Question iPad Dead this morning

[BoomerD]

This is a 2017 5th gen iPad.
Put it on the charger last night. It was at about 50% charge at that time. Got up this morning to a completely dead iPad. I've tried a couple different chargers...nothing works. I've tried the "trick" of holding the home button and the top power button...no joy. I use a Monoprice charging cable with the LED in the plug that shows green for charged, amber for charging. Always amber today.

I can (grudgingly) accept that it's dead...but how to get photos and docs off of the dead one?

 

[BoomerD]

Damn...nothing?

 

[Jimminy]

If it's truly dead, The only thing I can think of is to use another apple device to get your stuff from the "icloud", providing your ipad was set to store the stuff there. It's one of the features of apple's walled garden.

Apple also has "geniuses" that might be able to give better help.

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options

Make a Genius Bar reservation or get help now with Apple Support. Answer a few questions and we’ll connect you with the right expert, right away.

www.apple.com

Good luck

 

[Motostu]

Have you tried connecting to a computer that has the iTunes app? There might be a way to get the data that way, or even possibly restore the iPad software if it isn't a hardware failure.

Sent from my SM-S926U using Tapatalk

 

[BoomerD]

Have you tried connecting to a computer that has the iTunes app? There might be a way to get the data that way, or even possibly restore the iPad software if it isn't a hardware failure.

Sent from my SM-S926U using Tapatalk

Tried itunes and icloud last night. Notdone trying, but I suspect it's a lost cause.

 

[BoomerD]

If it's truly dead, The only thing I can think of is to use another apple device to get your stuff from the "icloud", providing your ipad was set to store the stuff there. It's one of the features of apple's walled garden.

Apple also has "geniuses" that might be able to give better help.

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options

Make a Genius Bar reservation or get help now with Apple Support. Answer a few questions and we’ll connect you with the right expert, right away.

www.apple.com

Good luck

I may have to try their genius bar.
Thanks.

 

[BoomerD]

Tried itunes and icloud last night. Notdone trying, but I suspect it's a lost cause.

Finally got into icloud. Apparently Apple doesn't like the Brave Browser...used MS Edge and got in fine. Was able to recover what I wanted.
Doesn't look like I'm going to be able to revive my current iPad...none of the various "tips and tricks" I can find work.
Now I have to decide how much $$$ to spend. The 9th gen base iPad (64gb) is currently $249...and will probably do everything I need...but the 10th gen base model (64gb) is only $329 with a SLIGHT improvement in some features and performance...or $449 for the 11" iPad Air (64mb) model. My wife had an Air2 (2015) for several years. It was MUCH nicer than my 5th gen (32gb) base model. (2017) I just don't know if I can justify an additional $200. We'll see.

 

[BoomerD]

I may have to try their genius bar.
Thanks.

Turns out, the genius bar is only in an Apple store...the closest one is about 90 miles away. I suspect it's not worth the trip.

 

[manly]

IMO the Genius Bar is pointless if you're out of warranty. Although they can and will do some limited hand-holding for free, it's also a large profit center for Apple retail. Even if you were close to one, they're not going to have some magical way of reviving a dead iPad; but you can try Googling DFU mode to restore (it's the iOS equivalent of format and reinstall base OS). OTOH the Genius Bar is perfectly fine for warranty service.

I don't recommend the 9th gen iPad at this time, with Apple's recent price drops across the line-up. It's too old, and that means you'll get less updates. (Don't people kind of care about security updates? I try to.) I'm going to replace my mom's iPad soon, and she's going to get at least a 128GB model.

Apple's 64GB storage is a joke in 2024, and it's something to consider IF you like to install games and apps aplenty. If all you do is watch Netflix and YouTube and browse with Safari, then 64GB will be enough. The problem with Apple is for the various 64GB iPads of 2022, the next jump up is all the way to 256GB. So in typical Apple fashion, nothing is cheap unless you want to pigeon hole yourself into the BASE model and suffer its limitations.

But like I said, you have numerous models available right now so pick a price point that makes some sense for you. Right now I'm leaning towards the new iPad Air but the Air or Pro from 2022 is also compelling.

I believe the 9th gen iPad has just 3GB RAM, which is lame. What this means is your Safari tabs will be frequently unloaded & reloaded if you tab around a lot. Any M1+ based iPad will have 8GB of RAM, which will be much better in daily usage even if you don't need all the fancy bells and whistles. If you're truly a boomer and use only 3-5 tabs total, then I guess 3-4 GB of RAM can be enough.

