Several users report a problem with their iPad 3 not charging. Readers tell us three distinct problems with their iPad 3s (a) does not charge, (b) charges very slowly, and (c) does not charge fully when plugged into a power outlet. The iPad 3 model has some new impressive features that consume a lot of energy.
Apple increased the size of the battery compared to the batteries in the first and second generation iPads. Thus charging the new iPad 3 is slower than iPad 2. It may take 50-60 minutes for a 10% charge and may take up to 8 hours to fully charge.
For more in-depth information on iPad charging issues, take a peek at our comprehensive article.
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Quick Tips for iPad 3 not charging
- Try a reset to see if your iPad charges after the iPad restarts
- Press and hold both the sleep and home buttons for about 10 to 15 seconds (ignore the red slider.) Keep holding until the Apple logo appears.
- You don’t lose any content. It’s the iPad equivalent of a reboot!
- Press and hold both the sleep and home buttons for about 10 to 15 seconds (ignore the red slider.) Keep holding until the Apple logo appears.
- Try a different charger and/or cable. If anybody else in your family or a friend/co-worker has an iPad, ask if you can try their charger and cable and see if your iPad 3 charges up.
- Or go to an Apple Store or Apple Retailer and ask them to use one of their iPad chargers
Battery Performance Tips
- Toggle off auto-brightness and manually set your iPad’s brightness to about 40% (Settings > Display & Brightness)
- Turn off Push for email (Settings > Mail > Accounts > Fetch New Data > Push > Toggle OFF
- Toggle off WiFi. If you know, you’re not going to be using WiFi, turning it off saves power
- Turn off cellular data if it’s on your iPad model. If in an area with limited coverage, turning cellular data off prevents it from continuously trying to connect and thereby saves you power. Also, if you’re watching a movie, playing sports, or engaging in an activity, consider turning your iPad completely off or at least the cellular data.
- Alternatively, switch to Airplane Mode when for times when you do not need to connect to cellular data
- Turn off turn off Background App Refresh (Settings > General > Background App Refresh)
- Turn off Notifications or limit apps that send notifications (Settings > Notifications > Tap each app > Toggle OFF Allow Notifications
For more battery performance tips, check out our article on 15 Tips to Speed Up Battery on iOS 10!
Obsessed with tech since the early arrival of A/UX on Apple, Sudz (SK) is responsible for the editorial direction of AppleToolBox. He is based out of Los Angeles, CA.
Sudz specializes in covering all things macOS, having reviewed dozens of OS X and macOS developments over the years.
In a former life, Sudz worked helping Fortune 100 companies with their technology and business transformation aspirations.
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(1) Sir my ipad 2 is showing not charging doring charging?
(2) charging speed is very very show approx 9-10 hours why . Some time i am thinking android is better then apple.
(3) my airplane mode is every time on and brightness is always keep on zero.
Sir pleas give me reply how to solve it
my ipad wont charge just goes red
My IPad 3 charges very slowly no matter what charger I use and I’ve tried all of the above, doesn’t work. I’ve been below 6% for the last 5 hours, it keeps charging to 6% then going down and shutting off, then coming back on at 1%
They’re so stupid, getting a MacBook Air soon thank god
My ipad3 still won’t charge when turned on, I have changed the battery and the charger, both genuine Apple products.
Plugged it into various computers and still nothing
The problem seems to have stemmed from an upgrade to iOS 8.
Was there a glitch in the upgrade?
I bought an iPad3 six months ago off eBay to use just as a back up tool in my van in case I needed to access information on the off occasion (my phone screen is just too small). I’m having the same problem as others have experienced it would appear. Initial;y plugged it in….. it seemed to work ok, so I put it back in box until now. Now when I want to star using it battery will only charge to 44% and then a message states “stopped charging” (probably was doing that when previous owner had it……. but she omitted advising). Anyway…… help….. does this mean that the battery is, as stated, only charged to 44%……….. or could it be that the data advised is inaccurate and that the battery is in actual fact fully charged ? ? ? Or have I bought a pup ?
Got new battery for my iPad 3 still very slow charging waste of money
Looks like Apple has Jumped the Shark with the IPAD3. Doesn’t matter how many new features it has if you can’t turn the damn thing on.
My I pad3 is dead and am trying to charge but its not coming up at all,showing I tunes and d arrow directed to it but my I pad is not powering what can I call this plz….reply asap
Ok, so everytime I plug in my charger for my iPad (not the charger it came with :/) it won’t charge, I plug it in…nothing, I turn it off with it plugged in, and it starts to charge, but VERY VERY SLOWLY. Probably 30% every 8 hours. Idk if it’s the charger, or my iPad. Whenever it,s turnned on, it won’t charge with the charger plugged in. Someone please help.
