How can I reset my "Restrictions" passcode on my iPad 2.

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Level 1

5 points

How can I reset my "Restrictions" passcode on my iPad 2.

I have already done a full system restore and re-synced with iTunes. This is my problem, I think - the passcode is also synced with iTunes. How do I get around this? I need the passcode to access my email accout settings since I have needed to change my password. The settings are all "greyed out" as they should be when under restrictions. My problem is that I have no idea how to get passed the forgotten passcode. Please help - I have come to the end of myself and NEED the email access. I'm new to Apple products, so I apologize if this is a stupid problem - I know I should have written down the passcode....beating myself up for it already. Thank you for any help you can give!!

iPad 2, iOS 4.3.3

Posted on Sep 10, 2011 7:17 PM

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Answer 1

Demo

Level 10

166,494 points

Sep 10, 2011 7:25 PM in response to Silverhands

You can't recover a lost password and you have to restore the device which you said you already did so now I am confused. If you restore the device to the last computer you synced with you can recover your data by restoring from a backup.

This is the article that talks about it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1212

I have never had to do this but I assume that you have to restore to factory settings in order to have access to the settings again. After you have access to the settings then you can restore again from your backup. At least that's the way that makes sense to me.

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Answer 2

Silverhands Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 10, 2011 7:31 PM in response to Demo

Sorry for the confusion. I'll try to be more clear, though I can't promise anything.

I have forgotten the "Restrictions" passcode for my iPad. It's not a lock passcode or anything that I use regularly, just the restrictions passcode, which I set up for my email since I have some sensitive information.

I had to change the password on my email account, so my iPad then needed the new password to access my email. Since it is under restrictions, I cannot access the email settings to change the password.

Since adding the passcode to my iPad, I have synced with my iTunes quite a few times. I am assuming that the passcode entered into the iPad device gets synced with iTunes (is this correct?), so that when I synced after doing the system restore, the passcode was also added back to the device, leaving me exactly where I started.

I had previously read and followed the article you linked to in your response and it did not help.

Does that make better sense? Thanks for the response.

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Answer 3

ATILANO

Level 2

300 points

Sep 10, 2011 7:40 PM in response to Silverhands

Restore the iPad but DO NOT restore from a backup. This will ERASE EVERYTHING on your iPad. You can then synch with iTunes to get your apps, music, etc. back but all of your app data is going to be gone. You'll have to re-enter all of your mail settings, etc. but at least you will now be able to use your iPad the way you need to.

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Answer 4

Silverhands Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 10, 2011 7:52 PM in response to ATILANO

Is there any way for me to NOT lose everything? I have A LOT of information on my iPad that I need to keep. :/

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Answer 5

Demo

Level 10

166,494 points

Sep 10, 2011 8:01 PM in response to Silverhands

Yes, after reconsidering, restoring form the backup would not work. I found a really interesting thread. One of the participants suggests using a third party app on your computer to extract the passcode. If you care to go through all of this, read this thread. The informative post is by Marcin2011.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2667637?start=15&tstart=0

If you restore to factory settings you will lose your data, but you can sync all of your apps and iTunes content back to the iPad after you restore. You sync regularly so all of your purchases should be in your iTunes library but if you want to be sure, when you connect the iPad and iTunes is running, you can right click on the iPad name on the left sidebar and select Transfer Purchases. Or you can select it from the menu at the top - File> Transfer Purchases.

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Answer 6

Silverhands Author

Level 1

5 points

Sep 10, 2011 11:19 PM in response to Demo

Fantastic! The post in the thread you pointed me to worked! I am a free man! It took a little doing and some careful searching, but I was finally able to get it all set and done and now have a free iPad again. Thank you all for your help, and especially to you, demo, for pointing me in the right direction.

Have a great night!

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Answer 7

fewezee

Level 1

0 points

Nov 3, 2011 7:04 AM in response to Silverhands

Please can you tell me how you did it? I cannot seem to find that detail in the springboard.plist. I can only see a SBParentalControlsEnabled.

Eagerly waiting for your reply...

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Answer 8

Silverhands Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 3, 2011 8:04 AM in response to fewezee

Hey, the solutiion that I found was in the springboard.plist. First of all, you should know that I am working on a PC. The note at the end of Marcin2011's post is what helped most. Once you unzip the springboard.plist, open it in notepad (again, this is the PC solution) follow the instructions that he gives that I have copied here....I underlined the important part of where to be looking.

"(NOTE: If you are on Windows and do not have a program that will read PLIST files then open the file with Notepad instead. It will mostly look like garbled junk and words running together but towards the end of the file look for 4 successive digits, if there is more than one place with 4 successive digits then try them all, one of them will be your pin)."

I really hope this helps! Good luck!

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Answer 9

fewezee

Level 1

0 points

Nov 3, 2011 8:10 AM in response to Silverhands

Does it make any difference that I am running iOS 5? the only related key I could find there was SBParentalControlsEnabled which was set to true.

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Answer 10

Silverhands Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 3, 2011 9:30 AM in response to fewezee

I don't see why it would make any difference that you were running iOS 5....as far as I know, they haven't changed any of the base program codes for software that was present before iOS 5. I make no claim to be an Apple guru, I've always had PC's myself, so I'm probably not the best to ask on the subject. Were you able to follow all of the instructions given in the other post, where you unzipped the file and were able to see the "readme" for the file? As mentioned above, it's a garbled mess, and the code is buried in there. That's how I found my code.

Additionally, keep in mind that this option is not resetting anything or removing the passcode, what it's doing is helping you find what passcode you entered previously....

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