How To: Put your iPad into Recovery Mode

[mk1151]

I wrote this as a response to another thread, but realized it may be useful for all, since I saw a few asking how to do this in the "iPad Hacking" forum as well.

Recovery Mode is how to start all over again on your iPad like new. It erases everything, even the operating system, and reloads directly from Apple. Once that is done, if you have performed a backup of your iPad in the past, you will be able to restore all of your configuration settings and preferences after the reload occurs.

Reasons for using Recovery Mode:
- You jailbroke your iPad and want to make sure all strangeness and problematic code and logs are gone

- Your iPad isn't working quite right and you want to see if starting from the beginning will fix it

- You want to sell your iPad but ensure there are no artifacts or remnants of your personal data, apps, and settings on the device

Again, the below instructions will start you over like an iPad direct from the factory.

To prepare for a recovery mode restore, have the following ready:
- Your computer (plugged in to power) ready with iTunes up and running
- Your iPad synch cable plugged into your computer but NOT your iPad
- Make sure your iPad is at least at 20% battery, preferably higher

NOTE: Do NOT touch the iPad once recovery begins. Make sure your computer doesn't suspend, sleep, or shut down while the process is going on.

Steps:
- Sitting next to your computer, take your iPad (which should NOT be connected to your PC) and hold down the sleep button (on the top of the iPad) and the home button (front of the iPad) at the same time

- After about 10-15 seconds, the unit will power off (do not do anything when the "slide to power off" screen appears, just keep holding the buttons)

- When the iPad turns back on, you will see the silver Apple appear on the screen. Continue holding down the home button but release the sleep button and immediatly plug the iPad into your computer running iTunes

- You should see a symbol appear on the iPad with a picture of a USB cable with an arrow pointing to the iTunes logo. iTunes will then say that it detected an iPad in recovery mode.

- Let iTunes restore the device. It will download a fresh copy of firmware, install it, and verify the SW.
NOTE: This may take a while. iTunes needs to download about 500MB from the Apple server, then it will start the loader on the iPad, and load the OS.

- After iTunes said that is successfully restored your device, you may get an error message saying the iPad isn't recognized and you're still at the screen with the USB cable and iTunes logo on the iPad. Don't sweat it. Unplug the iPad from the computer. Power off the iPad by holding the sleep button until you see the "slide to power off" - go ahead and slide to power off. Once it is shut down, push the sleep button again until it powers on.

- the iPad will come back to the familiar USB cable/iTunes logo. When it does, just plug it back into your computer and iTunes will activate the iPad.

- if you had previously backed up your iPad, iTunes will tell you there is a backup and ask if you would like it restored. If you wish to do this, accept the prompt. This will also take some time. Note it will NOT put your apps, music, movies, TV shows, etc back on your iPad, just your settings and preferences.

- once the restore is complete, iTunes should recognize your iPad and you can pick your synching options (apps, music, movies, etc, etc) and have a blast! The only thing I noticed it doesn't retain is the page layouts for your apps, so either screen capture them before you begin, or write it down.

I hope this helps the community!

 

[col.bris]

I wrote this as a response to another thread, but realized it may be useful for all, since I saw a few asking how to do this in the "iPad Hacking" forum as well.

Recovery Mode is how to start all over again on your iPad like new. It erases everything, even the operating system, and reloads directly from Apple. Once that is done, if you have performed a backup of your iPad in the past, you will be able to restore all of your configuration settings and preferences after the reload occurs.

Reasons for using Recovery Mode:
- You jailbroke your iPad and want to make sure all strangeness and problematic code and logs are gone

- Your iPad isn't working quite right and you want to see if starting from the beginning will fix it

- You want to sell your iPad but ensure there are no artifacts or remnants of your personal data, apps, and settings on the device

Again, the below instructions will start you over like an iPad direct from the factory.

To prepare for a recovery mode restore, have the following ready:
- Your computer (plugged in to power) ready with iTunes up and running
- Your iPad synch cable plugged into your computer but NOT your iPad
- Make sure your iPad is at least at 20% battery, preferably higher

NOTE: Do NOT touch the iPad once recovery begins. Make sure your computer doesn't suspend, sleep, or shut down while the process is going on.

Steps:
- Sitting next to your computer, take your iPad (which should NOT be connected to your PC) and hold down the sleep button (on the top of the iPad) and the home button (front of the iPad) at the same time

- After about 10-15 seconds, the unit will power off (do not do anything when the "slide to power off" screen appears, just keep holding the buttons)

- When the iPad turns back on, you will see the silver Apple appear on the screen. Continue holding down the home button but release the sleep button and immediatly plug the iPad into your computer running iTunes

- You should see a symbol appear on the iPad with a picture of a USB cable with an arrow pointing to the iTunes logo. iTunes will then say that it detected an iPad in recovery mode.

- Let iTunes restore the device. It will download a fresh copy of firmware, install it, and verify the SW.
NOTE: This may take a while. iTunes needs to download about 500MB from the Apple server, then it will start the loader on the iPad, and load the OS.

