Hardware

How do I check the Apple Pencil battery level?

Apple Pencil Battery level
Pencil power: check how much battery's left in your stylus

Welcome to the 21st century, where we need to check if our pencils have run out of battery. God bless progress. But checking whether your Apple Pencil has run out of juice is by no means straightforward – there are no indicator LEDs on the Pencil itself. So how do you check the Apple Pencil battery level?

Check the Apple Pencil battery level

To check how much life is left in your Pencil, you first have to go to the Home Screen on your iPad. Swipe left until you see the Widgets screen, which normally contains Calendar appointments, the weather forecast and News headlines.

From there, scroll down to the bottom and click the Edit button.

On the next screen, look for the option to add Batteries from the More Widgets listing at the bottom. Press the + sign next to Batteries and it will move to the top of the screen, where you can change the order in which your selected widgets appear on screen.

iPad widgets screen

Now, whenever you access the Widgets screen, you should get an update on the Apple Pencil’s battery life. Note that the Pencil has to be near the iPad for it to display its current battery life.

Apple Pencil Battery level

If you need to top up the battery, take the cap off the end of the Apple Pencil and plug it into the iPad’s Lightning socket at the bottom of the device.

Now read this: Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro – is it a must-have?

About the author

Barry Collins

Barry has scribbled about tech for almost 20 years for The Sunday Times, PC Pro, WebUser, Which? and many others. He was once Deputy Editor of Mail Online and remains in therapy to this day. Email Barry at barry@bigtechquestion.com.

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