My iPad has just stopped working, what to do? We have received such a request from many anxious users. Here are the common situations that an iPad 2/3/4/iPad Mini/iPad Air/iPad Pro stops working:

  • The iPad just stopped working suddenly and won't turn on.
  • iPad won't turn on after a battery drain. The device is still not working even if it is plugged in.
  • iPad is disabled and shows "connect to iTunes".
  • iPad is completely dead and it won't charge.

If you are facing an iPad issue described above, please try these tricks first before hitting an Apple Store. You may be able to solve an iPad stop working problem on your own.

1. Hard Restart iPad

If you are sure that the iPad has enough battery left and it won't turn on even if you press the power button for so many times, try to hard/force restart iPad.

To force an iPad/iPad Mini/iPad Air/iPad Pro to restart, press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons for at least ten seconds, until you see the Apple logo. This trick is especially useful for those iPads that just stop working and won't turn on out of no reason.

Hard Reset iPad

2. Charge Your iPad Properly

If your iPad won't turn on after a complete battery drain, the first thing that you may want to do is to charge your iPad. Instead of charging the iPad by plugging it into a computer via USB cable, you should plug it into a workable iPad power adapter since the current and voltage needed to wake an iPad with a deeply discharged battery is higher than an iPhone charger or a computer can provide.

Follow these steps to wake up the complete dead iPad:

  1. Plug the iPad into its power adapter for 15 minutes and then try to power on.
  1. If it won't power on, wait about 10 minutes and perform a hard restart on the iPad (press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons for at least ten seconds until you see Apple logo.)
  1. If the iPad still won't turn on, please wait another 5 minutes and press the power button again to turn it on.
  1. If the iPad is still on the black screen at this point, let it charge for another an hour and try the above steps again.

3.Restore iPad with iTunes

If the iPad still won't turn on after a force restart, you can try to restore iPad with iTunes. The trick also works to fix iPad stop working (for example, iPad won't charge, get stuck at Apple logo, touch screen stops working) after iPadOS/ iOS 12/11 update.

  1. Open iTunes on your computer (please make sure that your iTunes is in newest version.)

  1. Plug a lightning cable into your computer, leaving the other end of the cable unplugged.
  1. Keep pressing the home button of your iPad and plug the other end of the cable into the iPad. Keep holding the home button until you see 'connect to iTunes' showing on your iPad.
iPad Connect to iTunes Screen
  1. iTunes should pop up a notification, telling you that iPad is in Recovery mode and need to be restored. Click OK or Restore.
iPad in Recovery Mode
  1. Wait until the restore is completed and your iPad will restart.

Please note that all your iPad data will be erased after the restore, but you can get the data back if you have an iCloud or iTunes backup. If you don't have a backup and don't want to lose your data, you can try to fix the iPad with the next trick to restore iPad without iTunes.

If iTunes can't restore your iPad because of an error, you can move on to the next trick.

4. Fix iPad with Data Loss

Restoring iPad with iTunes is very effective to fix a device that won't turn on. However, sometimes, you just get the notification from iTunes that iPad could not be restored because of an unknown error (3194, 4013, 4014, etc.). If so, you can try to fix non-working iPad/iPad Air/iPad Mini/iPad Pro with Passvers iOS System Recovery. And unlike iTunes, the software can fix your iPad without erasing your data on it. It can fix:

  • iPad stops working and won't turn on;
  • iPad gets stuck at Apple logo, recovery/DFU mode;
  • iPad keeps restarting randomly;
  • iPad is in black/blue screen;
  • iPad won't charge and is dead;

Follow these steps to fix your iPad that is not working with iOS System Recovery.

Step 1. Download iOS System Recovery on your Windows or Mac PC.

Step 2. Launch the program and choose iOS System Recovery.

iOS System Recovery Main Interface

Step 3. Click Start and the software will detect that your iPad is in an abnormal state and gives you two options - Standard Mode or Advanced Mode to fix the iPad. To preserve data on iPad, select Standard Mode and click Confirm.

Choose Repair Mode

Step 4. Follow the instruction to put your device in Recovery Mode.

Step 5. The software will then display the information on your iPad. Please check if the information is correct. If you are not sure, please click the question mark for instruction. It is important to make sure that the information is correct, otherwise, your iPad can't be fixed.

ios-system-recovery-choose-firmware

Step 6. After you have made sure the iPad information is correct, click Repair to let the software to fix your iPad. Wait patiently and keep the iPad connecting to a computer for the whole time.

ios-system-repair-completed

Step 7. Your iPad will reboot and be back to normal.

Have more questions about iPad not working problem, leave your comment below.