Hello everyone dealing with this horrible glitch by Apple,
My iPad was acting weird, some apps were invisible on the home screen, so i went to storage and noticed it was full. So I quickly tried to delete apps, but they didn't go anywhere. Not enough space to delete an app, what!?
I ran over to 'Recently deleted photos' and tried wiping that in hopes to quickly clear some space, nothing. The iPad then restarted on its own. Now enter the bootloop.
I booked a genius bar appointment only for them to tell me there is nothing they can do. I oversold the story and claimed my life's work was on it to get a reaction. He said we can try an update but you would have to sign a form that your data could be lost. I asked him "if you were me, what would you do?" he said lets not do the update, call this data recovery company, its expensive but they might help.
I called them on my drive back home. They offered a free appraisal and a no data no cost guarantee. Sounds great.
Then I got home, and started my research and then told myself, its not even a year old, Apple has to help! So I called AppleCare. They told me to try the Recovery Mode Update via iTunes. She even promised me the Update will NOT wipe the iPad. We sat on the phone for 45 minutes while it downloaded the update. Then the progress bar on the iPad began and we both were rooting it on. Then the nightmare. My Mac alerted me that my iPad had to be restored and that it is now ready to use. Absolute shock. The lady on the phone was terrified, she quickly transfered me to a higher up who gave me run around statements. He even tried to tell me that pressing Update allows a restore if the update does not work. I was never prompted after the iOS update was downloaded to my Mac.
What did I lose? I always use iCloud Photos. I recently came from a trip overseas. During my trip my iPhone would fill up often as the data signals were slow and iCloud needed time, so I would occasionally AirDrop videos to my iPad to allow my phone to upload to the cloud easier.
My mistakes:
-I never airdropped those videos back to my phone after phone made space. (I operate the iPad on another icloud account)
-I never connected my iPad to Wifi during the trip. Except for once or twice.
-I should have been AirDropping to my Mac not my iPad which is inaccessible if it can't turn on.
-I should never have used my iPad as a 'data bank'. Horrible mistake.
Half way through the trip I noticed the iPad did upload a good amount. However that stopped at some point.
Fast track to my return from the trip. My iPad was definitely NOT full when I left Europe, as a lot of videos did upload. I set my iPad to charge on my desk knowing its on wifi, it'll take care of itself, but also noted to myself a 'To-Do' (Airdrop videos back to my phone.)
Im wondering if when I plugged it in to charge did it kick in a 'Download iOS14 Update' and fill up doing that?
I read all your messages and quite honestly the last 3 weeks I have been miserable since this happened especially since an Apple Rep wiped my iPad.
Its not years worth of content or family pictures so I can't imagine what some of you are going through. I feel truly sorry that a device/OS that has been world class since 2007 and has been refined on a yearly basis has led to this absolute disaster for some of you. How on Earth is there not a safe guard to not FILL up your device, especially if the reason COULD be on their part attempting to download an update which we DIDN'T EVEN ASK FOR! And to not know this has been going on for months and their AppleCare reps advise to an Update that could WIPE all data.
Originally when they said a Recovery Center could possibly recover it but it could cost ~$2K, I told myself I would not pay that since it was just some 'scattered videos from my trip' and if I airdropped it to my iPad it probably wasn't the best video clip of the day. But the stress that this has caused me the last 3 weeks mainly because Apple literally wiped the drive, I told myself I probably now would pay, just for the relief. But from what I'm reading, I don't think they could have recovered data because the guy on the phone at the Recovery Center also did mention that 'The iPad needs enough space for us to get in there and install a program to extract the data'.
Even though a patch at this point will not help me one bit, I truly hope all of you do get a chance to recover your data one day. Especially if you are dealing with real data loss like baby photos/videos, family events, photos of loved ones, projects. Keep your iPhones/iPads shelved until then. They are not worth recovering and using.
While I've been a wreck since this has happened, I am grateful this wasn't my entire trip. I lost some 'vacation views' but I've always hoarded a few things in my life so it could have been videos I'd never watch again, but I agonize on the idea of what did I actually lose, I will never know.
I hope you guys do find out, one day.
Tony