Although spending more isn't necessarily superior value, also consider the extra $200 is "amortized" over 5 years (or more). I think small bits of daily joy over the long term is worth it, and I use my computing devices non-stop daily. YMMV. In 2022, I went with the M1 iPad Pro (after the M2 was released) and have been pleased with the decision. I hope it'll be supported for a long time, but I'm also aware Apple is under intense pressure to grow profits (they recently officially committed to 5 years of iPhoneOS support, but Google and Samsung have already up'd the game to 7 years).

Although it sounds like I'm recommending the higher-end iPads, there is an important caveat. The M1+ SoCs are phenomenal, but they are gimped by the limits of iPadOS. People keep hoping that Apple will pimp up iPadOS to be more like macOS in power, but I don't think that's in the plans. The current business model is too profitable; they want an Apple consumer to own an iPhone, a Mac and also an iPad (with some subscriptions!). Each device doing slightly different things at different times. They do not want convergence of the Mac and iPad. But if you skip the Mac entirely, they still have a $299 Magic keyboard to sell you for the newest iPads. 🤮

 

[BoomerD]

IMO the Genius Bar is pointless if you're out of warranty. Although they can and will do some limited hand-holding for free, it's also a large profit center for Apple retail. Even if you were close to one, they're not going to have some magical way of reviving a dead iPad; but you can try Googling DFU mode to restore (it's the iOS equivalent of format and reinstall base OS). OTOH the Genius Bar is perfectly fine for warranty service.

I don't recommend the 9th gen iPad at this time, with Apple's recent price drops across the line-up. It's too old, and that means you'll get less updates. (Don't people kind of care about security updates? I try to.) I'm going to replace my mom's iPad soon, and she's going to get at least a 128GB model.

Apple's 64GB storage is a joke in 2024, and it's something to consider IF you like to install games and apps aplenty. If all you do is watch Netflix and YouTube and browse with Safari, then 64GB will be enough. The problem with Apple is for the various 64GB iPads of 2022, the next jump up is all the way to 256GB. So in typical Apple fashion, nothing is cheap unless you want to pigeon hole yourself into the BASE model and suffer its limitations.

But like I said, you have numerous models available right now so pick a price point that makes some sense for you. Right now I'm leaning towards the new iPad Air but the Air or Pro from 2022 is also compelling.

I believe the 9th gen iPad has just 3GB RAM, which is lame. What this means is your Safari tabs will be frequently unloaded & reloaded if you tab around a lot. Any M1+ based iPad will have 8GB of RAM, which will be much better in daily usage even if you don't need all the fancy bells and whistles. If you're truly a boomer and use only 3-5 tabs total, then I guess 3-4 GB of RAM can be enough.

Although spending more isn't necessarily superior value, also consider the extra $200 is "amortized" over 5 years (or more). I think small bits of daily joy over the long term is worth it, and I use my computing devices non-stop daily. YMMV. In 2022, I went with the M1 iPad Pro (after the M2 was released) and have been pleased with the decision. I hope it'll be supported for a long time, but I'm also aware Apple is under intense pressure to grow profits (they recently officially committed to 5 years of iPhoneOS support, but Google and Samsung have already up'd the game to 7 years).

Although it sounds like I'm recommending the higher-end iPads, there is an important caveat. The M1+ SoCs are phenomenal, but they are gimped by the limits of iPadOS. People keep hoping that Apple will pimp up iPadOS to be more like macOS in power, but I don't think that's in the plans. The current business model is too profitable; they want an Apple consumer to own an iPhone, a Mac and also an iPad (with some subscriptions!). Each device doing slightly different things at different times. They do not want convergence of the Mac and iPad. But if you skip the Mac entirely, they still have a $299 Magic keyboard to sell you for the newest iPads. 🤮

Basically, the iPad gets used for web surfing...more or less like my Galaxy S21 Ultra...although I can use that one for a fone on occasion.
My iPad 5th gen had 32gb of memory...never had a problem with too many tabs causing issues. I think the normal load is 9-10 tabs...plus anything extra I happen to wander into. I've never watched movies...but a few short videos on occasion....sure.
I think the 9th and 10th gens start with 64gb...then, as you say, jump to 256...with an appropriate price jump as well.
If I was in the MINO crowd, I'd love to have the latest, greatest iPad Pro with the M4 chip...not because I NEED it...but just because it....Ooh! Shiny!
I've even been looking at refurbished Air4 models, but they have the same A14 chip that the 10th gen base model has...but I'm not crazy about refurbs...you never really know who did the work, what they did beyond a quick once-over and wipe.
The 5th gen with the M1 chip seems to be selling for about $399, while the "newest" 5th gen has the M2 chip, starting at around $569.
I'm not in a big hurry...sales come and go all the time.

