Question from Christy L.: Hi Rick. I’ve been reading your tips for over a year now and I love them. Thank you for posting them.
Now, it’s my turn to ask for help. I hope you can tell me how to fix a serious problem with my iPad.
I loaned my son my iPad 2 to use while he was waiting for his Macbook to get back from the repair shop. While he was using it one of his friends showed him how to jailbreak it. Now it runs real slow and the battery drains in half the time it used to take.
I was told that resetting the iPad back to it factory default settings would fix the problem. Can you tell me how to do that? I can’t afford to pay Apple to do it for me and it’s no longer under warranty.
Rick’s answer: Christy, when an Apple device is jailbroken, two things happen immediately:
1 – The warranty on the device becomes void. Therefore, even if the warranty on your iPad hadn’t already expired, you would have had to pay Apple to fix the problem anyway if you opted to have them work on it for you.
2 – All of Apple’s built-in protections against malware and hackers become disabled, putting your device at risk of becoming infected with malware or taken over by a distant someone with mal intentions.
This is why I always recommend against jailbreaking a device (known as “rooting” in the Android world). Even though jailbreaking a device allows the owner to do some pretty amazing things with it that cannot be done with it otherwise, the risk is simply too great in my humble opinion, especially if the device is still under warranty.
But back to your original question…
You can easily reset your iPad back to its factory default settings. Here’s how:
1 – Check to see if your iPad is running the latest version of iTunes. If it isn’t, update iTunes to the latest version.
2 – Since the reset process will wipe out all of your data, back up any data you wish to restore later to your computer.
3 – Tap the icon for the Settings app and navigate to iCloud, then tap the “Find My iPhone” On/Off toggle switch to disable that feature.
4 – Connect your iPad to an open USB port on your computer.
5 – Watch the upper right-hand of the screen. After you see your iPad become available in iTunes, select it.
6 – Select the Summary tab, then click on the Restore button. The reset process should now begin. Note: It could take quite some time for the restore process to complete, so please be patient.
That’s all there is to it Christy. Once your iPad 2 has been reset to the factory default settings, it will look and behave exactly the same way it did when you first bought it. And had the device still been within the warranty period, the warranty would be back in effect as well.
Bonus tip: This post explains how to back up your iPad or other iOS device to your iCloud account.
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