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how to reset ipad to factory settings on ios5?

I was advice to reset my ipad to factory setting. How do I do this? I currently have ios5.


Once I reset my ipad, will I have to re-update to ios5?


If so, do I need itunes to reinstall ios5?


I am resetting because my ipad is acting funny. I was surfing the internet and one of the shopping websites I visited kept redirecting me to some random site. Now my web brpwser constantly crashes, slow internet, lock screen sometimes display random volume and stop/play buttons on top of the screen.


Could this be a malware or virus?

Will resetting to factory mode get rid of the malware/virus?

iPad 2

Posted on Nov 18, 2011 3:46 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 18, 2011 4:04 PM

Alee11-


I recently had a trusted website redirect me when it should not have done so. I think the problem is at that website, not on my Macintosh!


For your iPad Safari problem, I suggest you go to Settings-Safari and Clear History and Clear Cookies and Data. That can help with some Safari problems, and may be all you need to do.


A factory reset is somewhat drastic. I suggest you do a simple reset (reboot) of the iPad first. Hold both the Home and Sleep buttons for several seconds until the Apple logo appears. Ignore the "Slide to power off" arrow. The iPad will restart after a couple of minutes. Resetting this way will not hurt anything, and sometimes clears up mysterious problems.


As a last resort, you can do the factory reset. It will not require re-installing iOS 5. Go to Settings-General-Reset-Erase All Content and Settings. Then connect to iTunes and Restore the iPad from its last backup. You will lose any changes since the last Sync.


Fred

11 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 18, 2011 4:04 PM in response to alee11

Alee11-


I recently had a trusted website redirect me when it should not have done so. I think the problem is at that website, not on my Macintosh!


For your iPad Safari problem, I suggest you go to Settings-Safari and Clear History and Clear Cookies and Data. That can help with some Safari problems, and may be all you need to do.


A factory reset is somewhat drastic. I suggest you do a simple reset (reboot) of the iPad first. Hold both the Home and Sleep buttons for several seconds until the Apple logo appears. Ignore the "Slide to power off" arrow. The iPad will restart after a couple of minutes. Resetting this way will not hurt anything, and sometimes clears up mysterious problems.


As a last resort, you can do the factory reset. It will not require re-installing iOS 5. Go to Settings-General-Reset-Erase All Content and Settings. Then connect to iTunes and Restore the iPad from its last backup. You will lose any changes since the last Sync.


Fred

Nov 18, 2011 4:09 PM in response to alee11

Read this to learn more about restoring your iDevice to factory settings

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414


This will not erase the iOS 5 software so you will not have to update the iPad again.


You do not have to reinstall iTunes on your computer.


It is not a virus or malware. The update may have been corrupt and that might be what is causing the problems on your iPad.


Resetting to factory settings will restore your iPad to "out of the box" condition. If you do not restore from a backup at the end of the restore process, you will have to enter all of your personalized settings again and your email accounts.


Resetting to factory settings removes all settings that you put onto the device. One of your settings may have caused the problem as well so this will be like starting all over again with a brand new iPad when you rset to factory settings.


Make sure that you read that article before you do anything at all and post back if you have questions before you restore your iPad.

Feb 7, 2012 4:27 PM in response to alee11

Before I get into this I'd like to avoid being treated like an idiot. I spent years as a PC technician, made my way up to Sr. Unix Admin, It Manager and IT director all along the way using more OS's than people on the internet can argue about. I've been around the block.


My iPad has malware on it. I don't know if it would properly be called a virus or a trojan but it is a google redirector just like the Windows computers have, and no my iPad has never been hacked, broken or placed in the hands of russian hackers. The only non-store app that has ever been on it has been my own, that is now actually in the store.


The malware started off as a redirect to askthecrew.net. Basically you would google something, click on a result and if you clicked on wikipedia - it would still send you to askthecrew.net. I did some research and it looks like it can do more than redirect on the PC - it can steal personal info. Not sure...


Either way I rebooted, cleaned out the cache, that sort of basic thing and it looked like it went away. I no longer get sent to askthecrew.com - no - I can get to the pages I want when I click through google.


Except - it always sends me to creditpuma.com first (the actual URL is creditpuma.com/feed.php) and quickly shuffles me off to the page I wanted to go. I'm assuming this action tracks all sorts of good stuff about me, my habits, and likely gives them a lot of traffic with which to artificially value their domain when they sell it....


Again this only happens when javascript is turned on. When it's off, the thing works like it should.


(Which you should remember before you suggest maybe my router was hacked - that and neither my mac or windows laptop will redirect like this. Plus, I wouldn't see the redirect in the address bar.)