 

[manly]

Storage and RAM are two different things. Unless you're just like me and install almost no extra apps, 32GB is constraining. My mom's iPad is basically impossible to update the OS, because there's no free space left. But there's not even that much installed, so I can't easily delete something. I know this sounds weird, because the OS isn't that big. But a few games and some video files and your storage is nearly full.

You'll have to remember where mobile OS's came from. I believe the original iPhone had 256MB of RAM. They could not support any multitasking, and the computing model was vastly different from real computers. A mobile OS can kill any user process at any time to reclaim RAM, and this is how browser tabs were handled. With 9 tabs "open," the oldest ones will be unloaded from active memory. They are refreshed when you revisit that tab. This usage model continues to this day, and actually the desktop browsers have adopted tab unloading in recent years to be more RAM efficient. It's also because people will have dozens or hundreds of tabs open, so it's not feasible to keep all tabs "open" indefinitely. In the days of 1GB to 2GB iPhones and iPads, tab unloading was a very noticeable side effect.

Bottom line: unless price is the only concern, I'm just not touching the 9th gen iPad. The $399 iPad Air (5th gen) seems great if you are OK with 64GB of storage. If it drops down to $300, the 10th gen iPad would make sense too.

Forgot to mention that iPads are basically glued together (see iFixit), so there's no component-level repairability whatsoever. So a visit to the Genius Bar is pointless for an old device, outside of a software-related question.

 

[BoomerD]

Storage and RAM are two different things. Unless you're just like me and install almost no extra apps, 32GB is constraining. My mom's iPad is basically impossible to update the OS, because there's no free space left. But there's not even that much installed, so I can't easily delete something. I know this sounds weird, because the OS isn't that big. But a few games and some video files and your storage is nearly full.

You'll have to remember where mobile OS's came from. I believe the original iPhone had 256MB of RAM. They could not support any multitasking, and the computing model was vastly different from real computers. A mobile OS can kill any user process at any time to reclaim RAM, and this is how browser tabs were handled. With 9 tabs "open," the oldest ones will be unloaded from active memory. They are refreshed when you revisit that tab. This usage model continues to this day, and actually the desktop browsers have adopted tab unloading in recent years to be more RAM efficient. It's also because people will have dozens or hundreds of tabs open, so it's not feasible to keep all tabs "open" indefinitely. In the days of 1GB to 2GB iPhones and iPads, tab unloading was a very noticeable side effect.

Bottom line: unless price is the only concern, I'm just not touching the 9th gen iPad. The $399 iPad Air (5th gen) seems great if you are OK with 64GB of storage. If it drops down to $300, the 10th gen iPad would make sense too.

Forgot to mention that iPads are basically glued together (see iFixit), so there's no component-level repairability whatsoever. So a visit to the Genius Bar is pointless for an old device, outside of a software-related question.

I'm seeing a few iPad 5th gen for $399 with 64GB. That's not bad for my needs. My 5th gen had 32GB and I never got it filled up. (l THINK it was about 75% full when it died) My wife's Air2 has 64GB. I'm going to wipe that one and use it while I look for a new one for me. It's been...glitchy...which is why she got the 9th gen iPad a couple of years ago...but glitchy or not, it still works...which is more than I can say about my 5th gen.

 

[BoomerD]

I kind of cheaped out. Bought the 10th gen iPad. Considered the 5th gen (2022) iPad Air for the better CPU/GPU and more RAM, but it's rare I do more that surf the web with it, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

 

[BoomerD]

For anyone else who might be looking for a cheap iPad, Meijer Stores have the 9th gen iPad (64mb) for $209 right now. That's about $40 cheaper than Amazon or any place else. Unfortunately, it's "in store" only...and supplies are limited, so YMMV.

 

[manly]

I kind of cheaped out. Bought the 10th gen iPad. Considered the 5th gen (2022) iPad Air for the better CPU/GPU and more RAM, but it's rare I do more that surf the web with it, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

$329 from Amazon? Look at the bright side, you won't get the new "AI" features in iPadOS 18.

Yeah the 9th gen for $209 is a nice value.

 

[BoomerD]

$329 from Amazon? Look at the bright side, you won't get the new "AI" features in iPadOS 18.

Yeah the 9th gen for $209 is a nice value.

No interest in AI anything...especially in my surfing device...but according to apple, it will be compatible with iPad OS18.

