To preserve battery and or device operating system

While idle and connected to WiFi, your iPad will continue to usefully run background and housekeeping tasks - such as downloading email. Unless you don't intend to use your iPad for many days, shutting down the iPad will serve little useful benefit.

Simply disabling WiFi will do little to extend battery life - unless you are in an area where there is no WiFi signal. If no WiFi is available, the iPad will continuously scan for a network to which it can connect - and this can have significant negative impact upon battery utilisation.

Connecting your iPad to its Power Adapter to charge overnight will prolong both the iPad's battery autonomy while being used - and reduce battery degradation. While idle and connected to an external source of power, the iPad can automatically update its iCloud backup (if configured). The iPad battery can optimally charge such that it has maximum capacity in readiness for the coming day; the iPad automatically regulates battery charging - and will not overcharge the battery.

LotusPilot wrote:

Simply disabling WiFi will do little to extend battery life - unless you are in an area where there is no WiFi signal. If no WiFi is available, the iPad will continuously scan for a network to which it can connect - and this can have significant negative impact upon battery utilisation.

I don’t believe that is correct. Yes, Wi-Fi scans for networks, but that is just once every 15 seconds, and uses practically no power because it is just a receiver. The best practice is to leave Wi-Fi on all the time, because it is needed for Find My to work.

Wi-Fi uses much more power when connected to a Wi-Fi network, because it uses energy continuously, whether data are being transferred or not. This is why iPhones turn Wi-Fi off when they sleep. As iPads have a much higher capacity battery this is not necessary for them. And even then the Wi-Fi connection uses only about 30 milliwatts.

Providing that your iPad has been kept up-to-date with system software updates, you should not be overly concerned for your iPad being remotely compromised by malware. Due to the system architecture of iOS/iPadOS, unless jailbroken, your iPad is not susceptible to traditional malware infection per-se. Turning-off WiFi and/or shutting down the iPad will not significantly change the threat profile.

That said, as with all computer systems, there are still vulnerabilities and exploits to which you remain vulnerable.

For older devices, no longer benefiting from regular security updates, the risk of an unpatched vulnerability being exploited increases. Regardless of the installed version of iPadOS, there are useful mitigations that can be used to significantly reduce your exposure to risk.

Threat Mitigation

Other than malicious websites that will attempt to capture information that you willingly enter, the majority of threats to which you will be invariably exposed will surface via web pages or embedded links within email or other messaging platforms. Browser-based attacks can be largely and successfully mitigated by installing a good Content and Ad-blocking product. One of the most respected within the Apple App Store - designed for iPad, iPhone and Mac - is 1Blocker for Safari.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/1blocker-for-safari/id1365531024

1Blocker is highly configurable - and crucially does not rely upon an external proxy-service of dubious provenance, often utilised by so-called AntiVirus products intended for iOS/iPadOS. Instead, all processing by 1Blocker takes place on your device - and contrary to expectations, Safari will run faster and more efficiently.

Unwanted content is not simply filtered after download (a technique used by basic/inferior products), but instead undesirable embedded content is blocked from download. The 1Blocker product has also introduced its new “Firewall” functions - that are explicitly designed to block “trackers”. Being implemented at the network-layer, this additional protection works across all Apps. Recent updates to 1Blocker has introduced additional network extensions, extending protection to other Apps.

A further to improve protection from exploits is to use a security focussed DNS Service in preference to automatic DNS settings. This can either be set on a per-device basis in Settings, or can be set-up on your home Router - and in so doing extends the benefit of this specific protection to other devices on your local network. I suggest using one of the following DNS services - for which IPv4 and IPv6 server addresses are listed:

Quad9 (recommended)

9.9.9.9

149.112.112.112

2620:fe::fe

2620:fe::9

OpenDNS

208.67.222.222

208.67.220.220

2620:119:35::35

2620:119:53::53

Cloudflare

1.1.1.1

1.0.0.1

2606:4700:4700::1111

2606:4700:4700::1001

Security focused DNS providers intentionally "sink hole" known bad or malicious websites and resources - this providing an additional layer of protection beyond that provided by your device and its Operating System. These DNS services will, when used alongside 1Blocker or other reputable Content Blocker, provide defence in depth.

LotusPilot wrote:

Lawrence Finch wrote:

I don’t believe that is correct. Yes, Wi-Fi scans for networks, but that is just once every 15 seconds, and uses practically no power because it is just a receiver. The best practice is to leave Wi-Fi on all the time, because it is needed for Find My to work.

However, if there is no cellular network connection that scan WILL use significant energy.

I travel frequently with my iPad. Any time I forget to disable WiFi before leaving the currently associated WiFi network, the iPad battery will drain considerably over the few hours that the iPad is attempting to find and associate with a known WIFi network. If WiFi is disabled (or the device set to AirPlane mode), battery utilisation remains as otherwise exoected.

This behaviour has been experimentally replicated with other devices.

Mine doesn’t exhibit that property, and neither does my wife's, so I’m not sure what the problem with yours is. The Wi-Fi scan uses only a few mw.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

I don’t believe that is correct. Yes, Wi-Fi scans for networks, but that is just once every 15 seconds, and uses practically no power because it is just a receiver. The best practice is to leave Wi-Fi on all the time, because it is needed for Find My to work.

However, if there is no cellular network connection that scan WILL use significant energy.

I travel frequently with my iPad. Any time I forget to disable WiFi before leaving the currently associated WiFi network, the iPad battery will drain considerably over the few hours that the iPad is attempting to find and associate with a known WIFi network. If WiFi is disabled (or the device set to AirPlane mode), battery utilisation remains as otherwise exoected.

This behaviour has been experimentally replicated with other devices.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

Mine doesn’t exhibit that property, and neither does my wife's, so I’m not sure what the problem with yours is. The Wi-Fi scan uses only a few mw.

Clearly YMMV.

I have experimentally replicated this behaviour across many generations of iPad.

michaelfrombellefonte wrote:

Again I appreciate your feedback particularly about the Find My feature being disabled when WiFi on device is turned off. Considering that the device is insured for theft and a complex security code verification has been established through Apple to gain access to the any of my Apple device’s and my Apple account I’ll only turn off WiFi when it’s a as less secure environment unattended when this device is on the road with me. As far a my frequent daily use is concerned I’ll continue to just restart or shut down the device once a week or so this was recommended by the YouTube Payette Forward channel that I’ve been referring to over the past 10 or more years but I’m not aware of any videos from that channel about preserving the battery or operating system by shutting down device overnight or maintaining a hibernation mode overnight. So since I haven’t had that question specifically answered I’ll just continue with my usual method.

Remember that theft and loss insurance is void if Find My is off at the time of the loss.

You can leave it on the charger.