My iPad is stuck verifying when I try to update to 15.0.2 (iPad Pro 9.7")

I salute you sir. Been searching for an answer for a while. Google never took me to this solution before today. Tried everything. Thank you. Hat's (not) off to the update process though. Should have given us a fair warning about the SIM.

Oh, god. Thank you so much for posting this solution, it finally worked. I had been having the same issue for at least one month and it was very annoying having the update prompt every time but then not succeeding in updating.

Currently updating the iPad right now.

Happy New Year,

I don't think I had this problem in October, but I do now. I have tried everything suggested, except the SIM card fix, but I'm stuck here. I do not have the cellular model for the iPad. Doesn't that mean I don' have a SIM card tray? Or if I do can someone post a photo what it looks like? (iPad Pro 12.9 inch (second generation)

update: i did have a wi/fi cellular model, so did have a sim card tray. I didn't have a sim card but opened the tray (with a paperclip, like back in the day when a paperclip was used to eject a floppy) and finally, the update successfully happened. Apple is getting very sloppy. No where do they post that this is a fix. No where do they post that there is a concern about this problem and they are working on it.

The first time I had this I tried to turn off & restart but couldn’t; tried everything but nothing worked! So I left the iPad for 3 days until power on it completely drained so the iPad was off. Today I tried to update & same thing occurred for 5hours saying “…verifying update”. Thanks to this amazing community; I took the SIM tray out; the problem instantly stopped, & my iPad got updated.

So this is what I suggest should anyone experienced same problem.

Wow! 

I have missed several updates over many months now and as usual the update was stuck on veryfying the update. Then I just opened the SIM card holder and the update started immediately! This is a miracle! 

I have searched the internet before and tried all the advice I have found. No luck. Thank you for this solution!

Thank you very much for the tip. The problem is indeed that the update insist the presence of SIM card to proceed without providing feedback of what the program requires. With much Appreciation, Norman

I had the same problem and it was fixed just by taking the SIM card tray out, and then putting it back in. (My iPad is the wi-fi/cellular version but I never activated the cellular for the iPad, so didn't have a SIM card). The hours spent trying to figure out what's wrong, that's something else. No where did I see instructions from Apple to do this. This forum was very helpful of course.

Found this thread after a quick google while my iPad Pro 10.5 was stuck verifying update. It had been like that for nearly 24 hours, I hadn't had chance to do anything, other than a forced restart in that time which didn't resolve the problem. Then having seen this thread, I simply ejected the SIM card tray (while the iPad was still lit up saying 'verifying update', and within seconds the update started progressing!! How random, ejecting an empty SIM card tray cause the software update to continue!

Thanks all!

I had this problem with my 2nd Gen iPad Pro. I couldn’t past the 15 update. I followed a tip from someone on this forum and it worked. They said to put a redundant sim in the 2nd sim slot (if you have one of course) it worked . Absolutely no idea why! I subsequently saw that someone else didn’t bother with the sim but just closed and opened the sim tray, apparently this worked too.

This worked exactly : stuck for ages. Hard reboot multiple times.

Removed the SIM card and within about 30 secs it then started the update. It did keep saying struggling to certify update due to internet connection. Clearly the verification process is using the non existent cellular connection and can’t read the WiFi strange but glad problem resolved.

Worked for me too.

Tried lot of other things that didnt work but then put in the SIM card and it worked.

Believe verify update is making a call (that doesn't timeout) for SIM accessories and if there is no SIM Card there is no reply and there is no timeout hence verify update is hanged. or alternatively there is a loop that expects a specific reply and till it gets that specific reply it goes into infinite loop.

Could be a software bug or a hardware bug (aka the SIM card hardware). Either way can be fixed by some simple innovative software fixes.

Thank you so much for sharing what worked for you in your situation. My iPad Pro has been stuck for days and nothing worked. That is until I found your workaround and at least for now things are not spinning. Thank you

For sure…I have a iPad Pro 9.7 that I wanted to use as just a desk side reader and note taker. But after it would not stop spinning I thought I had lost her. But, thanks to you she is revived and running Software Version 15.5. Thank you!

Inserting a nonworking SIM card worked for me. iPad Pro 10.5 inch updated to 15.0.2.