All iPads iPad stuck in boot loop and recovery (DFU) mode - SOLVED :)

[philstubbington]

So, tried to upgrade my wife's iPad to 16.2 (it's a 32g A2270 - so 2020 / 8th generation model).

Wouldn't upgrade OTA due to lack of space, so thought I'd try upgrading with it tethered to my Mac.

Big mistake it would appear - got stuck in the factory restore loop. Tried a few times, and eventually gave in and went to our local Apple store. Service was really poor - the "Genius" bar spent less time looking at it than I did.

However, managed to find a third party solution in iMazing which after a few attempts managed to recover it. I'm naturally a bit wary of third party utilities - but as you'll also see from the reviews, iMazing is very solid - and just £29.95 for a single licence.

I think next time I'll factory reset the iPad before doing the upgrade and then do a restore!

 

[Richard8655]

I just used iMazing to restore an app on my iPad from a prior backup (Mac). It's really a very good third party utility, as you say and that worked for you. A free trial license was enough for me to solve my issue.

 

[floral]

Yeah, free trials work for most people. iMazing is a great service but unfortunately pesters you for a thirty dollar bill every so often - similar to what WinRAR does.

 

[philstubbington]

Yeah, free trials work for most people. iMazing is a great service but unfortunately pesters you for a thirty dollar bill every so often - similar to what WinRAR does.

Annually I would imagine? As I don’t intend using it again £30 seems a bargain to fix what the Apple “Genius” considered a bricked iPad with a £400 replacement cost.

 

[floral]

Annually I would imagine? As I don’t intend using it again £30 seems a bargain to fix what the Apple “Genius” considered a bricked iPad with a £400 replacement cost.

Yeah, but generally I like... you know... not paying.

 

[philstubbington]

Yeah, but generally I like... you know... not paying.

I view it as saving £370 😉

 

[Whyy]

The last two times I tried to update my iPad Air 3 by connecting it to my Mac, it went into a boot loop. Both times I had connected it using a lightning to USB-C cable. But when I switched to using a lightning to USB-A cable I was able to update it.

 

[Whyy]

Just an update to say that I updated my iPad to 16.3 tonight and I used a USB-A to lightning cable to connect it to my Mac and I didn’t have any issues with it boot looping this time.