Old, out-of-date iPad suddenly updated and locked me out
So this is going to sound wild. I have literally no idea what happened or how to fix it, but this is my best guess at what's going on.
I have two iPads. The first is an old, no-longer-functioning iPad Mini 4 that couldn't update to the latest iOS. I use it to take voice memos on a third-party app (Voice Record Pro) and listen to music to fall asleep, but other than those two things, most apps don't work on it anymore since it's so out of date. That's fine with me--that's why I bought the second iPad, an iPad 7 that is fully updated and fully functional.
Last night, when I went to use the iPad 4 for my lullaby playlist so I could fall asleep, I noticed it had died some time during the day. Okay, no problem, I have a charging cord and it still charges normally. I had just charged it recently, in fact. I plugged it in overnight, put the iPad 7 on top of it, and used the 7 to play my music instead just for the night. This morning, when I checked on the iPad 4, it had suddenly, MAGICALLY updated itself to the current iOS.
I only know this because it was now prompting me for a 6-digit passcode instead of a 4-digit passcode. There's just one problem: I never set up a 6-digit code for this iPad, because it never needed one. When I tried entering the 6-digit code I use on the iPad 7, it rejected it. I tried the default codes, nothing worked. I've tried so many things, but because I can't unlock the iPad, I can't get it to trust my laptop, so I can't make a backup, so I can't break through the screen unless I do a full factory reset. I have a LOT of data in that third party voice memo app, and I'm scared if I do a factory reset I'll lose ALL of it since I hadn't finished backing it up yet.
I tried backing it up using the Dr. Fone app, and for some strange reason, when I did, Dr. Fone detected it as an iPad 7 plugged into my laptop...like the new iPad that was sitting on top of the old one while it charged. My best guess at what happened is that, somehow, the iPad 4 did an update overnight and used an update file it found wirelessly on the iPad 7. But that doesn't make any sense.
I'm just exceptionally lost and I have no clue how to even begin solving this problem. If anyone has ever experienced something like this before and can give me some advice on how to proceed, I would really appreciate it.
iPad, iPadOS 16
