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iPadOS 18 bricked my iPad M4

I updated my iPad Pro M4 to iOS 18. It did not go well, the iPad won't turn on, hard reset doesn't work and it doesn't show up on my Mac. I've booked it in for a repair.


Has anyone else had the same issue?


Is there anything else I can try?


thanks in advance.


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

iPad Pro, iPadOS 17

Posted on Sep 16, 2024 12:20 PM

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Posted on Sep 17, 2024 12:51 PM

I took mine into the Genius Bar tonight only to have it confirmed that the iPad is well and truly dead. The guy said that he had never seen it before but said it couldn't possibly be the update. If only he knew that as he was telling me this that apple were pulling the update from the M4 iPad Pros.


He said it has to be sent off for more testing and that a replacement will be sent out with in 14 days time. It's pretty annoying that the update breaks your iPad and then you have to wait 2 weeks for a replacement.


I should have stuck to my normal ethos and waited before doing the update.

52 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 17, 2024 12:51 PM in response to Spwilliams13

I took mine into the Genius Bar tonight only to have it confirmed that the iPad is well and truly dead. The guy said that he had never seen it before but said it couldn't possibly be the update. If only he knew that as he was telling me this that apple were pulling the update from the M4 iPad Pros.


He said it has to be sent off for more testing and that a replacement will be sent out with in 14 days time. It's pretty annoying that the update breaks your iPad and then you have to wait 2 weeks for a replacement.


I should have stuck to my normal ethos and waited before doing the update.

Sep 18, 2024 1:31 AM in response to Spwilliams13

I’ve spent an hour with tech support at Apple regarding my bricked M4 pro following the update. They agree it can’t be fixed at home, there is no way to get it into recovery mode to do this. I need to send it back for a free repair or replacement. Apple have now pulled the update for these flag ship devices so it must be serious. Tech support indicated that in his experience it must have caused a hardware failure that their engineers are now looking into.

Sep 20, 2024 12:23 PM in response to Spwilliams13

For everyone affected by this thing happening:


Go to the Apple Store. This is a known issue, and iPadOS 18 is pulled for M4 iPad Pro's at the moment as the issue is been looked after.


In the Apple Store you can get technical support. If your iPad is completely bricked they might set you up with a replacement. As I said, Apple is aware of this issue and you will get help in the Apple Store

Sep 16, 2024 1:13 PM in response to Spwilliams13

You can try forcing it into recovery mode, if you haven't already:


On your iPad without a Home button: Press and quickly release the volume button closest to the top button. Press and quickly release the volume button farthest from the top button. Press and hold the top button until your device begins to restart. Keep holding the top button.


If you can get it to the recovery screen, your computer then may allow you to restore it. If that fails, or you can't even get it into recovery mode, then you will almost certainly need to get it in for repair. It's unlikely that iOS 18 actually caused the problem - more likely a hardware issue caused the install to fail than the reverse happened - but it's not impossible.


Regards.

Oct 9, 2024 11:56 AM in response to varjak paw

so I have the iPad M4 - Pro (1TB) - updated to iPad OS 18 and it bricked. Crazy thing is that just a couple weeks earlier, my iPhone 15 Pro also bricked when updating to iOS18! - they sent me a new phone - didn't fix it. ended up I could set up as new but could not restore from my diligently backed up backup! - then, same thing happens to iPad. I see now the known issue with iPad - wondering how they could be connected? I spent hours on phone with tech support in both cases, and went to Apple store for a GB visit. - both cases they sent (and are sending) me a new device. I'm wondering if my replacement iPad will be able to restore from backup. At this point, I have little hope. Maybe it will come with iPad OS 17 and that will be how it works. It is SO MUCH WORK! to get my device back to the way it was set up previously - when not being able to use backup to restore. Putting apps in folders, signing in to accounts,... - so many things you don't even think about until they are gone! VERY VERY frustrating!


-Has anybody else has issue with iPad AND iPhone?

Sep 19, 2024 3:19 AM in response to Spwilliams13

Apple has pulled the update for the M4 iPad Pro's regarding this issues.


If you have an iPad Pro that is affected, I reccommend that you go to an Apple Store to seek help and replacement. This is not an issue that you can solve from Home I am afraid


I have updated my iPad Pro M4 11 inch without issues. I haven't updated to iPadOS 17.7 first, just directly to 18 from 17.6.1

Sep 22, 2024 3:47 PM in response to Spwilliams13

Hi everyone, I spent an hour with Apple support regarding my M4 pro which broke after an update. They agreed that it cannot be repaired by Apple. They said it should be sent for further testing and a replacement will be sent within 7 days. They did send a replacement but I have not received it yet. It is very annoying that an update can damage your iPad and then you have to wait a week for a replacement. Is the replacement used or new because mine was new a month ago and I bought it from Apple

Sep 24, 2024 2:38 AM in response to landscape_artist

I took my bricked IPad Pro M4 to the Genius Bar yesterday ( 23 Sept ) It had died last week during the IOS 18 update and was completely unresponsive with a black screen

The Apple technician tried all the usual things to get it to respond but nothing worked. He then tried putting it on the shops fast charge system and noticed a brief flash. Connecting again to the computer then allowed the recovery process to start and an Apple was displayed on the screen. A full restoration was then possible and it is now back to normal but with IOS 17.7

The battery charge was 1%

The conjecture is that after the 18 upgrade failed the machine continued doing something but locked out any interaction. When the power failed it was no longer frozen but needed a bit of a power kick to get it going

Whether this will work with other bricked machines is a matter of conjecture ….. but worth a careful go

Sep 24, 2024 9:43 AM in response to archy999

archy999 wrote:

My issue is not that my m4 ipad pro is bricked but rather how Apple is handling this whole mess… It’s been over a week now, no official explanation/apology, they pulled the 18 also no explanation on that, no possible timeline given or any instructions. As I said it’s been over a week now and we are in the absolute darkness! Extremely poor handling of a crisis on Apple’s side… Pure failure of a movement…


Apple might not know the cause of the problem yet – just that the issue is serious enough, and has been seen often enough, to make it worth temporarily pausing the iPadOS 18 rollout.


CNET (September 18, 2024) – Apple's iPadOS 18 Update Is Bricking M4 iPad Pro Models

"The company told CNET the issue is affecting iPad Pro models with Apple's newer M4 processor. "We have temporarily removed the iPadOS 18 update for M4 iPad Pro models as we work to resolve an issue that is impacting a small number of devices," Apple said in a statement."


If I remember correctly, Apple told a couple of Mac news sites the same thing, word for word. However, I do not see anything on the Apple Newsroom (press release) site mentioning the pause in the iPadOS 18 rollout.

Sep 30, 2024 7:29 AM in response to Spwilliams13

This iOS 18 update bricked my iPad as well. It was working perfectly fine up until iOS 18. I have a generation seven iPad and it worked great… now they’re saying it’s a hardware issue. I think that’s BS because it didn’t have a hardware issue until iOS 18. They are unable to fix it and suggest I buy a new iPad. This is the first time I have been so disappointed in Apple.

iPadOS 18 bricked my iPad M4

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