Apple Pencil Pro disconnects after iPadOS 26 update – shows battery but not connected

kennan144 wrote:

Same exact issue. Brand new Apple Pencil Pro. Brand new iPad Air M3. You should be *expletive* embarrassed for yourselves, Apple. First IOS 26, now this. Get it together or refund us not just for the products, but for the time wasted. Seriously, after switching 8-9 years ago, I'm legitimately thinking of returning to Android.

Please!

iPadOS 26 is in its early days - and will doubtless improve and clear residual bugs over time. As with all software products, due to shear numbers, it is inevitable that end-users will encounter issues that have slipped through beta testing.

When you discover a repeatable software issue, it is in your own best interest to submit a Bug Report via Apple's Product Feedback Portal. For iPad and iPadOS:

Feedback - iPad - Apple

When submitting a Bug Report, ensure that you include details of your iPad model and installed version of iPadOS within the body-text of your report. Don't rely upon the pick-list - as this rarely includes the current versions.

You are of course free to choose Android or Apple to best meet your needs. In the grand scheme of things, neither will notice your individual uptake or departure.

In addition to Bug Reports and Feature Requests, Apple also invite submission of comments and constructive feedback via the Product Feedback Portal. If you have any information or throughs that you believe Apple would benefit from knowing, this would be the most appropriate channel though which to direct appropriate commentary.

Something similar is happening to me and my friends iPad 11th gen with the 1st gen apple pencil, with the official update iPadOS 26 our pencils keep disconnecting from the ipad and we have to plug it in every time we need to use it again, usually after a few minutes of not being in use it keeps disconnecting, it’s very annoying and inconvenient, i tried reconnecting the apple pencil from start again and all of the other stuff but nothing fixes the issue

Just wanted to add that I am having similar experience:

Apple Pencil Pro paired with iPad Pro M5 updated to latest iPadOS 26.0.1

• paired, restored, reset network settings, also installed as a new device (no restore).. talked to Apple Support, basically same steps again..

I will take it today to the Apple Store to see if it pairs with different device, but seeing the thread and replies, it probably is software issue. I'll post an update once I know more.

This has not been fixed. My Apple pencil completely stopped working when I upgraded to the latest version of iPadOS 26.0.1.

The pencil is not detected. I have been through remedial steps with Apple Support but none of them work.

They are sending me a new pencil but I suspect this is a bug in the OS and nothing to do with the hardware.

I downgraded to iOS 18 my Apple Pencil pro can use normally but not cannot used with iOS 26 😥

ipad air m2

with Apple Pencil pro

I have this exact same problem, and it only started happening after my iPad's battery died, but that might be a coincidence.

Since then, I've tried everything that I can think of to get it to stay connected. Resetting the device, the bluetooth / network settings, various combinations of turning bluetooth on / off while resetting, forgetting the pen many times, etc.

I checked my pencil with someone else's iPad, and it works, and my iPad can't connect to any other pencils. It can still connect to other bluetooth devices fine.

I'm hoping that this is just an unfortunate (and annoying) bug in iPadOS 26... but I use my pencil a lot and this problem significantly hampers my workflow, so I'm getting it checked at the apple store later this week unless there's an update or something that fixes this before then.

I'll let you know if the techy people say anything about it or if I can figure out how to fix it.

iPad Model: iPad Air M2

Pencil Model: Apple Pencil Pro

macOS Version: iPadOS 26

My emotional state: :')

I had the same problem on wednesday! i have tried everything from forgetting the pencil to do a network reset

nothing worked. ive let it sit on my ipad for like 24hrs without trying it again and it randomly connected itself yesterday evening. idk what happend but something did happen.

i hope youll get to that point too!!

I have also same experience with you.

When I connect Apple Pencil pro, it will be disconnected after 10 seconds. This penominon is also shown beta version. It doesn’t correct at official version.

iPad model : iPad Air 11(M2)

After updating to the public release of ipad os 26.0 I had a connection issue with my apple pencil pro on my ipad air 2025 m3 13". It connects when I attach and immediately disconnects while on charge and while trying use use. I have rebooted my ipad, I have forgotten the pencil and re-connected. It started working fine until today. I see that there is a new update. I have updated to the newest ipad os 26.0.1 release and no joy! I can't use my apple pencil pro. I can't work. This is preventing me from completing a work order and billing my client so I can pay bills. Ummm.... How do I resolve this quickly. Now I'm researching how to back out of the update to 26 back to 18. This is really a problem for those that count on this equipment to work properly.

Reporting back after about two weeks of my first post, unfortunately the issue persists on iPadOS 26.0.1 after trying:

– Forget the pencil and reconnect

– Restart the device

– Resetting Network Settings: although this seemed to help at first, after a couple of days the issue returned. This temporary fix also deletes all your network passwords and known networks so make sure you have a way to regain access to your networks.

Hopefully this gets resolved soon.

as of Nov 4, I updated my iPad to iOS 26.1, and that did not fix the issue. By the way, I erroneously said I had an Apple Pencil pro but I actually have Apple Pencil 2nd generation.

also after factory resetting my iPad again, when I attach the pencil to my iPad, it has a rotating pencil appearing on the side of the iPad where my pencil will magnetically attach. But still iPad does not recognize it

iPadOS 26.1 update just came out - and has NOT fixed this issue. What in the world Apple? This is maddening. I have literally reverted to using pen/paper for my note taking because this bug has made the iPad unreliable when I need it to be reliable.

Anyone have any legitimate resolve to this besides soft resetting the iPad every few hours (which sometimes works) or wiping the network settings (which didnt' work for me).

All I want for Christmas....is my freaking Apple Pencil Pro to work! 😫

Software update seems to have solved the issue for me.

I am facing the same issue with my Apple Pencil Pro and iPad Pro M4 after the iOS 26 update. I tried forgetting from this device and network reset and multiple restarts, and force-closing my iPad, and now my iPad cannot find my Apple Pencil Pro.

What should I do now? I am not able to connect my Apple Pencil with my iPad.

I'm back again and here I am in the 7 oclock hour and my apple pencil pro is not working with my Ipad m3 Air 13" again. AGAIN! I thought there might be a correlation between my focus setting (which is from 7pm to 9pm daily) on my iphone and ipad but nope, there is not a focus setup on my ipad. This is becoming truly frustrating. I was required to purchase the apple pencil pro when I purchased the newest ipad air m3. Please Apple!!!! Figure this out!! Many of us depend on your equipment to make a living.