iPad 7th gen: Fast battery drain and Home Screen layout issues

The short battery life is inevitably due to the iPad's age. Rechargeable batteries are a consumable item - that sooner or later will need to be replaced to restore normal performance. A rapid drop in reported battery charge is a reliable indicator of the battery nearing the end of its useful lifespan. An iPad battery is rated to retain 80% of its original capacity (when new) after 1000 charge cycles; every full charge cycle reduces the capacity of the battery by a tiny amount, this degradation being cumulative.

For the time being, using your iPad while it is connected to its Power Adapter will allow you to use the iPad normally. However, if [when] the battery completely dies, the iPad will be unusable.

Moving on to the Passcode being required instead of TouchID... As documented by Apple in its Security Guide, for devices with TouchID or FaceID enabled, your device Passcode is always required in the following circumstances…

A passcode or password is also required if the device is in any of the following states:

• The device has just been turned on or restarted

• The user has logged out of their Mac account (or hasn’t yet logged in).

• The user hasn’t unlocked their device for more than 48 hours.

• The user hasn’t used their passcode or password to unlock their device for 156 hours (six and a half days), and the user hasn’t used a biometric to unlock their device in

4 hours.

• The device has received a remote lock command

• The user exited power off / Emergency SOS by pressing and holding either volume button and the Sleep/Wake button simultaneously for 2 seconds and then pressing Cancel.

• There were five unsuccessful biometric match attempts (though for usability, the device might offer entering a passcode or password instead of using biometrics after a smaller number of failures).

When Face ID with a mask is enabled on an iPhone, it’s available for the next 6.5 hours after one of the following user actions:

• Successful Face ID match attempt (with or without a mask)

• Device passcode validation

• Device unlock with Apple Watch

Any of these actions extends the period by an additional 6.5 hours when performed.

As for your Home Screen layout, this will be reset along with other device settings when you perform a reset.

Starting with iPadOS 18, Apple introduced a security mechanism that automatically reboots the device if it remains locked and idle. If memory serves correctly, the automatic restart occurs at 72 hours (3 days).

This restart re-locks and protects encrypted data at rest.

Thanks LotusPilot for that prompt reply. In response..

Point 1 - I knew the battery would be aging and reducing in efficiency but assumed (wrongly) that if I used it plugged in then the battery 'didn't matter'.

Point 2 - I am aware of the instances that the passcode is needed. I can only assume in my case that the ipad had restarted for some reason and needed the password after that. Seems ok currently.

Finally, re the stacks/widgets re-appearing. I have never had this issue before although I have read about others that have had it. Mine seemed to start after the ipad 'reset'. I assumed that the ios I was previously running was the same as the one 'reloaded' after the reset. Maybe not. Anyway since then I have had no restarts so not seen the home page 'revert'. I did read another thread that suggested that the solution was to delete the widgets/stacks individually and restart in between deletions. Seems like a strange process but if it happens again I will give it a try.

Thanks again for taking the troouble to help me. S