Sept. 28, 2014
Hi. I have the same problem. My Ipad model A1432 [ 4th gen im guessing] refuses to charge. It just started doing this earlier today, about 3 hours ago. I just noticed this an hour ago. It also does not show the green battery on the screen, does not play the noise, and does not switch on when I plug the charger in. [ I TRIED IN 3 DIFFERENT OUTLETS] Please help?
got my new ipad 3 yesterday, it came with 75% charge. After charging it only night I woke up to only 44%. Plugged it back in and as its “charging” its actually losing charge…down to 33% now. Have tried rebooting, switched it out with my gen 1 charger, plugged it into my PC…nothing is working and its losing charge steadily. now what?
Brand new iPad 3 yesterday that came 75% charged. Charged it all night to find it at only 44% when I got up. Plugged it back in and it’s losing charge even plugged in. Switched out the charger with my first gen one…still losing charge. Now what?
I just got my iPad 3 from the Apple Refurbed store and was quite excited to get it. My iPad 2 was just to slow to do what I needed for my biz. My first attempt to restore my 3 with my 2’s data was a complete disaster. Overnight, I had plugged it in using my old cable and iPad 2 charger. I got the charging beep and went about my business. Several hours later, I noticed the “not charging” and it was still at 78%. I eventually got my new charger and cable out of the box and it began to charge. I left it overnight and got up to the Not Charging again with 86% showing. Next day i was in the apple store and walking out with a replacement. They suggested a software wipe and a reload of the OS without using my backup from my iPad 2. It would not accept the reload. There were many other issues with it as well I won’t go into here.
Hint: try NOT using the restore feature. It’s a pain in the butt but I got my 2nd new iPad 3 to work that way. I wasn’t taking any chances and the genius girl advised not to use any ipad 2 backups on my iPad 3.
After replacement, I plugged it in and it seemed ok. Last night, It charged to 78% and stopped. I ended up switching the original charger from the box to a new outlet on the extension cord and it began to charge again. It made it up to 86% before I had to disconnect it.
That’s been my first three days with my iPad 3. The jitters when scrolling, are extremely annoying. Enough so that I went back to my iPad 2 to do something! I really can’t tell if it was the iPad, my network at home or the website I was using. I had no issues other than speed when using my iPad 2.
I’m sure I will get it the way I want it – eventually – but this conversion is a royal pain in the butt. The battery issue is totally weird too. I just don’t see how a cable that works fine with my iPad 2 won’t work with my iPad 3? The iPads are side by side when I charge it too. The cable works on my 2, I unplug it and put the cable in my 3, nothing, zip, zilch! No reason nor explanation. Then i move it to a different outlet on the same extension core and it work?? i have all my stuff going through surge protectors fir safety, not straight into the wall. Very frustrating to say the least. I would welcome a resolution to this battery charging issue.
ipad comes on with usb cable logo and an arrow pointing to itunes. it won’t start after upgrade attempt
I’ve had my ipad 3 since December, it’s been fine until 2 days ago. The charger won’t work, I plug it in to the ipad and it doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t say not charging it just doesn’t seem to recognise it. Have also tried it with my lap top but no joy. I can’t use a different charger as they are different sizes. Any ideas please?
Our family have had big problems with our ipad3 slow charging , no charging and messages saying the charging device is not compatible, or not supported, but it is the one that came with the ipad, 8 hours for a 1%-2% increase in charge is unacceptable ipad 3 is nowhere near as good as the old ipad2. No amount of improvement is any use if you cannot use the device. Terrible. If you are one of the fortunate ones claiming there is no problem, then think of yourself as very lucky indeed.
So…I had the same issue of the ‘not charging’ and took the advice and used the orig charger which is 10 watts… Working great,
I’ve had my iPad 3 for a couple or 3 months and it’s been fine but last night I plugged it in to charge and closed it down. This morning after 7-8 hrs charging I opened it and it said 80 per cent charged and had a “not charging’ notification beside the 80 per cent. I closed it and put it back to carry on charging and left it for a few more hrs but when I opened it again, no change. I tried to take a screen pic to see if it was working but it wouldn’t do it. Don’t know what to do now.
