iPad Recovery Mode

Image Source: iOS Recovery

I just had my principal come into my room panicked that his iPad had hit the equivalent of a Windows PC "Blue Screen of Death" in the form of a black screen with an Apple logo on it. He had tried turning it off normally, doing a hard reboot (holding down both the Power button at the top and the Home button at the same time) and neither worked. We were both stumped so I quickly searched out an answer and was surprised at what I found.

I ended up on an article called "iPad Recovery Mode: Fix a Locked or Stuck-at-Apple-Logo iPad" from the site About.com. I had never had to restart an iPad in Recovery Mode and was happy to see it wasn't as difficult as it may sound. Read through the articles if you find yourself in a similar situation, especially after updating to iOS 8 or the more recent iOS 8.1 as my principal did.

One thing to note, it is recommended to have your iPad connected to your computer, but you can also use the "Find My iPhone" app or use iCloud.com to do a remote wipe of the device. Not as fun of an option if you don't have a back-up, but you should be doing that regularly though, right?