All iPads Help! How did my Mom do this to her iPad?

[donawalt]

Hi all, I hope you can help! My mom sent me a picture - it looks like the one below, only for her iPad. I think this is DFU mode? She has a little older iPad, one with a Home button.

1) How did she do this? She has never in her life plugged her iPad into a computer. Just a hunch, could she by chance have done this while pressing Sleep and Home button simultaneously for a hard reset while plugged into a wall charger? Or is there something else she did inadvertently to enter DFU mode (if that is what this is)?

2) How can I talk her through getting her iPad out of DFU mode and restarted back to her Home Page? I'll have to talk her through this over the phone.

Thanks!

 

[donawalt]

I got it! I think just a hard reset takes care of it AFTER unplugging the cable?

 

[AutomaticApple]

could she by chance have done this while pressing Sleep and Home button simultaneously for a hard reset while plugged into a wall charger?

Yup! It happened to me before with my old iPad 2. I had no clue that I had accidentally put it into DFU mode.

 

[donawalt]

So here's a new twist - by phone my Mom SWEARS that her iPad isn't plugged in. She says she presses Sleep and Home at the same time, and a screen shot like in the first post comes up on her iPad (I know that part is true, she took a photo of it with her phone and emailed me.)

I can't get there physically - what do you think is going on? Is there another way to bring up DFU mode that she is not pressing those two buttons? Is there a way to get out of this state for her? Thanks!

 

[rui no onna]

I can't get there physically - what do you think is going on? Is there another way to bring up DFU mode that she is not pressing those two buttons? Is there a way to get out of this state for her? Thanks!

If the system ever gets corrupted, it goes to DFU restore mode automatically, too. That happened to one of my iPhone SE (1st gen) after a failed OTA update.

 

[donawalt]

Thanks! If that is what is going on, what is the course of action from this point?

 

[chrfr]

Thanks! If that is what is going on, what is the course of action from this point?

The iPad would need to be connected to a computer just as the display shows. Unless there's a more significant hardware failure, the operating system would need to be reinstalled using iTunes or in the Finder if on Catalina, and then the device would need to be restored from backup.

 

[donawalt]

OK Thanks...

 

[AutomaticApple]

If the system ever gets corrupted, it goes to DFU restore mode automatically, too. That happened to one of my iPhone SE (1st gen) after a failed OTA update.

I actually never knew that. You learn something new everyday. 🤔

I wonder if that is why my old iPad 2 was randomly put into DFU mode one day?

 

[donawalt]

UPDATE! I made the drive to my mom's house today, and sure enough the picture in post #1 was accurate. I plugged the iPad into my MacBook Pro, and it gave me the option to update or, if that did not work, a restore from backup (there were regular iCloud backups). But good news, the update to iPadOS 14.2 went perfectly, so I didn't need to restore a backup; the iPad is back in good shape!

This gave me a chance to see what model iPad she had since I didn't know - it was an iPad Air 2. It does seem like an OS update got interrupted for some reason, user or otherwise. Case solved! Thanks for all your comments and help!

 

[Cybertox]

UPDATE! I made the drive to my mom's house today, and sure enough the picture in post #1 was accurate. I plugged the iPad into my MacBook Pro, and it gave me the option to update or, if that did not work, a restore from backup (there were regular iCloud backups). But good news, the update to iPadOS 14.2 went perfectly, so I didn't need to restore a backup; the iPad is back in good shape!

This gave me a chance to see what model iPad she had since I didn't know - it was an iPad Air 2. It does seem like an OS update got interrupted for some reason, user or otherwise. Case solved! Thanks for all your comments and help!

Glad to hear you were able to resolve the issue at hand and help your mom out. Well done!

Personally, I have never entered DFU mode on any of my Apple devices by accident.

 

[donawalt]

@Cybertox my guess is she did a hard reset when she picked it up and it was doing an OS update. She loves hard reset if she sees something she doesn't recognize lol. Now maybe it was frozen, as it should do updates automatically overnight - but it's entirely possible she charges it sometimes during the day because she doesn't bother to plug it in at night, and it needs to be off battery for an auto update from what I read.

So it all worked for her!

 

[Cybertox]

@Cybertox my guess is she did a hard reset when she picked it up and it was doing an OS update. She loves hard reset if she sees something she doesn't recognize lol. Now maybe it was frozen, as it should do updates automatically overnight - but it's entirely possible she charges it sometimes during the day because she doesn't bother to plug it in at night, and it needs to be off battery for an auto update from what I read.

So it all worked for her!
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The scenario you described is most probably what has happened. However, I would advise her against doing so. Using hard reset at every possible opportunity might end up not being so beneficial for the device and its longevity.

 

[donawalt]

Advice given! We'll see how that goes! 😛