charging of IPad Air 2 iffy

Shinnen

Member
Hi,
My wife tells me that her Air 2 charges sometimes and not others. She was given it a year ago by her granddaughter and it has always been iffy, wrt to charging. She tells me that when it does not charge, it actually discharges (usually overnight).
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks,
..... john
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
Isopropyl alcohol and a small brush or maybe toothpick. Those lightening charging ports get jammed up with gunk.
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi Darren/Cromewell,
Thanks for replying. Would gunk cause it to discharge, instead of charging?
........ john
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
The amount of lint I pulled out of my USB-C charging port was crazy.
I've pulled some questionable smelling green material out of a few customers iPads that had charging issues...

Hi Darren/Cromewell,
Thanks for replying. Would gunk cause it to discharge, instead of charging?
........ john

Well if its in use yeah, since it's not charging. It won't cause it to actively discharge though, just doesn't make connection.
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi,
Well, I didn't see anything in there. I cleaned it with isopropanol and blew it out with compressed air.
We'll see how that works.
Thanks again for your help.
.... john
 

Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
Would gunk cause it to discharge, instead of charging?
Indirectly, by blocking its ability to charge.

To clean mine I powered it off and used a sewing needle to scrape around the outer perimeter of the port, keeping it away from the pins. A toothpick was too big to be real effective.
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi,
Thanks again. So far so good. I don't really know what this device will do. If she plugged it in and it wasn't charging, would it discharge?
........ john
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
If she plugged it in and it wasn't charging, would it discharge?
If it was on or in standby, yes, since it's in an active state and using electricity. Without a reliable wall connection or sufficient charger amperage, situationally the power can only come from the battery.

If you hard power it off then no, you'd just have a similar charge that you had before when you power it back on.
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi beers,
Right, well, that explains it. I blew out the port and swabbed it with isopropanol a couple of days ago, and the problem hasn't reoccurred; but she couldn't give me a feel for how frequently it happens, so we'll have to wait and see. She says that she normally just plugs it in, without shutting it off. Do you recommend shutting it off first?
....... john
 
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