Subscribe to RSS

Quickies June 25, 2011
by

Actually, Your iPad *Does* Charge on that USB Port!

Gear Diary Actually, Your iPad *Does* Charge on that USB Port! photo

I hardly think that I was the only person in the world to be disappointed to find out that, unlike the iPhone, the iPad would not charge when plugged in to the USB port on my PC.  I didn’t believe it, honestly, and like probably a bunch of people, I tried it anyway, only to see the “Not Charging” indicator up next to the battery icon in the upper-right corner of my iPad Gear Diary Actually, Your iPad *Does* Charge on that USB Port! photo

A funny thing happened the other day, though . . .

I bring my iPad to work with me regularly.  My work station, in fact, is a plethora of screens of all sizes:

Gear Diary Actually, Your iPad *Does* Charge on that USB Port! photo

Usually I use my iPad, along with my Bluetooth keyboard, for my “personal” stuff–following my Twitter feed, IMing (with IM+ Pro), going to non-work-related web sites, and the like.  I also regularly check for software updates, and then need to sync my iPad.  On Wednesday, I had downloaded a couple of episodes of “Leverage”, synced them over to my iPad, and just left it plugged in most of the day.  And to my surprise, when I unplugged my iPad at the end of the day, it showed a full charge, even though it had been down to about 65% when I plugged it in.  ”Huh”, I thought, “That’s weird.

This morning, I gave it a real test.  With my iPad at about 69%, I plugged it in and left it.  After about an hour and a half, the charge was up to 75%!  So despite the fact that Apple tells us that you need a 10 Watt USB port to charge the iPad, and most PCs don’t have those, I have found that, on my Lenovo T-61 at least, the USB port does indeed charge the iPad, albeit quite slowly.  But if your like me, and want to leave WiFi and Bluetooth running all the time, it’s the difference between running your iPad battery down very low by the end of the day, and ending the day with a full charge.  Which is better than a slap in the face with a wet fish any day.

Bottom line:  you might be able to charge your iPad from your PC’s USB port after all.  Give it a try, and let us below how it goes for you, what time of system you’re using, how long the charging took, and any other details you might find helpful.  And happy charging!

Related posts:

No related posts.

Tags: ,



About Douglas Moran

View all posts by Douglas Moran
Doug is a nerd from way back, falling for a Commodore PET at the age of 15, and never looking back. Riding the nerd wave, he got a Computer Science degree and entered the tech industry at a young age, deciding after a year and a half of front-line phone technical support that he should try something, *anything* else. He settled on technical writing, and has been cranking out documentation for companies like Unisys, SGI, Cisco, Juniper, and many others ever since. He is nothing short of ecstatic to be working for H-P from his home base in Austin.
  • erdoke

    I thought that it’s obvious for everybody that the iPad is charged from a regular USB port only when the screen is off.

    • http://www.geardiary.com Dan Cohen

      Well erdoke, it sure wasn’t obvious to me. (And never came up because I have never relied on a computer connection for charging.)

      Always good not to assume something is common knowledge since, oftentimes the most obvious is the most easily overlooked.

      • erdoke

        Sorry, I didn’t mean to be offensive at all. I am a relatively new iPad (2) user, and for me it did seem to be straightforward from the beginning, considering that a regular USB 2.0 can only provide 500 mA and an iPad with the display on consumes more. :) I also don’t charge the tablet from a computer, but sometimes you need to connect to have an up-to-date backup.

        • http://www.geardiary.com Judie Lipsett Stanford

          :lol: That’s exactly Dan’s point, though: the average person wouldn’t necessarily know that “a regular USB 2.0 can only provide 500 mA and an iPad with the display on consumes more,” seriously.

          But with that said, I think a lot of people expect to be able to charge via USB, whether they are syncing or not. After all, they can charge other USB driven devices that way, so why *not* the iPad? =)

          • erdoke

            Judie, you”re definitely right, but my point is that I am also an average person when it comes to charging batteries and electricity in general, while Dan posted his finding for a gadget site. Just have a look at his desk above. :D

            • http://www.geardiary.com Douglas Moran

              Actually, that’s my desk, not Dan’s. And given that neither Dan nor I are exactly strangers to gadgetry, and neither of us knew this, I thought it warranted a mention. I also googled to see if I could find any info regarding this, and the first half-dozen or so mentions that I found all said, essentially, “Man, what a bummer you can’t charge your iPad when it’s plugged into your USB port!”

              However in the interim, our own Michael Anderson found a mention at Apple’s site that I figured I should pass on: http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipad.html

  • bluemonq

    The reason it says “Not Charging” is to dissuade folks from charging iPads in this manner. Using a device while charging it is okay if the drain is a relatively small amount in comparison to the charge being delivered, but prolonged usage if power input and output are fairly close can lead to battery damage.

