I've got IPad II (2012ish) ... I plug it in an get the charging icon in upper right corner ... but then after a few minutes ... not charging ... #WTFO?

Try Apple Cables and Apple Charger. Sometimes OEM brand chips that regulate the charging process are faulty.

When it was last charged, did it show 100%? If it did, how long did it take to discharge completely when in use?
One of my older iPads, a 2017/2018 model and now allocated to the kids, will take several hours to charge to 100%, but within an hour of use has dropped to about 25%, then shuts off. The battery is shot.

That the battery in your iPad is over a decade old, and batteries like this can be down 20% of their ‘health’ within 18months normal use. If the battery is no longer viable, I’d question whether it’s drawing too much current for the charger circuit, which is switching off.

iPad 2- did this still use the wide 30pin connector? The larger chargers also tended to have short lives. I think the earlier chargers were only 10watt, while later chargers from when iPads had the later lightning cable were 12watt.
Are you using a higher capacity charger?

iPhone chargers are only 5watt.
My aunt made this mistake with her Kindle and a Samsung phone. The kindle taking forever to charge, but her phone charging normally. She’d never used the genuine kindle charger, assuming that the Samsung charger was the same because the connector was identical.

John Bingham wrote: ↑Fri Dec 15, 2023 3:47 pm

You do know that some people might just be dumb enough, right?