so it is...)

 

[pat500000]

There's newer version? Or are you saying they are replacing under 1 yr warrenty.

 

[Cheesybugger]

Thankfully the warranty is two years here in France as mine has died on me. Calling them tomorrow to see what they say. I don’t really fancy the hour 45 drive all the way to my nearest Apple store which will cost me half of the price of the pencil in tolls, parking and fuel

 

[Cheesybugger]

So after a couple of very long calls talking to some Apple guy in Portugal apparently, thankfully they called me, I finally got them to agree that EU consumer law states that they have to give two years warranty and not their standard one year. My replacement pencil arrived today via UPS and the dead one went back to Apple.

What annoys me is only last month my closest (three hour round trip so not close) Apple store replaced my faulty iPad Pro under warranty without any hesitation but the online staff tried to tell me that the pencil was out of warranty. I bought the pencil at the same time as the iPad at the same store in December 2015.

Anyway lets hope this pencil lasts longer than the first one.

 

[ImBuz]

I thought y pencil was dead at one time--turned out it was just a loose end--tightened up and all was well

 

[Geminiwolf]

same issue here. I'm gonna call Apple Support tmr, not sure the replacement is available or not since its out of warranty T.T

 

[Geminiwolf]

OK- all is forgiven and Apple is once again the best co. on earth. new pencils are in hand and working great. No Charge. So happy!
Thanks Apple for owning this! (still hate that I had to go through a few long, arduous calls to get there.. but so it is...)

Hi there. So apple exchange all 2 pencils for u even they are out of warranty??

 

[aaiello]

OK- all is forgiven and Apple is once again the best co. on earth. new pencils are in hand and working great. No Charge. So happy!
Thanks Apple for owning this! (still hate that I had to go through a few long, arduous calls to get there.. but so it is...)

Wow! That’s great! Impressive that you were able to not only get one, but two pencils replaced! How did you get them to agree to replace it?


Unfortunately I’m having the exact same issue now. I too hadn’t used it for about a month and the next time I went to go plug it in, it would not hold a charge. This is clearly a very serious issue (or will be soon) on Apple’s end. I’m starting to see more and more one star reviews on the product and the same time/period and experiences from other users.

I will try to pass my story and warning onto other people. BEWARE!

 

[Cheesybugger]

Wow! That’s great! Impressive that you were able to not only get one, but two pencils replaced! How did you get them to agree to replace it?


Unfortunately I’m having the exact same issue now. I too hadn’t used it for about a month and the next time I went to go plug it in, it would not hold a charge. This is clearly a very serious issue (or will be soon) on Apple’s end. I’m starting to see more and more one star reviews on the product and the same time/period and experiences from other users.

I will try to pass my story and warning onto other people. BEWARE!

[doublepost=1526148157][/doublepost]Apple did replace my dead pencil but after a month or so that one also died. I threw it in the bin. Its a rubbish product. I was a big Apple fan but these days its hard to keep up the enthusiasm for todays batch of overpriced and underwhelming products.