How to completely reset ipad

By Rich, 4 December, 2023

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

My wife has forgotten her password and the fingerprint sensor is not working for her. The ipad has not been used much, so there is nothing important on it.

Is there a way to completely reset it so we can setup a new password (and fingerprint if she wants to try that again)?

Thanx much...

-- Rich

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Comments

By William Garcia on Saturday, December 2, 2023 - 08:51

As far as I know, you can reset your iPad to start fresh. First, ensure the iPad is charged. Then, follow these steps:

1. Open iTunes on your computer (make sure it's updated).
2. Connect the iPad to your computer.
3. Force restart the iPad by holding the Home and Top (or Side) buttons simultaneously until you see the recovery-mode screen.
4. When the option to restore or update appears, choose Restore. iTunes will download software for your device.
5. Wait for the process to finish. Then, you can set up the iPad as new.

This will erase everything, including the password and fingerprint data, allowing you to set up a new password and fingerprint.

By Rich on Saturday, December 2, 2023 - 08:51

I don't have a mac, so I can download iTunes for windows and give that a try, but two questions remain:

1. will VoiceOver on iOS read the reset screen when it appears after pressing the magic button sequence on the pPad?
2. is there a way of doing this without iTunes?

Thanx so much for any help with this; really appreciated!

By Gar on Saturday, December 2, 2023 - 08:51

Hi,
You cannot perform a reset on the iPad if you've forgotten the password, under most circumstances.
The exception to this, I believe, is if you had the "erase iPad after ten failed passcode attempts" setting enabled.
However, if you don't, you may just end up locking the iPad for literal years.
My advice is to either try it with iTunes on Windows as was suggested above, or to take the iPad to your nearest Apple Store and ask for help there.
Hope this helps.

By Rich on Saturday, December 2, 2023 - 08:51

Note that the above instructions are not quite correct. Here is the official documentation on how to do this from Apple. It worked perfectly for me...

You do need iTunes, and was easy to download from apple and setup on my win10 box, and you do not need to deal with the iPad screen at all once it is in recovery mode, which is great because VoiceOver is not available in this mode. Everything is done through iTunes once recovery mode is initiated.

Below are links to the apple official documentation on how to perform the procedure, and a direct link to download iTunes (so you can avoid having to use the Microslop store)!

How to reset iPad:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211078

iTunes download:
https://www.apple.com/itunes/

Note that on the iTunes download page, they will attempt to direct you to the microsoft store. Move past that link andfind the phrase "looking for other versions", then click on the windows link following that phrase.

Hope this helps someone...