Apple Pencil 2 not used in a long time. iPad says it’s 100% charged so won’t charge it

Your Apple Pencil may be showing signs of a failing or failed battery.

IF your Pencil was left laying around unused for ANY prolonged period of time without being charged up and ready to use, then your Pencil battery may have failed and your Pencil may be dead.

Sorry.

You cannot store and/or NOT use Pencils for any prolonged period of time and NOT keep them charged up to some level.

If your Pencil/s sat around unused or unopened and not kept charged up for more than a few weeks, or so, OR

EVEN LONGER, then the battery in your Pencil may have failed and is dead and you will have to purchase another

brand new Pencil or, if still under warranty, get a free replacement Pencil from Apple.

Sorry.

And it looks like some things about the Pencil have NOT changed in the new version 2 model, either.

Due to the “always on and active/standby” nature of the Pencil and, also, due to its very tiny rechargeable Li-

ion battery ( smaller than the eraser head on a REAL wooden pencil ), the Pencil needs to be constantly charged up to some significant charge level ALL THE TIME, even when not using the Pencil for prolonged periods of time.

The Pencil needs to be kept CONSTANTLY charged to a minimum of 5-10%, OR GREATER, all the time!

If the Pencil battery is allowed to drain down to 0% and allowed to stay in that flat condition for more than a few weeks, or so, OR EVEN LONGER, that very tiny little Li-ion battery is too small to keep at a 0% state for a long period of time and it will fail and the Pencil will be dead and you may have to “pop” for another $99/$129 Pencil, once again!

Apple only has a one-year warranty on any Apple accessory items.

You need to keep your Pencil CONSTANTLY charged up all the time, even if it is only to 10%-15% charge. It must keep some charge level in that tiny Lithium-ion battery at all times!

One last ditch thing you can try is to plug the Pencil's Lightning connector into the iPad.

Then, try a simple hard reset of your iPad by holding down both the Home and sleep/wake buttons simultaneously until your iPad goes to black and restarts with Apple logo, then release the buttons.

OR

Put your Pencil 2 atop the magnetic charging edge of your iPad.

Then, try the new hard reset procedure for the 2018/2020 iPad Pro/iPad Air 4 models without a Home button.

1. Press and release the volume UP button.

2. Then immediately press and release the volume DOWN button.

3. Then, press and hold the Power button at the top. You will see the Slide to Power off button, but keep on holding down the Power button until you see the Apple logo, then let it go.

Once you have performed all the steps, wait for a few seconds and your iPad Pro will boot up completely to the iPad Pro’s Lock screen.

See if the Pencil starts charging then, when it reaches a sufficient charge, like over 15%, or so, or more, disconnect the Pencil and reconnect it to see if it Bluetooth pairs.

If it does pair, try using it.

You can also try gently warming up your entire Pencil for a few minutes wrapped in a damp dry warm/hot face cloth/towel to warm up the entire Pencil for a few attempts/minutes.

Test the Pencil, again.

If still no joy, your Pencil is definitely dead.

If your Apple Pencil is still under its one-year warranty period, you are still entitled to a free replacement Apple Pencil from Apple.

Use the “Get Support” link, at the upper right hand corner of every Apple Support Community Webpage to attempt to schedule an appointment with your nearest Apple Store location and bring in both iPad your defective Pencil.

Apple Store employees will be glad to help/assist you with getting another free, replacement Apple Pencil.

Test this Pencil in the Apple Store before you leave the store to make sure both your iPad and replacement Pencil are working together.

Sorry and Best of Luck to You!

You need to realise that the teeny, tiny Lithium-ion battery, in any version of the Apple Pencil, is not much larger than the eraser head atop a real, wooden pencil.

Such a small batterry does not have much power storage and has even less power/energy storage retention.

So, keeping such a small battery constantly and consistently charged up is really a mandatory excercise.

Your rechargeable devices may all have much large batteries able to sustain and keep a charge for a much longer period of time.

This is simply NOT so with any Apple Pencil.

AND, just to set tge record straight on this, rechargeabke Lithium-ion battery devices will simply fail to ever charge again when left completely dead for many months, without a single charge, also.

Sorry if the explanation is not acceptable to you, but this does not change the known facts.

This has always been an issue with the Apple Pencil since this device was intaroduced in 2015.

You can make your concerns known to Apple by submitting unacknowledged iPad/Apple Pencil feedback to Apple below.

Tap the link below.

Feedback - iPad - Apple

Here is one of the better troubleshooting guides for Apple Pencil:

https://appletoolbox.com/apple-pencil-not-working-heres-our-troubleshooting-guide/

When docked with the host iPad, verify that the Pencil is recognised:

Settings > General > About

Scroll to the bottom of the page - and you should find either one or two entries for the Pencil. Finding these listed entries suggests that the Pencil electronics are good - otherwise, you have a totally dead pencil.

Check the Battery Widget for the charge status of the Pencil. Is it 100%? If not, let the Pencil charge; if it is fully charged, while monitoring the indicated state of charge of the Pencil, remove it from the iPad charging dock. 

When disconnected from iPad, does the Pencil disappear from the Battery Widget - or it’s indicated state of charge suddenly fall? If either of these are true, then the Pencil battery is likely to be failing or dead.

The tiny internal Li-ion battery is susceptible to permanent/irreversible damage through being left discharged for long periods. Even some “new” pencils can exhibit signs of failure out-of-the-box if they are “old stock”. It is essential that if you have an Apple Pencil that you charge it regularly - whether used or not - so as to protect the battery from deep-discharge. Do not allow a pencil to remain in low-charge state for any period of time - as the internal battery will fail, rendering the Pencil useless. Setting aside an unused Pencil, for extended periods, is a recipe for premature death of the Pencil battery.

If the Pencil Battery has failed, the only remedy is to replace the Pencil. If the battery has failed and your pencil is within its one-year warranty, you should look to having it replaced by your retailer or at an Apple Store.

Good Luck!