How to restart an iPad that won’t turn on

Are you dealing with an unresponsive iPad? For iPad users, trying to turn on their iPad and finding out that no matter how many times you press the power button, nothing happens, can be incredibly frustrating. If your iPad has a black screen and it doesn’t start up, don’t despair, there are 4 easy solutions that you can try to get it back working. Here you will find the list of the steps that you can follow in order to bring your iPad back to life. The best option is to try each option individually, in the order in which they are listed. We hope that these methods work for you and that you get your iPad back and running without hassle.

Solution 1 – Recharge

In most cases, the so-called “black screen of dread” appears when the iPad battery is drained to the point where not even the red empty battery icon is shown. Since the iPad’s battery is larger than the iPhone’s battery, you need to leave it charging for at least one hour from a proper power adaptor instead of using a USB lead from a computer. Just to be sure, you can leave it charging overnight. This is specially helpful if you are using your iPhone’s charger to charge the iPad. If the red “filler” of the battery icon flashes three times before the screen goes black, it is likely that the iPad is not getting enough charging power. The best option would be to plug it into a mains-connected power supply and hope that it works.

Solution 2 – Reset

In order to be able to reset and restart your iPad, press down the Sleep/Wake button on the top right of the iPad and press down the home button at the same time. Keep these two buttons pressed until the iPad restarts, which can take up to 15 seconds. You need a but of patience and if you see the red slider or the screen dims, continue pressing until the Apple logo shows up.

Solution 3 – Restart

If you only get a blank screen, it is possible that the iPad is on, but that there is an issue with the display. In this case, you may need to force a restart to get it back working.

1. Just press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the power off slider is displayed
2. Drag the slider to the right to turn the iPad off
3. Allow two minutes, then press and hold the Sleep/Wake button once more until you see the Apple logo.

Solution 4 – Recovery mode

If everything else has failed, you can try to force the iPad into recovery mod and after that, you can restore it to factory settings. Keep in mind that if you do this, all the data on your iPad will be deleted, but you can recover it from a recent backup. You can set the iPad into recovery mode doing the below:

1. Ensure that the device is switched off. You need to hold down the Sleep/Wake button and drag the slider to the off position.
2. Plug a USB cable into a computer running the latest version of iTunes. Just don’t plug the lead into the iPad by now.
3. Hold down the Home button on the iPad while plugging in the USB cable. Then continue holding down the button until you see the Connect to iTunes screen. If the screen doesn’t appear, try the previous steps again.
4. Once you see a screen showing a Lightning cable, arrow and red iTunes icon, let go of the Home button. iTunes will open a pop-up automatically, letting you know that iTunes has detected an iPad in recovery mode.
5. Select OK to restore the iPad to the factory defaults. Keep in mind that all the data on the device will be deleted. You can restore it from an earlier backup.