iPad setup did not preserve home pages

Given that the screen size and screen aspect-ratio of iPad and iPhone are totally different, it is impossible to mirror the Home Screen layout between iPad and iPhone. Some explanation may help with understanding the limitations.

Your Home Screens accommodate App/folder icons and Widgets in a fixed grid layout - the number of available rows and columns being determined by the screen size and the aspect ratio - which are totally different between iPhone and iPad. As there is no direct correlation between the two devices, you'll not be able to transfer - or create a 1:1 copy of your Home Screen layout - between these two device types.

As such, your only option is to manually set-up the Home Screens of your two iPads to best meet your preferences; there is no method by which to automatically replicate the layout between dissimilar devices by transferring from the iPad Pro, or restoring an iCloud or iTunes backup.

Move apps and widgets on the Home Screen on iPad - Apple Support

Move apps and widgets on the Home Screen on iPhone - Apple Support

Continued...

If you are using a MAC-based Access Control List to control access to your WiFi Network, ensure that you have disabled Apple’s Private Address feature:

Settings > WiFi > [Your WiFi Network / SSID] > Private Wi-Fi Address - set to OFF

If this setting is enabled, you iPad will not be using its real (fixed and globally-unique) MAC Address, but will instead use a randomly selected address that can (and will) regularly change. With the setting disabled, your iPad will use its real (fixed) MAC Address. You can see the currently active MAC address from the WiFi settings page.

You can also find your WiFi and Bluetooth MAC Addresses from:

Settings > General > About

Apple devices use the Private WiFi Address feature to improve privacy. The Private Address feature works by using a different MAC Address for each WiFi network to which the device connects - periodically changing the MAC Address to reduce opportunity for tracking/fingerprinting your device.

Using MAC-based access control is very much a legacy/deprecated security measure that has become increasingly ineffective - often causing difficulties (as you have discovered) for end-users that are using devices that use modern security and privacy features. If you intend to use access control measures to limit access to specific devices, you should be using far more advanced methods, such as 802.1x with certificate-based authentication.

• Apple does not transfer Home Screen layout or folders when migrating from iPhone → iPad.
• Apps and settings move, but icon position and folders do not.
• MAC address randomization made your router setup more complicated.
• Once you arrange the iPad manually, future backups/restores will preserve the layout.

hspindel wrote:

The MAC issue has nothing to do with whether private IP addresses are enabled or not. Out of the box, I should be able to determine the factory MAC address without even powering the iPad up.

You can, it’s on the box the iPad came it. But with Private IP addresses (aka MAC Addresses) enabled (the default) when you connect to what is an essentially unknown Wi-Fi network (it has no way of knowing it’s your home network) it generates a fake Wi-Fi address. You must override this by going to Settings/Wi-Fi, tap on the i next to the network name, and turn off Private address; then it will use the hardware MAC address when you connect.

hspindel wrote:

> You can also find your WiFi and Bluetooth MAC Addresses from:

Settings > General > About

Which is totally useless because the iPad will not allow me to check settings before it is set up for the first time, and first time setting requires a WiFi connection.

The turn off MAC filtering for a couple of minutes, set up the iPad, turn off Private Wi-Fi address, then turn MAC filtering back on in your router if you really want this totally useless router feature that was successfully hacked 10 years ago.