Right now I bet your advice is "Reset it to factory settings" which I "did" twice. I put "did" in quotes there because it's really not factory settings if it boots up with IOS 5 is it?


It is REALLY not factory settings when I don't do a restore and it's essentially untouched by old data - and it still has the old javascript corruption!


So Apple - welcome to your first really good virus. You have made your stuff so secure that the genius at your store had no clue how to help me, other than telling me to reset and restore, because he can't reinstall Safari or JS from scratch. Your security has crippled my iPad because I no longer trust it with any real data (that I use for finance and business) so yay!


So yes I walked it into the Apple store, and yes I was told to reset it, and yes I did reset it, once with a restore and once without the restore treating it like a new iPad. I tried to call customer care, but it's $30 for the call and, well it would be like me helping Apple figure out how to giant security hole and me paying for the privledge to do so. I was told all software issues are free at the store anyway... but I guess that jsut reflects the quality of the service as my advice didn't help. Oh and I did call back, they told me to try recovery mode. How that would help is beyond me as my device has no problem restoring..


So does anyone have any advice on fixing this - or actually resetting this back to actual, for realsies, factory settings that do not have corrupted javascript, is not IOS 5, doesn't still have my old account info as suggestions when try to set it up as a new ipad?


Or - anyone here work for Google's Android division? I'm not cheap but I'll gladly do a commercial with my infected, unfixable iPad! 🙂


(BTW - yes this post is filled with keywords so that others with this problem can find this post as it was nearly impossible to find someone who had a similar problem - and I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that if Alee11 looks closely he sees his google searches redirected briefly as well. but maybe not, his infection is a few months older... )

Feb 7, 2012 4:42 PM in response to BarSmart

BarSmart wrote:


So does anyone have any advice on fixing this - or actually resetting this back to actual, for realsies, factory settings that do not have corrupted javascript, is not IOS 5, doesn't still have my old account info as suggestions when try to set it up as a new ipad?

By first going to Settings/ General/ Reset/ Erase All Content and Settings, you'll wipe out all traces of old accounts. Then do a Restore without loading a prior backup (i.e. set up as new iPad). That is as close to fresh-outta-the-box as you're gonna get. You cannot install anything earlier than iOS 5.0.1 on your iPad, so that's the only difference (AFAIK) between this and the day you un-boxed it.


Interesting post BTW, will keep an eye on it 😉

Feb 7, 2012 5:23 PM in response to rockmyplimsoul

Except - at 5.0 it's not fresh out of the box, and if it still can remember my AppleID and suggest it when I try to start it up as new - it's not fresh out of the box, and if the javascript has still be modified by malware...


Maybe it is just because I'm old, but factory-reset used to mean that you just put it back into the state it was when it left the factory in a box. Apple seems to be convinced that letting a memory resident OS reset itself is the same as wiping the OS and having to install it again from a fresh source.


Whatever someone wants to call this - factory reset is the wrong term.


But you are right - Apple was too worried about keeping the device locked to keep it fixable. I suppose I could jailbreak it and install the original OS from a torrent, but that seems just about as secure as the device is right now...


I'm pretty sure I need the OS wiped and reinstalled because whatever got in there, however it got in there (maybe an infected app got throught he store) it has most certainly effected the OS/JavaScript beyond what Apple consideres factory.


I just emailed a developer associate of mine to see if he wants to trade me this ipad for a new ipad2 so his company can develop and market the first true AntiVirus for IOS.

Feb 7, 2012 6:23 PM in response to BarSmart

If you delete the .ipsw file from your computer (which is the iOS file) and then do the Restore, that will force a fresh download of the iOS from Apple servers. Not sure if that's what you're after, but if you're concerned about the iOS you have locally there's a way to defeat that.


You're right, and as I pointed out, you can't go back to an earlier iOS which came with your iPad. Not sure why it's not allowed, but even mentioning going back (or mentioning the JB word) is strictly frowned upon around here.

Good luck!

Sep 27, 2013 2:23 AM in response to alee11

You may have to reset device to factory settings in "Recovery Mode"


"If your device is continually restarting, not responding, or showing the Apple logo with no progress bar or a stopped progress bar, place the device into recovery mode and try restoring again."


My iPad suffered from the first issue, continually restarting every 2 minutes, or even more frequent. This was my only option that worked. Synchronization and backups never finished in time before the next restart so I had to settle for just importing my photos in small sets that could be completed in between the restarts.


See further info here...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808

how to reset ipad to factory settings on ios5?

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