Getting it all working again by using the iPad reset button

There are times when there is going to be nothing else that you can do except for hitting the iPad reset button and doing an iPad reset to factory settings. Situations when you might need to do something like this, could be if the iPad won’t turn on or if the display has stopped responding. Perhaps if the iPad doesn’t appear within iTunes or it is not possible for you to synchronise your iPad. There again, another problem could be that you are unable to access e-mail or the web across your Wi-Fi network. Then the best thing to do is to go into the iPad basic troubleshooting process.

Getting ready for doing a round of basic troubleshooting

Things will go a whole lot better if you do have the latest version of iTunes on your Mac or your Windows PC. See that you have your iPad connected, using a good USB 2 port. There are some USB ports which are not as good as others and in general, people find that the USB port which is closest to the power sockets on the MacBook Pro is a better one to use. Changing the USB port that you’re using isn’t always going to have an effect upon how this iPad setup is going to work out, but it might be best not to leave anything to chance. Before you do anything else see that your iPad software is also up to date. To do this, what you do is to, click on the Check for Updates button in the iTunes section, that is entitled Summary. It also makes sense to make sure that the battery is at full charge, so grab your 10w USB adapter for power that you got with your iPad and give it at least a 20 min charge. This will make sure that during the troubleshooting, you’re going to do now will not be affected by a lack of battery power.

Doing an iPad reset if the iPad doesn’t turn on

This is an old favourite with all computers, that all the IT people that work in the help desks will often use if nothing else works – Turn the iPad off and turn it back on again. To do this you have to press and hold the button at the top of the iPad, which is the sleep or wake button, hold it for a few seconds until you see a red slider. When you slide the red slider across, the iPad will completely shut down. To turn it back on again you press the on button until the Apple logo appears on the screen. Then to do the iPad reset, press and hold the iPad reset button and the home button at the same time. You need to hold them down for at least 10 seconds and until the Apple logo appears on the screen.

A problem with connecting the iPad by USB

If you can see your iPad in iTunes and it is proving impossible to synchronise the iPad, then you might want to disconnect all other USB devices and perhaps reconnect the iPad to a different USB port on the computer. This might help, if it doesn’t do the trick, then try turning the iPad on and off again and then afterwards also restart your computer. If none of this has worked then the next step would be to do a reinstall of the latest version of iTunes.

Starting to get a bit desperate when nothing else works

There is still a possibility that the iPad might not respond after you have done the iPad reset to have the iPad reset all settings. A true geek might get out a rubber chicken and start waving it around over the iPad chanting strange voodoo sounds, but there are still other options. One option might be to get the iPad to go into recovery mode, so that you can have the iPad reset to factory settings. It is also possible that if the conditions are right, the iPhone or iPad or iPod Touch will automatically go into the recovery mode if you have had an update or restore difficultly.

Getting the device to go into the recovery mode

First of all unhook the USB cable from your iDevice, but have the USB cable still connected to the computer and ready to use. Turn the device off as per the instructions above, or use the reset buttons if the red slider is not working. The next thing to do is to press and hold down the home button and at the same time reconnect the USB cable to your device. Your device should turn on at this stage. Make sure that the battery is fully charged up before proceeding. What you do then is to continue holding the home button until you see a message saying connect to iTunes, then you can release that button. If it is necessary to do so, when you look in iTunes you should see a recovery mode alert dialogue box. You will then be able to use iTunes to restore the device.

It may all seem a little bit strange, but in truth it is very unlikely that you will need to do all of this iPad reset jiggery-pokery using the iPad reset button. If all else fails and you still need some more help, or you would just rather go and get help in the first place, then don’t forget that those Apple geniuses are in the Apple stores. I would go to the Apple Store Barcelona from here and talk to one of those guys to get help. Hopefully these tips have been useful and your iPad is back up and running again.