Originally Posted by sangej01

Yes, when I say 'reset ipad' i mean hold both the power and the home button together until the Apple logo appears.

I hesitate to uninstall iTunes from my Mac (not that I even know how to do it yet) because my backup of the iPad is there .... would hate to lose it. Yes, I know i have, theoretically, a copy of everything in two places ... the iPad itself and my host Mac iTunes ... but i don't know which device is currently to blame and hence I don't really know which copy of my apps/data is expendable and which one is not!

I do have another Mac in the house ... a MacBook Pro .... i COULD plug my iPad into another mac, but i am nervous about losing the relationship between the iPad and my host Macbook Air (as dysfunctional as it is!). Any guidance here would be appreciated, of course.

On a Mac you deinstall iTunes by dragging it into the trash. You reinstall it by downloading the newest version from Apple's site. Your library is unaffected by this.

However, if your library is corrupt replacing iTunes won't help. Besides, the update probably already replaced iTunes. It usually does.

You are safe enough plugging the iPad into the MBP to see what happens, as long as you don't say yes when it asks you to erase the iPad. At least you'd be able to see if the iPad locks up again. That would help determine whether it's the computer or iPad.

If it is the computer, we can walk you through moving your iTunes library to the new machine if that seems like a good idea. Or, if you've got an Apple store near you could make an appointment and hand the whole mess to them.

Gota agree with col.bris about repairing permissions. It's saved me some headaches in the past.

Belatedly, two other things occur to me. They probably should have been the first.

If you have not done so, to into iTunes (before you connect the iPad) go to preferences, Devices, and turn off automatic syncing. It would be good to know if things go crazy just because you plug the iPad in, or when iTunes decides you need to sync.

Second, if it the first stops the lockups on plug in, maybe be it is the backup file.

Another person recently reported problems with frozen syncs, and it was cleared by deleting the backup file. You can do this in the same place that you turned off auto-syncing.

Hope that helps.

Repaired Permissions, to no avail. Plugged iPad into another MacBook Air, with similar results .... Does this necesarilly imply hardware damage somehow to ipad port?

The port, or something else on the iPad seems likely.

Resolution! Apple Support had me plug the ipad in to the Mac while holding the Home button down; this put the iPad into Recovery mode ... was able to restore (and, incidentally update iPad software to latest release) to factory settings, then restore from backup. Took a few hours, but iPad is back to normal. Thank you to all for you comments. Deeply appreciated.

Glad you got it fixed. Those Apple Tech guys usually know what they are doing.