iPad / iPad 2 / iPad 3 recovery / restore mode
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So, because your gadget continues to be frozen after all those attempts to unfreeze it , or repeatedly restarts but never stops on the Home screen, or shows only the logo of Apple with no progress bar further, or is no longer recognized in iTunes, or you wanna grab its SHSH blob or for some other reasons there is a need to put iPad / iPad 2 / iPad 3 into Recovery Mode which allows to flash a genuine firmware version greater than (if available) or equal to a current one. Here are iPad tips to follow:

  1. Make sure your iPad / iPad2 / iPad 3 battery is charged above 20% ( we would recommend at least 40 - 50 %). If you are not sure charge you iPad /iPad2 for at least 30 -40 minutes.
  2. Make sure iTunes is not running on your computer but is ready to be run.
  3. Temporally disable firewalls and other security software to prevent interference with iTunes.
  4. Make sure your iPad is disconnected from the dock or wide end of USB data cable that equips the gadget . The narrow end of this USB cable must be plugged into your PC or MAC.
  5. Make sure your PC or MAC is awake and its screen saver is turned off.
  6. Simultaneously press and hold down the Wake/Sleep button and the Home button and wait until "slide to power off" screen appears. Don't do anything after its appearing, just keep holding Wake/Sleep and Home buttons until iPad / iPad2 will power off
  7. Release the Wake/Sleep button once the iPad is off , but continue to hold the Home button
  8. Holding the home button, connect the wide end of USB data cable to iPad. When you reconnect the USB cable, iPad should power on and you should see a message on your PC/MAC display saying that iTunes has detected an iPad in Recovery Mode
  9. After you detected this message, release the home button and press OK on iTunes pop-up to confirm the restore option.
  10. Do not touch the iPad / iPaD 2 / iPad 3 and you computer while iTunes downloads and installs the fresh copy of firmware on your iPad.You will be notified by iTunes when iPad is successfully restored, but… in a while, you will get an message saying that the iPad isn't recognized. Don't panic. This is because all user content on iPad including activation status was erased during restoration.
  11. Disconnect iPad from iTunes ,unplug from computer and turn off.
  12. Turn iPad on and using iTunes activate recovered iPad on any computer you have. Apple currently allows up to 5 computers to be authorized for one iPad.

Sometimes after doing the step 8 you may find iTunes message saying "could not be restored. This device isn't eligible for the requested built". If this your case skip the step 9 and instead turn off iPad. Then if you are with Mac:

  1. Open the Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal)
  2. Type into Terminal sudo nano /private/etc/hosts
  3. Press Enter and provide your password when prompted
  4. In the nano-editor window find the line 74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com and/or 74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com and add # sign to the front of it or delete the line(s).
  5. Press ^-O (control-ou) to save the file then press enter, press ^-X (control-eks) to exit the editor.
  6. Go through steps 6-12 above to restore your iPad.

If you are with Windows machine:

  1. Open Explorer and Proceed to Windows/System32/drivers/etc
  2. In the etc directory locate hosts and copy it to your Desktop.
  3. Double click the hosts file you copied and choose notepad to open it.
  4. In the Notepad-editor window find the line 74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com and/or 74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com and add # sign to the front of it or delete the line(s).
  5. Save the file and move it back to Windows/System32/drivers/etc directory
  6. Go through steps 6-12 above to restore your iPad.

Proceed with advices on both how to enter DFU mode for iPad / iPad2 / iPad 3 and how to get out of iPad / iPad 2 / iPad 3 recovery loop or unveil 50+ secrets that can help you maintain iPad

Related tips: what to do if iPad get stuck in recovery mode ?

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