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Cannot restore, update, or unlock iPad. Now a very expensive paper weight.

We bought an iPad for my son to use at school, which he did until he graduated this year. Now the school removed their restrictions and we would like to use the iPad at home. At school, he would unlock the iPad by hitting the home button a couple times and never used a passcode. Now, when we turn it on it wants a passcode. If only we had the passcode! The school does not have the passcode either and gave instructions to completely restore the iPad. That's fine, there's nothing important on there.


We have tried following the school's instructions, and Apple's instructions on restoring the iPad to factory settings. Then using iTunes, it gives the option to Update or Restore the iPad. However, if we select "Restore" then it gives the only choice as "Update and Restore" anyway. When we select Update and Restore it says "The iPad software update server could not be contacted. There is not enough memory available."


But we cannot free up memory without the passcode, and we can't reset the passcode by restoring without choosing Update and Restore, and we cannot do the update without freeing up memory, so there seems to be no way to actually gain access to use this iPad we purchased. Can anyone find a way out of this trap and save this perfectly good computer from being another piece of e-waste?

iPad, iPadOS 14

Posted on Oct 24, 2022 4:26 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 31, 2022 9:36 PM

Exactly the same situation here. But following Apple's *own* instructions only gets you to a dead end: "The ipad software update server could not be contacted. There is not enough memory available."


This renders the iPad useless. Apple "genius" claimed it was terminal, notwithstanding that it was Apple's problem, not ours.


A user called Norweg posted instructions on how to circumvent the problem but those did not work for me. After wasting an entire day due to Apple's total recalcitrance, including the "help" desk, I finally managed to work it out myself. You have to follow an amended version of Norweg's instructions. First, download the latest update *for your particular* ipad to your computer:


theiphonewiki dot com/wiki/Firmware/iPad/15.x


Then start up your ipad in recovery mode while connected to your computer. When prompted to press the recover button make sure to press option on your keyboard at the same time. That gets you to a window where you can choose a file. Choose the latest update which you just downloaded. Your ipad should start updating.


Once done unplug your ipad (this is very important or else it will take you to square one which happened to me several times before I figured it out) and then restart your ipad while unplugged.


Should boot up as an empty ipad.


What I'd still like to know though is why when I bought my new ipad, Apple locked me out from accessing my old ipad. That's totally unacceptable.





9 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 31, 2022 9:36 PM in response to ddlatham

Exactly the same situation here. But following Apple's *own* instructions only gets you to a dead end: "The ipad software update server could not be contacted. There is not enough memory available."


This renders the iPad useless. Apple "genius" claimed it was terminal, notwithstanding that it was Apple's problem, not ours.


A user called Norweg posted instructions on how to circumvent the problem but those did not work for me. After wasting an entire day due to Apple's total recalcitrance, including the "help" desk, I finally managed to work it out myself. You have to follow an amended version of Norweg's instructions. First, download the latest update *for your particular* ipad to your computer:


theiphonewiki dot com/wiki/Firmware/iPad/15.x


Then start up your ipad in recovery mode while connected to your computer. When prompted to press the recover button make sure to press option on your keyboard at the same time. That gets you to a window where you can choose a file. Choose the latest update which you just downloaded. Your ipad should start updating.


Once done unplug your ipad (this is very important or else it will take you to square one which happened to me several times before I figured it out) and then restart your ipad while unplugged.


Should boot up as an empty ipad.


What I'd still like to know though is why when I bought my new ipad, Apple locked me out from accessing my old ipad. That's totally unacceptable.





Nov 1, 2022 11:05 AM in response to applegoingdownhill

Thanks so much for your help. Some searching turned up the thread you were referring to, which was created the day after this one:

It says there is not enough memory availa… - Apple Community


Using the latest 15.x firmware, and manually restoring that one did the trick. I wonder why Apple would put an iPad in this situation and not explain the steps available to fix it.

Oct 24, 2022 5:33 PM in response to LotusPilot

LotusPilot wrote:

The warning for lack of available space likely refers to your computer - and not the iPad. Your computer needs sufficient available storage to download, unpack and verify the update - prior to installing the update on the iPad.

Thanks for the response and the idea, but there's about 400 GB free storage on the laptop, and I've also tried it from our Windows PC in iTunes and gotten the same error there, so I'm confident it's not an issue of storage on the computer itself.

Oct 24, 2022 5:37 PM in response to ddlatham

I should mention one other thing I tried, in case someone suggests it. I signed in to iCloud Find My iPhone, but it doesn't show the iPad there (even though it *does* show up under My Devices at the Get Support page), so I'm guessing it was never enabled for Find My iPhone and I cannot initiate a remote restore there.

Oct 28, 2022 7:53 AM in response to ddlatham

You're not the only one seeing this. The same day that Apple released MacOS Ventura and iPadOS 16.1 (ironically the same day you made your original post), Configurator and Finder stopped being able to restore iPads. Our district can no longer wipe and restore our devices. We've tried every option at our disposal. But what works the best is literally carting in boxes of iPads to the Apple Store to have them restore them until Apple fixes this issue. I recommend that you do the same. Take the iPad to an Apple Store, tell them the situation, and have them fix the problem. That specific service is usually free (at least in my area it is).

Cannot restore, update, or unlock iPad. Now a very expensive paper weight.

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