Delete Activation Lock on Ipad Mini 1st Generation

If your device is Activation Locked, this help page will provide most of the information that you’ll need:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201365

If you have forgotten your AppleID or associated password, these can be recovered here:

https://iforgot.apple.com

To recover your credentials, you’ll need access to one of the following:

• Your primary email address mailbox that corresponds with your AppleID
• Any of the secondary/recovery email addresses that should be configured for your AppleID account
• Any of the trusted telephone numbers (fixed line or Cellular/Mobile) that are associated with your AppleID

Unless you AppleID account has not been fully/correctly configured, or has been seriously neglected, recovery of the AppleID and password should not be difficult.

More information about recovery of your AppleID:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201354

More information about recovery of your AppleID password:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201487

When you recover access to your credentials, you would be well advised to log-in to your AppleID account from a web browser - and verify/update any email addresses and trusted telephone numbers:

https://appleid.apple.com

All this said, resurrection of your original 1st Generation iPad mini might be a futile exercise. Update Support for the iPad mini1 was formally ended by Apple in September 2016. The final supported versions of iOS were iOS 9.3.5 (WiFi Only models) and iOS 9.3.6 (WiFi & Cellular). iPad mini1, a 32-bit device, cannot be updated to any newer major versions of iOS as they lack the required minimum hardware specifications.

Many App Developers have also dropped support for older devices and iOS versions preceding iOS11/12 - and have withdrawn older versions of their Apps from the Apple App Store. As such, with scarcity of compatible Apps, in particular for 32-bit devices (64-bit now being the only supported standard), utility and usefulness of older iOS devices is becoming increasing limited.

If Apps that you need to use now have higher minimum iOS-version requirements, your only option is to replace your iPad with newer model. Even the basic current iPad model supports current iPadOS 13.x - and has hardware specifications that will vastly outperform your old iPad.

Sorry, this is clearly not the news that you were hoping to hear.

I hope this information is helpful - if only in clearly stating your current options and potential ways forward.

If you end up restoring this iPad as new, it will no longer have any third party apps that you may have paid or downloaded for free from the Apple iOS App Store, any longer, and such older apps, most likely now, in 2020, will no longer exists for initial download and/or re-download because, as of 2019, many, MANY third party app developers AND Apple are permanently removing all of their older iOS version apps from Apple's iOS App Store servers and this situation has only gotten to be worse in 2020.

So, you maybe just stuck with the original iOS installed apps that came with that iPad.

In the event you have to restore that iPad as new, I would STOP using that nearly 3-year old Safari web browser, as it is, probably, not safe and secure to use any longer, and seek out a third party web browser that is STILL currently being updated and STILL being supported on iOS 9.3.5.

Here are a few third party web browsers that I know are STILL being updated and supported on iOS 9, currently.

Available and more popular third party Web browser choices are dwindling faster, now.

There are still a handful of iOS 9 and earlier supported third party Web browsers.

Most of these have had recent updates, too!

Here’s what’s left.

iCab Mobile Web browser

Aloha Web browser

ALook Web browwer

Dolphin Web browser

DuckDuckGo Private Web browser

Snow Bunny Web browser

Maxthon Web browser

Private Browsing Web browser by Savvy Soda

Private Browser Deluxe

TOR browser anonymous

Turbo VPN browser

TOR + VPN web browser private

Search the iOS App Store app for these third party Web browsers and pick one, or however many you wish, that have had the most recent of an app update.

Some of these Web browsers have NOT had any app updates in two years, or so.

Some have had more recent iOS updates.

Good Luck to You!

You may also like to know with the iPad Mini, it has an older iOS and cannot run newer apps. It may be just as well to get a new one if possible.