New Symbol on IPad top right near battery indicator

I guess that you are referring to this new status icon:

Yours is one of many reports seen in recent days. This new icon appears to be undocumented by Apple at this time.

My own extensive testing has demonstrated this icon to indicate that a download to the iPad is occurring (you'll note from my screenshot that a download from a website is partially complete). When switching away from Safari to use another App, allowing the Safari to complete the download as background task, the new status icon will persist in view until the background download is completed.

Apple's documentation is often slow to catch-up with new features. Here is another status icon - that appears briefly when connecting some USB-C hubs - that Apple have yet to add to their documentation:

This is definitely NOT the usual syncing symbol; unless they decided to make it persistently appear and make it more obviously annoying.

From what I can see it’s actually a tiny gear surrounded by arrows.

Hey. I first noticed this on 01/03/25, but it had been on my iPad Mini for probably a few days already. I called Apple Support. Very long phone call, but they were able to verify 1) that this forum post is the only available screen shot (nice work @LotusPilot); and 2)that they don't know what it is either. They helped me troubleshoot some security settings – there were a few unrecognized phone numbers from the EU/K in my 'trusted phone numbers' that I got rid of; but the whole process of screen sharing with the Apple rep solved the situation by replacing the mystery icon with the rep's purple screen share icon. So, they gave me a case ID# and I called it a night.

It showed up again tonight for the first time. I called Apple Support, reopened the case. None of the security infos have changed, but strangely I wasn't allowed to Accept the screen share, but only Reject: twice. Third time I rotated the screen to portrait, and it worked. That, and the fact that it got replaced/annihilated by the screen share icon again, as well as noticing that the mystery icon was both faintly pulsing and impervious to any action or dialogue whatsoever, leads me to agree with @varjak paw (thank you) that it's an exploit designed to sync or share information. However, it doesn't exist at the handy 'status icons meaning'-link provided.

This time I'm going to get a callback tomorrow – they don't have any new infos, but they're looking into it. I'm not optimistic, but at least it goes away after screen sharing with the Apple rep (only known resolution).

That indicates that it's syncing, most likely with a computer.

For more information on the various symbols, see:

Learn the meaning of the iPad status icons - Apple Support

Regards.

Hey. Thanks for participating! Please climb down off of your soapbox. I received a callback from Apple, and they’re escalating the issue to the next level of assessment. That icon is not in that list.

Have a great day!

…wait – you’re not responding to me though. I think we’re saying the same thing. Still, vpaw’s just trying to help.

Please look carefully at the posted image from the user and the images on the list you linked to. You are incorrect. When people are concerned about an issue that doesn’t seem to have a solution they do not need misinformation from a careless people.

He wasn’t correct though. It was clarified by Apple today that the symbol indicated an app is downloading a file in the background. The list that was carelessly shared by the other guy and didn’t even include the blue logo with the cog and arrows. If it was easy to find on a list then we would not be here trying to find a solution.

More helpful than criticizing others, why don’t you back up “it was clarified by Apple today” with some links or screen shots of your own? I mean, if you’re policing absolute acccuracy. Why don’t you have to prove prove your worth to this thread to the standard you’re holding others to?

people are allowed to be ‘careless’, ‘inaccurate’, or even downright wrong. That’s what trust or reputation scores are for, like upvotes or downvotes. It’s a crowdsourcing dynamic, a community forum, not a competition; your criticism helps nobody either.

That’s the one. Thanks for the tip! It only shows up on my iPad Mini 6th gen. Not on phone, iPad Air, MacBook Pros… seems to be a downloaded exploit, meaning it appears when I’m downloading certain PDFs, but then it won’t go away without either your solution, or having Apple Support share my screen. As I’ve said, they’ll escalate my case if it appears again and I get them a screenshot.

my wife’s 5th generation iPad, 18.2.1, had it appear too. Hard reset it went away. I have not seen it on my M4 IPad Pro yet. This is the symbol.

Look at the original screen shot, it even shows even shows an active download while also showing the concerning icon. Please get better at life.