Q: How to unlock disabled iPad without restoring/resetting...?

Yes, I have the same problem.  A friend of mine who is not so tech-savvy did not back up photos etc, and the ipad became disabled as the password was entered wrongly too many times. And all the data of many years is now lost as there does not seem a way to recover that data. I think this is the stupidest security measure I have ever seen - whatever the excuse, this is nothing but a major design flaw - how could one lose data stored in one's own device for no good reason. There must be a better way. Perhaps a password used for apple id account can be used to unlock the iPad - which is a simple solution, and no less secure. Someone who steals an iPad and does not have the apple account password still cannot enable a disabled iPad. Please Apple, listen up and do something about this - too many people have suffered - I am a big Apple fan and come close to throwing the iPad into the bin - these days, what good is an iPad when you cannot access the data on it, especially with more and more data being stored on the iPad, e.g., 64GB and more. In the future, who is going to risk losing such large amounts of precious data, and as if Internet connection will be fast enough all the time to keep the data on the mobile synchronized with iCloud servers?

First, Apple is not here, this is a user to user technical support forum. Secondly, keeping data on your device without backing it up is asking for problems. What if the device is stolen? What if it is dropped in a lake or run over? You would be in exactly the same boat.

You can always look into a 3rd party recovery service, but the way that a forgotten passcode and a disabled device is managed is not going to change. Many people have the option set up to actually erase the device if the passcode is attempted more than 10 times. This is just how it works.

Setting up automatic backups to iCloud is easy and requires little or no effort on the part of the device owner. Automatic import of your photos or use of the iCloud Photo Library also provide you with alternative and effortless ways to keep your data safe.

And if you have issues with syncing with iCloud, then iTunes has always been a a resource not only to back up your device, but, to keep all of your purchases safe. If you have purchased media and you do not keep a copy of it in your iTunes library, then if that media is pulled from the iTunes store, you will lose it.

If your data is valuable to you, then keeping on a small, portable, electronic device with no backup is going to end in problems one way or the other.

Best of luck,

GB

Yes, i agree that backing up is always best but imagine you have the device right in your own hands, and it hasn't been dropped into the lake or anything, but just a late night meant that you entered the wrong password one too many times, and that's it, any data not backed up is lost forever, however precious.

I don't see why a solution where the device plugged into a computer can be re-enabled simply via the owner's apple id account password could not work - maybe this is already possible.

A system that has the potential to destroy what it is suppose to protect is not quite the best idea I think. Imagine a bank system where to reenable an account after too many attempts with the wrong password requires resetting the account balance to zero.

This 'security' feature is completely flawed!  I did not have a passcode enabled on my iPad, then I upgraded and by default it enabled it....  Well, my toddler got a hold of it and just started tapping until she disabled it.  Thanks Apple, now all the videos and images I had on there that I loved so much are gone. 

(and btw, I did have my iPad images/videos backup to iCloud but they're not there)

Unless you are using iCloud Photo Library with iOS 9 and either Yosemite or El Capitan, then only your Camera Roll would be backed up to iCloud. The backup that you do for your device is not an archive for your Photos. If you want to protect your photos and videos, then you must import them on a regular basis to your computer or Mac:

PHOTO IMPORT IOS TO MAC/PC

If you do have an iCloud backup of your device, then you can restore to that backup:

IOS RECOVERY MODE RESTORE

You simply select it when you are asked as you are going through the device set up process.

If you have a question or issue when you are doing the restore, feel free to post back. Bu FYI - Apple is not here. This is a user to user support forum.

Cheers,

GB

I just ran into this problem, and I put my ipad into recovery mode, plugged it into itunes, disconnected it, and reset my ipad, and then it told me to wait another 60 minutes instead of connecting it to itunes. So I didnt' have to erase and restore it.