- After iTunes said that is successfully restored your device, you may get an error message saying the iPad isn't recognized and you're still at the screen with the USB cable and iTunes logo on the iPad. Don't sweat it. Unplug the iPad from the computer. Power off the iPad by holding the sleep button until you see the "slide to power off" - go ahead and slide to power off. Once it is shut down, push the sleep button again until it powers on.

- the iPad will come back to the familiar USB cable/iTunes logo. When it does, just plug it back into your computer and iTunes will activate the iPad.

- if you had previously backed up your iPad, iTunes will tell you there is a backup and ask if you would like it restored. If you wish to do this, accept the prompt. This will also take some time. Note it will NOT put your apps, music, movies, TV shows, etc back on your iPad, just your settings and preferences.

- once the restore is complete, iTunes should recognize your iPad and you can pick your synching options (apps, music, movies, etc, etc) and have a blast! The only thing I noticed it doesn't retain is the page layouts for your apps, so either screen capture them before you begin, or write it down.

I hope this helps the community!

Thanks for that it is very useful It is more detailed than I give to members but considering the number of users whom are new to Apple and iphone ipad it will ease the pain when some thing goes wrong.

 

[iVan]

I put this thread under my Favorites/Bookmarks.

Thank you MK1151!

 

[lilman]

Is there a benefit of going into recovery mode instead of just going straight to the restore? I thought that if you connect your iPad to iTunes and click "restore" that it would erase your iPad and reinstall the os. I did that a few days ago when I jailbreaked, still couldn't access my full iPad file system (I didn't know about afc2add), and so I restored through iTunes and it seemed to give me a blank slate again.

 

[mk1151]

Is there a benefit of going into recovery mode instead of just going straight to the restore? I thought that if you connect your iPad to iTunes and click "restore" that it would erase your iPad and reinstall the os. I did that a few days ago when I jailbreaked, still couldn't access my full iPad file system (I didn't know about afc2add), and so I restored through iTunes and it seemed to give me a blank slate again.

You're not wiping the device with a fresh image - you're restoring an image already on your local machine when you do a restore. Apparently there are tools that Apple techs possess that will allow them to see error reports and root logs that indicate activity on the system.

Recovery mode is designed not for "clean slate" but genuine "out of the box".

 

[Takenover83]

I thought all you had to do was hit shift+restore, and choose your firmware that you have stored locally. The method described in post #1 should be used when all else fails or maybe when jail breaking.

 

[lilman]

You're not wiping the device with a fresh image - you're restoring an image already on your local machine when you do a restore. Apparently there are tools that Apple techs possess that will allow them to see error reports and root logs that indicate activity on the system.

Recovery mode is designed not for "clean slate" but genuine "out of the box".

Ah, thanks for the info. I will save these instructions in case I need to restore again.

 

[lilman]

I followed your instructions but had trouble entering recovery mode. After a few step tweaks I was able to do it. I've pink underlined my changes below:

I wrote this as a response to another thread, but realized it may be useful for all, since I saw a few asking how to do this in the "iPad Hacking" forum as well.

Recovery Mode is how to start all over again on your iPad like new. It erases everything, even the operating system, and reloads directly from Apple. Once that is done, if you have performed a backup of your iPad in the past, you will be able to restore all of your configuration settings and preferences after the reload occurs.

Reasons for using Recovery Mode:
- You jailbroke your iPad and want to make sure all strangeness and problematic code and logs are gone

- Your iPad isn't working quite right and you want to see if starting from the beginning will fix it

- You want to sell your iPad but ensure there are no artifacts or remnants of your personal data, apps, and settings on the device

Again, the below instructions will start you over like an iPad direct from the factory.

To prepare for a recovery mode restore, have the following ready:
- Your computer (plugged in to power) ready with iTunes not running
- Your iPad synch cable plugged into your computer but NOT your iPad
- Make sure your iPad is greater than 20% battery, preferably higher

NOTE: Do NOT touch the iPad once recovery begins. Make sure your computer doesn't suspend, sleep, or shut down while the process is going on.

Steps:
- Sitting next to your computer, take your iPad (which should NOT be connected to your PC) and hold down the sleep button (on the top of the iPad) and the home button (front of the iPad) at the same time

- After about 10-15 seconds, the unit will power off (do not do anything when the "slide to power off" screen appears, just keep holding the buttons. Once the iPad is off you can release the sleep button, but continue holding the home button.)

- Plug in the usb adapter to the iPad while still holding the home button. The iPad will eventually turn back on and a message will appear on your computer that your iPad has entered recovery mode and iTunes wants to restore it. You can now release the home button.

- Let iTunes restore the device. It will download a fresh copy of firmware, install it, and verify the SW.
NOTE: This may take a while. iTunes needs to download about 500MB from the Apple server, then it will start the loader on the iPad, and load the OS.

- After iTunes said that is successfully restored your device, you may get an error message saying the iPad isn't recognized and you're still at the screen with the USB cable and iTunes logo on the iPad. Don't sweat it. Unplug the iPad from the computer. Power off the iPad by holding the sleep button until you see the "slide to power off" - go ahead and slide to power off. Once it is shut down, push the sleep button again until it powers on.

