iPad Screen Cracked By Itself

It is notoriously difficult to prove that a crack is the result of a manufacturing or material defect. As such, screen damage is often excluded from warranty claims.

The type of crack that might be considered for warranty claim is a single contiguous crack that spontaneously appears across the cover glass. The crack will exhibit no signs of direct impact, or additional cracks that radiate away from a single point. Similarly, the iPad casing will show no signs of impact damage - in particular any marking around the edges.

Apple offer a limited one-year warranty - against which you might attempt to make a claim. If making a warranty claim, your should first attempt to make a claim with your retailer - as it is most often the retailer with whom your purchase contract (and therefore your warranty) principally exists. If unsuccessful, you then have the potential backup of making a claim against the manufacturer’s limited warranty.

If you had the foresight of opting to purchase Apple’s AppleCare+ plan, this being an insurance product, you will have the security of being able to make claim with Apple regardless of fault. In such circumstances, a small excess/deductible charge is made - and you will receive a replacement (usually a reconditioned iPad of the same model and specification) iPad.

An out-of-warranty paid repair will entail screen replacement - which, for practical purposes, Apple may offer an exchange for a renewed/reconditioned iPad of the same model and specification. Given the age of your iPad, the cost of the “repair” when compared with purchase of a newer model iPad may be uneconomic.

You can establish the repair cost in your country/region here:

iPad Repair & Service - Apple Support

How new was this iPad?

Screen cracks are not, usually, covered under the free, one-year warranty.

The paid warranty, initally, is good for 2 years for any user incidental/accidental damages, then you must pay a monthly fee to Apple to maintain the paid waranty status of your iPad model past the initial 2-year pay period.

What you're suggesting is nearly impossible. Force must applied in order for glass to break. Force must be applied to bend a spoon. At item at rest won't spontaneously break or bend without outside forces applied.

The only way I can even think of the iPad glass breaking without physical force would be thermal. As in, it was either very cold and suddenly subjected to a lot of heat, or visa versa.

I’ll challenge the suggestion that an iPad screen can’t break “on its own”. 

As I’m currently working on my sixth or seventh cracked iPad Pro 11” (1st Generation) glass, I have a dog in this hunt. Otherwise said, I have a personal interest with the same issue and I believe I can offer an explanation as to how a person can perceive the glass cracking without any apparent influence by a human.

A gentleman named Issac Newton is credited with a number of theories and laws of nature. For this conversation, I would like to make use of his Laws & Theories of Thermodynamics. Herein lies the mystery of spontaneous cracked glass. Heating and cooling cycles on the aluminum frame and the glass itself, especially on the model I own, can "warp" either or both. The glass in my 2018 iPad Pro 11" meets an outer frame you would measure in 1/6th's of an inch. The slightest amount of twisting on the frame is all that's needed to create a crack that just continues to grow. These heating and cooling cycles are just the external ones (outside influences). If we add the heat released by the internal batteries during use and while under charge....the opportunity for flexing of the framework and/or glass just jumped a couple orders of magnitude.

So, either the glass is sub-par quality compared to older devices OR the glass has been pushed too close to the framework that is itself too thin and subject to excessive flexing "without a single human hand ever touching the device." Yes. A human eye may not be capable of perceiving the flexing movements of the iPad's materials...but they do exit...and they would make one believe it "cracked on its own."

Screens generally do not just break. But, have yours evaluated for service.