i dropped my Ipad sideways, the screen is only black and it wont turn on

OH MY GOD! IT WORKS!!!! Thank you Alan for your advice and many others for your encouragement!

A couple of thoughts on what worked for me: I started off just giving it a hard smack. Then I tried harder and harder smacks. I did this for about five minutes with no luck (alternating between holding down the buttons as instructed and smacking the back). By this time, I had started smacking it so hard that I was worried I would break it. So I read a few more posts and someone -- sorry, I forget who -- said that s/he (1) did not hit it particularly hard but (2) hit it fast in a bunch of different places. So I tried this. Lots of little smacks all over the back. Then I tried the buttons down again and -- YES! -- I saw the apple and my screen was working again. Thank goodnesss for this post and thank goodness I kept at it!

My two year old got mad and threw the iPad on the floor when i looked at it the screen was black!! I was so upset thinking great i have to buy a new one… after reading this post and how it worked i was still skeptical and wasn't sure if i wanted to actually smack the back of it…well what do u have to loose i thought the screen is already messed up! AND IT WORKED!!!!!!!! All i can say is thanks!!!!!! thank u!! felling so happy!!

my daughter dropped out iPad with the case on it and the screen went black. I plugged it in think the battery was low but when I pushed the buttons to turn it back on I could hear the camera flash. I had to really whack my ipad and for a lot longer than I thought. Just as I started to loose all hope the apple symbol appeared. So with a sore hand I type my thank you for this crazy way to fix an iPad. I'll admit when I first read your response I thought "way to kick a person when they're down. Like this would ever work." But I read on and so many people said it worked and like so many others I had nothing to loose. It works people I promise.

i tried this several times but it doesnt work

after everytime i do this i try pressing the home button and the switch on button , the apple sign comes but very dimly , and then the sign goes back off

any suggestions for this?

hi alan, i dropped my ipad on the floor on carpet, the red pixals cames up on it so i tapped it and then the blue came up instead of red, so i tapped it further and now the lock screen comes up and then quickly changes to black again, any ideas? also i can still hear it working when i put it on charge

Hi. My IPad felt sideways too. I tried this and didn't work. I don't know if I did it wrong. But I tried in so many ways and still not working. I'm heartbroken. I had this with sacrifice, and its so frustrating to me my iPad doesn't work. Help please.

OMG!!! This made me smile when reading all the success stories and I headed off upstairs to find my sons 'blue screen' ipad. It had been forgotten about for around 3 months as we thought it would cost too much to be repaired.

Turned it upside down, smacked it a couple of times and it had life! Unfortunately though the screen was brightly coloured and not responding when I tried to swipe the 'slide' to turn on. Turned it over again and gave it a few further light smacks - woohoo!!! It is now fully working!

My son is going to over the moon when he gets in from school and I give him the good news.

Thank you so much Alan, you are a legend!

Greetings, this is my first post..from a long time..like everyone, first thought it was a joke..Ipad 2 with a black screen..after a few smacks got the color tv lines out of synch, when restarting got the Apple Blue screen of death..ehe..hilarious..reminded me of the win..lol....after a while black again, to the starting point..:-(..but with perseverance a firm smack on the apple..Voilá it worked..saw the black restart with white apple logo..Thanks a lot to everyone and Alan, for creating the post..i wounder were did you learn, this..besides the accelerometer out of synch, what does it?

Thank you 🙂

Unbelieveable - I dropped mine yesterday afternoon while leaving a sales call. Called my manager and asked permision to get it repiared. Came to the community site, read this, and VOILA !!!! It worked... IT took me about three punches to the back of the IPad, on my lap, and it came on immediately!!

THANKS SO MUCH !!!

-dp-

I was so panicked when I dropped it and saw that it had turned black. I searched up things to do and I thought that patting it on the back would be stupid but I was so desperate I did it anyways. I couldn't believe my eyes when it worked! Thank you so much

I had the same problem and did a search to resolve this issue and came upon this question by the OP. I was hesitant at first and then thought what do I have to lose since I thought the iPad may be broken. It took quite a few smacks with my hands and to my knees and Voila! It worked. Big Thanks to Alanfromnewtownards for his suggestion.

Bad iPad. You deserve a spanking.

Thought it was a joke at first. You might have to spank it pretty hard... I am serious. At first it only partially restored the display so I hit it harder and sure enough it's back to normal.

Thank you Alan!

Big Thank you Alan!!!!!!!!!

Even though your post is 2.5years old....worked miracles for me today!!!

Never thought i could work...but after the smack....my ipad works great!! Its aliveeeee...

Thank u Thank you Thank you !!

I have used these forums for answers for several years but have never created an account until now. I had to login just to say thank you. My 5 year old drop the iPad off the counter and we had the blue screen. Turned it over and lightly played the drums and it is back to normal. I have been working in IT for over 20 years and this is the one of simplest solutions I've run across that seems to work for a lot of people. It reminds me of the days when I would take a hard drive out and smack it on the ground to get it working long enough to pull information off of it. Thank you for the solution.

I Was about to write that this was bs in my case, because I have friggin slamdunked my iPad with my hand - and no cigar. But I left it like a disappoininting child for 3-4 hours while going out to dinner, so it could think about what it had done. When I came back, I thought "to **** with it", and decided to drop it from about thigh-height onto a rug, and on the third try my baby returned to me. I'm so grateful I tried again - because i had just about given up. I hit the sucker so hard and SO many time - my hand hurt like crazy after 30 minutes of exasperatingly beating the living daylights out of my ipad. But I'm currently writing this from the culprit itself, so what can I say - it friggin worked.