How to identify new iPad icons near battery indicator?

Just wondering if someone got any definitive answers on this?

my symbol has been there for 3 days now and is pulsing light blue/dark blue.

(not sure that if its downloading or syncing it should take that long?)

I guess that you are referring to this new status icon:

Yours is one of many reports seen in recent days. This new icon appears to be undocumented by Apple at this time.

My own extensive testing has demonstrated this icon to indicate that a download to the iPad is occurring (you'll note from my screenshot that a download from a website is partially complete). When switching away from Safari to use another App, allowing the Safari to complete the download as background task, the new status icon will persist in view until the background download is completed.

Apple's documentation is often slow to catch-up with new features. Here is another status icon - that appears briefly when connecting some USB-C hubs - that Apple have yet to add to their documentation:

my wife’s 5th generation iPad, 18.2.1, had it appear too. Hard reset it went away. I have not seen it on my M4 IPad Pro yet. This is the symbol.

Hey. I first noticed this on 01/03/25, but it had been on my iPad Mini for probably a few days already. I called Apple Support. Very long phone call, but they were able to verify 1) that this forum post is the only available screen shot (nice work @LotusPilot); and 2)that they don't know what it is either. They helped me troubleshoot some security settings – there were a few unrecognized phone numbers from the EU/K in my 'trusted phone numbers' that I got rid of; but the whole process of screen sharing with the Apple rep solved the situation by replacing the mystery icon with the rep's purple screen share icon. So, they gave me a case ID# and I called it a night.

It showed up again tonight for the first time. I called Apple Support, reopened the case. None of the security infos have changed, but strangely I wasn't allowed to Accept the screen share, but only Reject: twice. Third time I rotated the screen to portrait, and it worked. That, and the fact that it got replaced/annihilated by the screen share icon again, as well as noticing that the mystery icon was both faintly pulsing and impervious to any action or dialogue whatsoever, leads me to agree with @varjak paw (thank you) that it's an exploit designed to sync or share information. However, it doesn't exist at the handy 'status icons meaning'-link provided.

This time I'm going to get a callback tomorrow – they don't have any new infos, but they're looking into it. I'm not optimistic, but at least it goes away after screen sharing with the Apple rep (only known resolution).

He wasn’t correct though. It was clarified by Apple today that the symbol indicated an app is downloading a file in the background. The list that was carelessly shared by the other guy and didn’t even include the blue logo with the cog and arrows. If it was easy to find on a list then we would not be here trying to find a solution.

This symbol is related to syncing between devices. I noticed it after updating to 18.2.1 on my iPad. I also have an iPhone but haven’t updated it yet. After checking “Screen Time” under “Settings”, I noticed that it was showing the use of “Apps and Website Activity” of both devices. 

I listen to Podcasts on my iPhone but not on my iPad. I also use YouTube on my iPad but not on my iPhone. When I view “Screen Time”, it shows data from All Devices, but I can toggle on and off to view my screen time on each synched devices. 

So, this new symbol shows that data is being synced between these two devices and even though I haven’t yet updated my iPhone and it doesn’t have the new symbol, I can see the exact use of data on both. I’m fairly certain that this new symbol will show up on my iPhone if and when I update to 18.2.1

This syncing also occurs even if both devices are not connected to each other by Bluetooth or Hotspot. 

DavidR1378 wrote:

Can I add to this with my experience and it might make some sense. This only appeared on my iPad on the 3rd January 2025 which is a relevant date. We changed from copper wire to fibre optic cable on that day. As soon as we were up and running the little icon appeared. Is it possible this means you are connected to fibre optic network not cable anymore? Just my four pennies worth. Hope this helps.

Appearance of this icon and your switch to full-fibre broadband is nothing more than coincidence. Other Users that have noticed appearance of this icon are known to be using other (non-fibre) network bearers.

While purely speculative until Apple offers some other explanation, it is perhaps possible that the appearance of this new icon, seen for short periods after updating to iPadOS 18.x, is linked to background download of LLM (Large Language Models) that are used by Apple's updated Machine Learning and Apple Intelligence functionality.

Once initially downloaded to the target device, these models are infrequently updated - and this, possibly, might explain why this icon only appears sporadically while models are initially downloaded and installed.

It’s notification of a download not complete. Cancel the download it goes away

Hey. Thanks for participating! Please climb down off of your soapbox. I received a callback from Apple, and they’re escalating the issue to the next level of assessment. That icon is not in that list.

Have a great day!

…wait – you’re not responding to me though. I think we’re saying the same thing. Still, vpaw’s just trying to help.

This is definitely NOT the usual syncing symbol; unless they decided to make it persistently appear and make it more obviously annoying.

From what I can see it’s actually a tiny gear surrounded by arrows.

Please look carefully at the posted image from the user and the images on the list you linked to. You are incorrect. When people are concerned about an issue that doesn’t seem to have a solution they do not need misinformation from a careless people.

More helpful than criticizing others, why don’t you back up “it was clarified by Apple today” with some links or screen shots of your own? I mean, if you’re policing absolute acccuracy. Why don’t you have to prove prove your worth to this thread to the standard you’re holding others to?

people are allowed to be ‘careless’, ‘inaccurate’, or even downright wrong. That’s what trust or reputation scores are for, like upvotes or downvotes. It’s a crowdsourcing dynamic, a community forum, not a competition; your criticism helps nobody either.

After updating to iPadOS 18.4 and downloading a large ZIP file that icon appeared on my iPad as well. It persisted after the download was complete but disappeared again after I cleared the download from the Safari toolbar icon and locked the iPad screen (I did both in short succession, so I am not sure which of the two actions did the trick).

That indicates that it's syncing, most likely with a computer.

For more information on the various symbols, see:

Learn the meaning of the iPad status icons - Apple Support

Regards.