Adobe software on M2 iPad not fit for purpose

Barks · 15 Sep 2023 at 07:16

I’ve had the M2 iPad Pro for around 8 months now. When I try and edit RAW photos in Lightroom, or do other intensive tasks, after a short while (in some cases 30 seconds) the screen dims to the point where it’s not even usable. It’s not a software issue, this happens across many different versions of iPad OS and Lightroom.

Apparently this is a safety feature designed to stop the CPU from overheating and protect other components. I’ve seen this happen with my iPhone extremely rarely but it seems to be very common with the M2 iPad. Adobe pretty much said the same - and all I can do is enable ‘battery saving’ mode which stops the screen dimming but then the performance is terrible.

I find this frustrating and it seems to be a major design flaw of the iPad Pro. Why bother fitting a V12 engine in a car and then not giving it adequate cooling so that after a few minutes of spirited driving the power is bottlenecked— what is the point of the V12 in the first place?

Reason for this thread is I want to know if any other M2 iPad Pro owners experience this issue? To be honest I’ve just been living with it but I’m getting more and more into photography and it’s starting to grate now. I have Apple Care Plus so I may ask them to send me a new one if other people aren’t having the same issue.

Oh Ed not again. · 15 Sep 2023 at 08:14

Apple have always been form over function when it comes to cooling.

Their Unibody MacBooks used to get so hot the Nvidia GPU chip would detach from the board. Fans running at full tilt just to run a second display etc. Apple have been hit with class action lawsuits over their less than adequate thermal designs.

You have a passively cooled device, which although has a very low TDP will heat soak over time as the device cannot dissipate the heat.

The price you pay for silent, slim device.

Fast, cool, silent. You can only pick two.

Shadowness · 15 Sep 2023 at 08:20

Did you post in the iPhone 15 thread?

I'll reply here again, but I have an M2 iPad Pro and haven't had these issues. I'm editing XT-5 RAW files on it without an issue, and have'nt had any overheating from it at all in any use.
I'll admit I've not done super heavy sessions (like hours) but even up to an hour or so it's been fine. (to the point I've held off getting a new Macbook or similar as it seems up to the job).

ChrisD. · 15 Sep 2023 at 08:43

Sounds broken to me, mine doesn’t do this.

Feek · 15 Sep 2023 at 08:57

Never heard of behaviour like this. Have you spoken to Apple about it? It sounds like it’s faulty.

malachi · 15 Sep 2023 at 09:04

Yeah, I would get it check at the Apple store.

arty · 15 Sep 2023 at 09:15

I’ve done some pretty heavy work on my M1 iPad (sustained large video encoding etc), and it’s never gone beyond slightly warm to the touch. I appreciate that yours is a newer model, but I’d agree that something is amiss.

Barks · 15 Sep 2023 at 09:54

Shadowness said:
Did you post in the iPhone 15 thread?

I'll reply here again, but I have an M2 iPad Pro and haven't had these issues. I'm editing XT-5 RAW files on it without an issue, and have'nt had any overheating from it at all in any use.
I'll admit I've not done super heavy sessions (like hours) but even up to an hour or so it's been fine. (to the point I've held off getting a new Macbook or similar as it seems up to the job).

Yes was going to mention I did as that was the reason for posting this to get a feel for whether anyone else experienced the same issues. I cannot edit XT-5 RAW files for more than 45 seconds before the screen dim kicks in, let alone "heavy sessions"

Feek · 15 Sep 2023 at 10:01

Barks said:
I cannot edit XT-5 RAW files for more than 45 seconds before the screen dim kicks in, let alone "heavy sessions"

That's proper broken, get it into Apple while you've still got AppleCare.

Shadowness · 15 Sep 2023 at 11:46

Barks said:
Yes was going to mention I did as that was the reason for posting this to get a feel for whether anyone else experienced the same issues. I cannot edit XT-5 RAW files for more than 45 seconds before the screen dim kicks in, let alone "heavy sessions"

Yeh that's not right. I was editing RAW files for about 20 mins last night with no issues at all.

dannyjo22 · 15 Sep 2023 at 16:54

I got my M1 iPad Pro switched out under warranty because it would get stupidly hot. It would get hot just surfing webpages let along playing a game. They checked it out and agreed the fault and replaced it. New one hasn't suffered that issue.

Barks · 16 Sep 2023 at 06:04

Thanks very much everyone, feeling very lucky I took out AC on it now. Will give them a ring and hopefully get it replaced. If I can get one that does all the Lightroom work without overheating then it really is the perfect device for me.

Shadowness · 16 Sep 2023 at 06:52

Surely it’s still under warranty even without AC?

eggbert · 16 Sep 2023 at 14:31

Yeah get this to Apple. This doesn’t sound right at all. I am the first to admit to apples shortcomings but my M1 iPad‘s performance isn’t one of them

Barks · 22 May 2024 at 10:19

Adobe finally acknowledged this and fixed it with the 9.3 update released yesterday!

Maccy · 22 May 2024 at 11:53

Barks said:
Adobe finally acknowledged this and fixed it with the 9.3 update released yesterday!

What happened when you contacted Apple?

Barks · 22 May 2024 at 14:44

Maccy said:
What happened when you contacted Apple?

Apple basically said nothing to do with them and my iPad was healthy so didn’t replace it (which turned out to be correct).

Adobe support did nothing initially. I then emailed the CEO and got put through to an engineer and after a few exchanges nothing seemed to happen. Fast forward a few months and yesterday one of their software engineers posted that the problem had been fixed on their support forums.

The annoying thing is they denied it initially when a Google search at any time over the past year clearly revealed there is a problem across Apple devices. A workaround was using battery saver mode which limits the CPU/GPU so it was always going to be a software optimisation issue. Anyway, it now runs flawlessly and the rear surface of my iPad doesn’t heat up to ridiculous levels like it used to. I would be intrigued to know what they did and what actually caused it but happy that I can now finally do photography work on my M2 iPad without these issues.

Feek · 31 May 2024 at 10:30

So should I update the subject to say "Adobe software on iPad not fit for purpose (now resolved)", otherwise it's a bit misleading?

Barks · 31 May 2024 at 16:03

Feek said:
So should I update the subject to say "Adobe software on iPad not fit for purpose (now resolved)", otherwise it's a bit misleading?

Sure. Although I'm still yet to have a proper editing session on it since the update but they've definitely improved it.

And the fact remains in the new one the M4 will never be able to run at peak performance for any meaningful period of time without active cooling, I go back to my V12 engine analogy :cry:

Barks · Tuesday at 06:09

It turns out the issue still isn’t fixed. Tried to edit 500 wedding photos last night and it was an absolute nightmare. I guess this is end of the road for me with Adobe now.