• iPad Pro (M4)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation and later)
• iPad Air (M2)
• iPad Air (3rd generation and later)
• iPad (7th generation and later)
• iPad mini (5th generation and later)

 

[BoomerD]

First impression…the 10th generation iPad is pretty sweet. Lighter and faster than the old 5th gen or the even older iPad Air2 I’ve been using.

 

[Jimminy]

For anyone else who might be looking for a cheap iPad, Meijer Stores have the 9th gen iPad (64mb) for $209 right now. That's about $40 cheaper than Amazon or any place else. Unfortunately, it's "in store" only...and supplies are limited, so YMMV.

Glad you solved the problem, Boomer, albeit by paying for even more apple stuff. I have a 9th gen ipad (64MB). It was given to me six months ago, and it works ok, but it's sure nothing special. It seems to be the same as my Iphone SE-2, but with no support for cell calling, and a really crappy camera. Good enough for my use, but I wouldn't pay more than $100 if I were buying a tablet of this low caliber. I'm cheap.

I sincerely apologize for recommending those apple geniuses. I didn't realize just how utterly useless they are. I've never used them but I guess I was duped by apple's bragging about them. Turns out it's just a turd that's been polished a lot.

Sorry, man.

 

[BoomerD]

Glad you solved the problem, Boomer, albeit by paying for even more apple stuff. I have a 9th gen ipad (64MB). It was given to me six months ago, and it works ok, but it's sure nothing special. It seems to be the same as my Iphone SE-2, but with no support for cell calling, and a really crappy camera. Good enough for my use, but I wouldn't pay more than $100 if I were buying a tablet of this low caliber. I'm cheap.

I sincerely apologize for recommending those apple geniuses. I didn't realize just how utterly useless they are. I've never used them but I guess I was duped by apple's bragging about them. Turns out it's just a turd that's been polished a lot.

Sorry, man.

They MIGHT have been helpful...I don't know. The closest Apple store is either 75 or 100 miles away. For now, I'm going to learn the weirdness of the new iPad. (no home button, requires "advanced gestures" to do lots of the things that could be done with the old home button.

Learn advanced gestures to interact with iPad

On iPad, learn the gestures you need to go to the Home Screen, switch between recent apps, access controls, and more.

support.apple.com

Still, once I get the hang of stuff, I think it will be fine. (as reported, the screen is very reflective...could have used some anti-glare glass) The faster wi-fi is nice, the improved screen and resolution seems to be great, (I don't really care for the keyboard text and typing, but I'll get used to it) in all...it's a nice upgrade.

 

[Muadib]

You can get a screen protector that will take care of your glare issue. https://www.amazon.com/magglass-iPad-Generation-Screen-10/dp/B0BLY1F5QQ

 

[BoomerD]

You can get a screen protector that will take care of your glare issue. https://www.amazon.com/magglass-iPad-Generation-Screen-10/dp/B0BLY1F5QQ

Thanks. I have considered those.

 

[Oyeve]

I have a 2020 ipad Pro 12.9 with 1tb storage that charged to 25%, then stopped. When turned on it would boot, go pink, then die. Rinse and repeat. Took to "geniuses" who, first thing said it OOW then said the logic board is bad and cost like 700 to replace. So now I have an expensive food chopper. Gonna sell the screen off! I hate apple.

 

[Jimminy]

I have a 2020 ipad Pro 12.9 with 1tb storage that charged to 25%, then stopped. When turned on it would boot, go pink, then die. Rinse and repeat. Took to "geniuses" who, first thing said it OOW then said the logic board is bad and cost like 700 to replace. So now I have an expensive food chopper. Gonna sell the screen off! I hate apple.

Ouch! With 1 TB storage, I bet that rascal was expensive too.

 

[Oyeve]

Ouch! With 1 TB storage, I bet that rascal was expensive too.

Yeah, nearly 2k with the KB. Thankfully my job paid for it.

 

[manly]

Ouch! With 1 TB storage, I bet that rascal was expensive too.

Many U.S. credit cards have an extended warranty benefit, at no charge. So for an iPad with the 1 year warranty, the CC company will then cover an additional year.
My Citi card actually adds two extra years, so I almost never buy an extended warranty for anything (I've made an exception for car tires but that's quite different). In practice I take really good care of my electronics, but knowing I'm covered for 3 years is good peace of mind.

I wouldn't recommend a 2021 iPad at this point, but the 9th gen. is at an all-time low of $200 (at both Target and Amazon):

https://slickdeals.net/f/17696895-64gb-apple-ipad-10-2-wi-fi-tablet-9th-gen-2021-space-grey-or-silver-200-free-shipping