- the iPad will come back to the familiar USB cable/iTunes logo. When it does, just plug it back into your computer and iTunes will activate the iPad.

- if you had previously backed up your iPad, iTunes will tell you there is a backup and ask if you would like it restored. If you wish to do this, accept the prompt. This will also take some time. Note it will NOT put your apps, music, movies, TV shows, etc back on your iPad, just your settings and preferences.

- once the restore is complete, iTunes should recognize your iPad and you can pick your synching options (apps, music, movies, etc, etc) and have a blast! The only thing I noticed it doesn't retain is the page layouts for your apps, so either screen capture them before you begin, or write it down.

I hope this helps the community!

 

[lowlife]

@mk1151 very well written. I book marked your posting and thanks

 

[IPad-Fan-64]

Useful information thanks for sharing.

 

[LAD]

Thank you!

Hi mk1151,

thank you for the very informative and useful tips on "recovery mode". i had a similar problem and panicked and asked friends to help out. when i came across your solution, you just don't know how much relief it gave me. thank you so much! you're heavent sent!

 

[Kizard]

Recovery from jailbreak gone bad

I tried using the above procedure to enter recovery mode after attempting to jail break my iPad, and being stuck perpetually at the silver apple screen. After several FAILED attempts, I was able to successfully enter recovery mode by doing the following modifications shown in BLUE:

Recovery Mode is how to start all over again on your iPad like new. It erases everything, even the operating system, and reloads directly from Apple. Once that is done, if you have performed a backup of your iPad in the past, you will be able to restore all of your configuration settings and preferences after the reload occurs.

Reasons for using Recovery Mode:
- You jailbroke your iPad and want to make sure all strangeness and problematic code and logs are gone

- Your iPad isn't working quite right and you want to see if starting from the beginning will fix it

- You want to sell your iPad but ensure there are no artifacts or remnants of your personal data, apps, and settings on the device

Again, the below instructions will start you over like an iPad direct from the factory.

To prepare for a recovery mode restore, have the following ready:
- Your computer (plugged in to power) ready with iTunes running.
- Your iPad synch cable plugged into your computer AND your iPad
- Make sure your iPad is 20% battery, preferably higher

NOTE: Do NOT touch the iPad once recovery begins. Make sure your computer doesn't suspend, sleep, or shut down while the process is going on.

Steps:
- Sitting next to your computer, take your iPad (which should be connected to your PC) and hold down the sleep button (on the top of the iPad) and the home button (front of the iPad) at the same time

- After about 10-15 seconds, the unit will power off (do not do anything when the "slide to power off" screen appears, just keep holding the buttons. It might go through more than one cycle of turning off and then on. A message will eventually appear on your computer that your iPad has entered recovery mode and iTunes wants to restore it. You can now release the home button.

- Let iTunes restore the device. It will download a fresh copy of firmware, install it, and verify the SW.
NOTE: This may take a while. iTunes needs to download about 500MB from the Apple server, then it will start the loader on the iPad, and load the OS.

-If the software is not automatically extracted after being downloaded, repeat the above procedure, and consent when asked to restore your iPad to factory settings.

- After iTunes said that is successfully restored your device, you may get an error message saying the iPad isn't recognized and you're still at the screen with the USB cable and iTunes logo on the iPad. Don't sweat it. Unplug the iPad from the computer. Power off the iPad by holding the sleep button until you see the "slide to power off" - go ahead and slide to power off. Once it is shut down, push the sleep button again until it powers on.

- the iPad will come back to the familiar USB cable/iTunes logo. When it does, just plug it back into your computer and iTunes will activate the iPad.

- if you had previously backed up your iPad, iTunes will tell you there is a backup and ask if you would like it restored. If you wish to do this, accept the prompt. This will also take some time. Note it will NOT put your apps, music, movies, TV shows, etc back on your iPad, just your settings and preferences.

- once the restore is complete, iTunes should recognize your iPad and you can pick your synching options (apps, music, movies, etc, etc) and have a blast! The only thing I noticed it doesn't retain is the page layouts for your apps, so either screen capture them before you begin, or write it down.

​

WHEW! That was close. If the previous procedure did not work for you, hopefully these changes with will. I think I'm done messing around with jailbreaking. It might be legal, but the possibility of bricking my iPad is too disturbing.

 

[FtWorthRider]

Thanks...

Just wanted to say Thanks. Great info and it DOES WORK ! ! ! YAY ! ! !

 

[Hasty]

Surely it should be
How To: Put your iPad into Recovery Position

Nevertheless copied and saved for emergency use.

 

[SouthernAppleGuy]

I have the opposite problem - locked in the Restore mode I think. I have looked at video's to unlock it and nothing works. I never get the "slide to power off" screen no matter what of the two buttons or sequences I use. Is my pad doomed? Its the Big one so I hate to throw it away!
Any advice welcomed,
George
South Florida