No Pencil by 53 Support on iPad 2017?

[YTolun]

Hi, I've bought a new iPad 2017 last week and I've also purchased Pencil by 53 since it doesn't have Apple Pencil support.

However, I'm not seeing any Pen icon on the artboards or anywhere else for that matter to connect my 53 Pencil. Even though it says on their website that Adobe Draw is compatible.

The same problem also occurs with Sketch.

Is this a way to force people to use iPad Pro? Or am I not seeing the icon?

Thanks in advance.

[Michael J. Hoffman]

Is your iPad an iPad Pro, or a regular iPad?  In another thread, some time back, I read:

"Are you using an iPad Pro? Right now, the only stylus supported in the iPad Pro versions of Adobe Sketch and Adobe Draw is Apple Pencil. Third-party styluses will still work on other iPads."

Read the full thread here:Stylus configuration

Im not sure what the latest status is. Perhaps Sue Garibaldi​ from Adobe can provide a more up to date view.

Mike

[YTolun]

No, I've also seen the same thread but I'm not using a Pro model. I'm using the 5th Gen iPad(minus the air models) that came out in late March 2017.

Seems like a bug on adobe's part, iylt doesn't differentiate between the newer models.

[Sue Garibaldi · Accepted solution]

Hi YT.

Third-party styluses aren't yet supported on the fifth gen iPad. But they will be. Stylus feature have to be explicitly enabled for each iPad model; that doesn't usually happen until the team's vetted a new device and can say with confidence that styluses work.

Third-party stylus support for that device should be in the next update.

I hope that helps.

Sue.

[YTolun]

Thanks for the reply, I'll wait then.

[davidarbor]

I have stylus support in the last Draw now on the new March 2017 iPad, but my Adonit Pixel consistently disconnects after just a few seconds. Below is a screen recording of how quickly the pen disconnects. The looping GIF is perfect because it illustrates exactly what happens. As soon as I reconnect the stylus will just disconnect after the same amount of time.

This happens in both Sketch and Draw. I've reinstalled the app, force quit it, re-paired the stylus, but I still have the same issue. Is there anything I can do, or is the team aware of this issue?

[Sue Garibaldi]

Hi David,

I grabbed one of our engineers as he was walking by and he asked if you could do a couple of tests:

Connect your pen but don't touch the screen with it. Does it disconnect?

Connect the pen and do a series of short strokes (as opposed to one long one. Does it disconnect?

Are you using this stylus in other apps (drawing, note-taking, etc)? Are you having trouble in those apps or just in ours?

May take a bit to hear back but I've also asked someone on the engineering team to test this on our fifth-gen iPad.

Let me know what you find. And thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Sue.

[davidarbor]

Thank you for the insta-reply, Sue!

No, the pen doesn't disconnect if I don't touch it to the screen, but this only gets me so far because palm rejection doesn't work.

Interesting, the stroke length DOES matter here. A series of short strokes, or me handwriting "the quick brown fox" sentence did not disconnect. As soon as I sustained the stroke the stylus disconnected after the same amount of time as it did in the screen recording.

I tried the stylus in Autodesk Sketchbook, and it worked perfectly. Sustained strokes with no disconnect. It's just happening in Sketch and Draw. Other apps without dedicated Stylus support like Comp and Lightroom don't disconnect.

Thanks!

[Sue Garibaldi]

Hi David.

You're so welcome. Thanks for alerting us.

I'm waiting to hear back about whether this is reproducible here, but based on your answers, it sounds like it's our app(s).

I'll post again as soon as I hear/know something more (I suspect this afternoon but perhaps sooner).

Thanks again.

Sue.

[davidarbor]

I'll also add two more things I learned since I wrote you:

I traced over an entire photo with the short strokes and didn't get a disconnect once, which was great! This is the first time since we got the iPad and stylus that this happened (which is only a week, but still).

After that I was showing one of our designers how this is a temporary workaround. I said "see! short strokes work, but these long strokes don't..." except the long strokes did. It's almost like I jumpstarted the stylus into working better. I was able to get it to disconnect in Sketch quickly, and I think eventually got it to disconnect in Draw.

The second issue is that when the stylus does disconnect in Draw and I reconnect it, I can't draw anything. I have to go through a myriad of weird little things (that I naturally haven't documented) to get it to work. Basically, a hodge podge of trying random things, creating new layers, force quitting the app. Something eventually works/

[Sue Garibaldi]

Thanks David.

All of this is super helpful; I just passed it along to the product team.

Sue.

[Sue Garibaldi]

David.

Just wanted you to know I haven't forgotten.... I just checked in again with the Draw team.

Sue.

[Sue Garibaldi]

David.

So sorry for taking so long to write back (a mixup with the engineers).

Unfortunately they weren't able to reproduce the problem you're having. I have a video I want you to look at to see if you spot anything I've missed. Is it okay if I send it to the email addy you use on the forums?

Sue.

[davidarbor]

Thanks for the reply, Sue! Yup, feel free to use that email address.

[Sue Garibaldi]

David.

Just sent it.

Sue.