The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
I work in an IT department and a user brought me their iPad because they don't know the passcode. Normally, I could just send a passcode reset to it remotely but, unfortunately, it is stuck in airplane mode and I don't appear to have access to the control center from the lock screen. If I reboot the iPad, it gets temporarily disabled.
We can probably do a full reset, but that is not ideal.
Any tips?
If configured device settings disable access to the Control Centre when the device is locked with its Passcode (this being a significantly more secure configuration) - if the iPad is also in Airplane mode - the iPad must first be successfully unlocked with the device Passcode before (a) Airplane Mode can be cancelled, and (b) a network connection established.
Without a Passcode, your only available option is to restore the iPad from its disabled state.
If configured device settings disable access to the Control Centre when the device is locked with its Passcode (this being a significantly more secure configuration) - if the iPad is also in Airplane mode - the iPad must first be successfully unlocked with the device Passcode before (a) Airplane Mode can be cancelled, and (b) a network connection established.
Without a Passcode, your only available option is to restore the iPad from its disabled state.
iPad in Airplane Mode