    • http://www.geardiary.com Dan Cohen

      Really? Thanks… Two things I learned from this post.

  • Henry Spencer

    I noticed that if I connect the iPad directly to my MB Pro (newest model) that it charges normally, but if it’s connected to a USB hub I get the Not Charging message.

  • http://www.grabaclue.com/perry Perry Reed

    I have also found that my iPad will charge on my USB port when it is turned off. I can also charge it on my PowerMat that way.

  • Christopher Gavula

    LOL. I’ve had my iPad over a year now and discovered this fact a few weeks after I got it. I’ve also always assumed it was common knowledge! Goes to show how assumptions can bite you in the behind!

  • Paul Reese

    The reality is that it is good to mention for the following: It is not intuitive that the iPad would charge while plugged into a USB port when the display clearly shows “Not Charging”. Apple prides themselves on being “intuitive” and since you (obviously) cannot read the screen with it off, how would you know that it does charge?

    I too found out quite by accident after leaving my iPad in the sleep condition after syncing it. It was not until after I disconnected it and tried using it later in the day that I noticed it had received a full charge while connected with the display off.

    It is good to have these kinds of posts because often we do not realize what we knew may not be common knowledge. For instance, most of us know that when our iPhone is ringing, you can press the sleep/wake button once to silence the ringer. How many know that if you double-press the button, the call goes immediately to voicemail? I discovered this from another blogger’s site who thought it might be good to pass along.

    Certainly, some of these kinds of items might be mentioned in the user’s guide…But when was the last time any one of us read one?

  • bluemonq

    I didn’t really want to jump into the whole “obviousness issue”, but MacWorld had a post about it right after launch, on April 3, 2010:
    http://www.macworld.com/article/150356/2010/04/ipadcharging.html
    Note the third bullet point:
    “When connected to lower-power USB ports—those on older Macs, most Windows PCs, and most USB hubs (powered or unpowered)—the iPad’s battery is not charged while the iPad is awake, but is charged (again, slowly) when the iPad is asleep. What’s confusing here is that the message Not charging appears in the menu bar when the iPad is awake, which might lead you to assume that the offending USB port can never charge your iPad. But rest assured, Apple says: once you put the iPad to sleep, the battery will indeed charge.”

    • http://www.geardiary.com Michael Anderson

      I think the point is that for those who didn’t jump right on the bandwagon, this ‘common knowledge’ might still be surprising. For those of us who have had iPods since day one, the first time we plugged into the old FireWire charger in our drawer for years and found it was no longer supported we were surprised. So when we see ‘not charging’ on a USB port? Not a far cry to assume the same thing is going on – especially given the stink Apple made about charging capacities …

  • Kat

    It takes about 30 minutes for 2% of charge. Still, better than having it die!

  • Kat

    It takes about 30 minutes for 2% of charge. Still, better than having it die!

  • Pingback: Finally, You Can Charge Your iPad Directly from Your Laptop With New USB Charger | Gear Diary



Editorials May 22, 2013
by

XBOX One Fallout – No XBOX or X360 Games, No Indies, No Used Games, and More

Xbox One - What about Gaming?

Well, THAT didn’t take long! In fewer than a dozen hours the XBOX One reveal went from being exciting … [...]

Gaming May 22, 2013
by

Cognition Episode 2 The Wise Monkey Slashes onto Mac and PC!

Cognition Episode 2 The Wise Monkey

A few months ago I reviewed the iPad version of the first ‘episode’ of Cognition, the adventure game series from [...]

Crowdfunding May 22, 2013
by

Jagged Alliance Kickstarter Closes in On Goal During Final Hours

Jagged Alliance Flashback

Anyone with a history in classic PC gaming is familiar with the Jagged Alliance franchise. Going back to the 90s, [...]

Events May 22, 2013
by

2014 Kia Cadenza Stylishly Conquers the Pacific Coast

Last week I was invited to test drive the 2014 Kia Cadenza along with a small group of other bloggers [...]

Gaming May 22, 2013
by

Popcornflix Partnership Enhances Digital Movie Xbox 360 Application

The popcorn keeps expanding at the Popcornflix movie streaming service, as Unicorn Media, a leading Internet video solutions provider, announced [...]

News May 22, 2013
by

Carry Yours Cards, Cash and Phone in Style With Waterfield’s New Finn Leather Wallets

With the advent of such things as Google Wallet and Apple’s Passbook there is a growing interest in virtual wallets. [...]