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How to change ownership of an ipad without erasing contents?

I bought an iPad for my wife, back up her old one in my MacBookAir, and the new iPad think's its mine. So it asks her for passwords with my email. How can I change ownership so it can all appear with her own email, phone number, etc.?

iPad, iOS 10

Posted on Jun 16, 2022 6:18 PM

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7 replies

Jun 17, 2022 1:25 AM in response to gerardootero

You’ll need to start again… fully resetting the new iPad to its initial “as new” state:

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support


Now that you’ll have the iPad back at its initial “hello” set-up screen, you can follow the transfer procedures - which will copy everything from the old iPad (this presumably signed-in to iCloud with her own AppleID).


These support pages should get you started with setup of the new iPad - and the methods of transferring data from the old to new iPad:

Set up your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch – Apple Support

Transfer data from your previous iOS device to your new iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Use Quick Start to transfer data to a new iPhone, iPad or iPod touch – Apple Support


If the donor iPad, from which you are transferring your data precedes iOS12.4, QuickStart will not be available.


“Transfer” is rather a misnomer. In reality, data and setup are merely cloned to the new device. Nothing is moved or removed from the original device.


An alternative is to restore either an iCloud or iTunes backup to the new device:

How to back up your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch – Apple Support

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support


Jun 17, 2022 4:17 PM in response to gerardootero

Start by disabling Find My iPad:

Settings > [Your Name / AppleID] > Find My > Find My iPad - set to OFF


Next, sign-out from your AppleID:

Settings > [Your Name / AppleID] > Sign Out


You’ll have opportunity to save a local copy of your data; if you do so, this data will eventually be merged with the new users AppleID account. If you are happy to have your personal, private and sensitive data (including Keychain) copied to somebody else’s account, you can save a local copy of all your data - otherwise decline. You have been forewarned of the consequences; once merged with another account, other than manually deleting data entries, you cannot reverse the merge.


After signing-out, a forced restart is recommended:

  • On an iPad with a Home button: Press and hold the top button and the Home button at the same time. When the Apple logo appears, release both buttons.
  • On other iPad models: Press and quickly release the volume up button, press and quickly release the volume down button, then press and hold the top button. When the Apple logo appears, release the button.



After restart, you wife can sign-in with her own AppleID. Data previously saved during sign-out will be merged with your Wife’s AppleID account.



Jun 17, 2022 3:42 PM in response to LotusPilot

Thanks LotusPilot. The trouble is that the old iPad is too old, from 2014. What I did was to back it up in my iMac. But then the other problem is that even the old iPad was also in my name, so it transferred my email and Apple account info to the new one. But I won't worry about this. It's just annoying for my wife.


Apple should be less imperialistic about this issue and make it a bit easier to change the owner's name, with appropriate security gates.

Jun 17, 2022 4:01 PM in response to gerardootero

The issue here is not Apple being “imperialistic”, but instead incorrectly assuming that when signed-in to your Mac with your own AppleID, the iPad will not be teated as being your own.


Had your wife signed-in to your Mac for the backup/restore, with her own AppleID, you would have have seen an entirely different outcome.


As QuickStart will not be available, you might start again using the Mac - with the correct User signed-in - or simply use an iCloud backup from which to restore existing data to the new iPad during initial setup.

How to change ownership of an ipad without erasing contents?

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