How to Know If Your Apple Pencil Is Charging (iPadOS 16)
Your Apple Pencil charger can be a tricky thing to figure out, so here’s how to tell if your Apple Pencil is charging for the Apple Pencil 1 and 2.
“How do I know if my Apple Pencil is charging?” I asked this question not too long ago, and it turned out that my Apple Pencil was not charging, and was in fact broken, which underlined the need to be able to tell if your Apple Pencil is charging. The Apple Pencil 1 and Apple Pencil 2 have different charging mechanisms and ways to let you know that they’re charging, so we’ll go over both. Here’s how to tell if your Apple Pencil is charging.
Related: How to Find Out Who an Unknown Caller Is (2022)
Jump To:
- How to Know If Your Apple Pencil 1 Is Charging
- How to Know If Your Apple Pencil 2 Is Charging
- How to Check If Your Apple Pencil Is Charging in Settings
- How to Check Apple Pencil Battery in Today View
How to Know If Your Apple Pencil 1 Is Charging
In order for your Apple Pencil 1 to charge, you’ll need to plug it directly into the Lightning connector on your iPad, or use the Apple Pencil charging adapter that was included when you bought your Apple Pencil. If your Apple Pencil 1 is not plugged in, it is not charging. If it is plugged in, it should be charging, but we’ll go over how to double-check that below.
Related: Apple Pencil Guide: Tips & Tricks for Everyday Users
How to Know If Your Apple Pencil 2 Is Charging
All you have to do is attach the flat part of your Apple Pencil 2 to the right side of your iPad via the magnetic connection to charge it. A bubble will appear briefly at the top of your screen that says “Apple Pencil” followed by a percentage next to a green battery icon with a charging lightning bolt symbol. For more handy tricks to know your devices are working, check out our Tip of the Day.
How to Check If Your Apple Pencil Is Charging in Settings
If you aren’t sure your Apple Pencil is charging and want to confirm:
- Open Settings and select Apple Pencil.
- Next to where it says Apple Pencil at the top, you’ll see a battery icon. If the battery icon is green with a lightning bolt symbol, your Apple Pencil is charging. If it is gray without the symbol, it is not.
How to Check Apple Pencil Battery in Today View
Another easy way to tell if your Apple Pencil is charging is by looking at the Apple Pencil widget in Today View to see the pencil’s battery status.
- To know if your Apple Pencil is charging via Today View, from your home screen, swipe from left to right until you reach the Today View.
- Then, you can see your Apple Pencil’s battery status via the Apple Pencil widget. If you do not see the Apple Pencil widget, keep reading.
- Scroll down to and tap Edit.
- Tap the add button to add a widget.
- Tap Battery.
- You can select which widget style you’d like.
- Then, tap Add Widget.
- Finally, tap Done to finish customizing Today View.
You should now always be able to view your Apple Pencil’s battery as well as other connected devices in Today View! This is a really simple and convenient way to view the Apple Pencil battery and how to tell if the Apple Pencil is charging. The Apple Pencil has a pretty long battery life, but you never want to be caught with a dead pencil when you need it the most!