I have had my iPad 3 since release, it has never missed a beat after running iMessage last night the battery dropped to 1% and over night with charging, it has increased to 3%. i believe it probably has over-heated and the battery is stuffed. Will Apple replace it for a new one?
Hi
I have tried all the above and my new iPad 3 charges very very slowly and whilst it is charging its displaying “not charging” any ideas ?
Since my first ipad 2 which worked well got stollen every next one is a problem.
# ipad 2 – returned in 3 days as home button stoped working at all
#2 ipad 2 – in 5 moths home button experienced problems , later on internet startd to glich, from then on in 2 weeks it started to turn off and on , after that one week later it totaly gave up on working and stoped charging showing mistic battery charge levels.
had to spend 2 hours in apple store to find out that my ipad2 will be replaced, but unfortunatelly for me no replacement ipad2 in stock.
while waiting for it to arrive in promissed 2 days i decided to by and try Ipad3
#3 ipad3……hold on…..aftre first 24 hours its battery was drained. and it is NOT charging. have tried every suggestion found online. still nothing.
i am exited and i am really looking forward to get my replacement ipad2. somehow i am not too optimistic. alarming amount of complains online about apple products.
I am not able to recharge my brand new iPad3. If am not able fix the issue, I will return it back.
My iPad 3 would not charge at all. No charge indication, nor did it make the usual sound when I plugged it in. I tried several chargers in various outlets – all to no avail. Then I tried plugging it into my PC a couple of times to see if it would sync with iTunes. When I plugged into the USB port on my computer, it would not recognize the device. After reading the post from Lucy, I just kept trying to plug it into a regular power outlet with one charger
After three straight attempts, it started charging on the fourth attempt. I do not know if this will be an ongoing problem, or one that will eventually lead to a service call. I will try and update this post as I continue to work with my four month old iPad 3.
I’ve had this problem over and over again. Something I’ve found to consistently fix it is to reboot ( turn completely off and then back on ) with the charger plugged in. This is if you need to use your ipad while it’s charging, or you need to charge it overnight, but you are using it as an alarm clock. If you don’t need to use it, turn it off. It will charge.
When I initially plugged in my iPad 3 charger, this morning it did not work. I even tried plugging it into different outlets around the house. I then removed the charger from the iPad and re-inserted it two or three times pressing firmly. Nothing … But I’m stubborn. On the fourth re-insertion … It worked!
I had not previously used the charger that came with the iPad 3 (purchased in April). I had been using my husband’s iPod charger (purchased in 2009) which is always near the “device charging” area. We also use the iPod charger to charge his iPhone. It is possible that the new, just-out-of-the box iPad 3 charger just needed an extra boost (firm shove) to get it to “fit”. Please note that during the first three insertions of the charger into the iPad 3, I pressed it in firmly and it was flush to the device, so it was not obvious that it wasn’t pushed in far enough. However, being old-fashioned, I thought if I keep pressing and cursing, the device would eventally give in and obey my commands!
thanks is worked for mine as well.. i just lef i pa charger
Hi
I have tried all the above and my new iPad 3 charges very very slowly and whilst it is charging its displaying “not charging” any ideas ?
hi did you find the answer you were looking for WEZ i have the same problem
Hi whilst it is charging its displaying “not charging”
Hi, I had the same issue on my new iPad 3. First, let the battery drain completely. Then, Try charging it after you turn it off as mentioned before. It should charge. You should see the charging sign.
My Ipad 3 isn’t charging at all. I’m not even getting the “not charging” indicator by the battery that some users get. I checked the charger it came with and it is the 10 and then I tried the one that came with my iPad 2 which is also a 10 and it worked on my 3 once and now it won’t work. Suggestions…….HELP……I’ve about had it with these I-pads (yes I obviously had something go wrong with the 2 I previously had).
Read what you’ve said but I had mine plugged in for 10 hours and it went from 4% to 32%
Another time it went from 3% to 24% in 8 hours
It seems a little excessive that you need to leave it longer!
Make sure you are using the charger and cable that came with your iPad 3. It’s a 10w charger whereas older chargers for ipods etc were 5w. Some users on have complained of receiving the wrong 5w charger so worth checking that too if you actually are using the one it came with).
There’s also some anecdotal evidence that older/cheaper cables increase charging times (probably due to voltage drops from thin wires and poor insulation I suspect).
To minimise charging time turn your iPad off completely (press and hold power button then use slider) or at the least switch off things like bluetooth, wifi, 3/4G.
Its charging now & quickly thank you bro
You’re lucky. I’ve kept mine plugged in for 72 hours and it went from 3% to 0%.