Well, I should have read the news before upgrading, as it seems a few of us (mainly iPad 2 owners) are sharing the same problem as reported here: http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/03/22/some-users-difficulty-installing-ios-9 3-on-older-ipad-models and Apple are hiding and not providing any answers.

I'm on an iPad Air, same issue so not just older devices.

Commiserations mate.

Those instruction posted here is waste of time for IPad 2 ... I being trying those methods .. Press buttons , using ITune And etc.. Useless !! wait for Apple come out solution for this issue ..

Anyone know any update from Apple ?

They worked for me for the 2nd time now, as I restored it again. Fingers crossed this time it will hold without crapping itself again.

I never connect my iPad2 to iTunes on my PC. I don't usually need it. Restore via iTunes, then, will erase all my contents and reset iPad to the factory settings.

It's an Apple error, not mine!! Apple did not warn me... that updating was the cause of such a major issue.

The procedure works but the end result is the same.

I didn't try to refresh to factory because I still hope Apple can solve this problem to everybody avoiding to lose all data o, worst, throw away to the garbage.

I have the same problem with an iPad2. I try to follow the procedure, but when I continue to hold down the Home key after letting go of the Power key the iPad never asks to connecting to iTunes and just goes to the 'first' screen from the Swipe to enter. As with many others I am 'bricked'.

Thanks!  I tried for 2 hours last night.

Following your instructions now and iTunes is currently restoring the device.  I think I'll leave it alone until 9.31 comes out!

I can't believe that in the 300,000 people working at Apple not a single person thought of trying 9.3 on an iPad 2 (which is not obsoleted BTW)

Thank you so much for your post correcting the steps, as this is allowing me to restore (couldn't update) to my most recent back up (May 2015).  I feel sorry for those who use their iPads for serious things but don't ever back up.  Luckily I just use my iPad for streaming, reading and surfing!  Thank you again!

ipad 2 completely on the fritz. saying this apple id cannot be used to unlock this ipad.

but says at top its linked to my apple id in its own way with all dots.  used my icloud address and my apple id neither work tried to restore it not working. this ipad was registered on my icloud one previous owner not connected his id (family friend) so have tried all that and wont let me do anything with it. need help  all since updating

My issue was similar. The update on the IPad locked my IPad and it became useless with an ITunes padlock. I connected the IPad to ITunes on my computer. The message was to Update or Restore the IPAD by downloading updates to ITunes. During the hour or more process, an error message (1671) appears several times, ignore it and continue the Update process. Patience is the key word, and monitor the messages. Finally, the IPad was restored and updated. I spoke to Apple Support and learned to not update new software as soon as it is available. It best to wait because the Apple server has a problem with the many customer's identification information. I hope this helps.

see response by murielfromil. I hope this helps other ipad2 users.

Hi murielfromil, sounds like your problem is a different one to the one the rest of us are getting. None of us with this problem are getting an 1671 error, and nothing is graphically 'padlocked'.

We have all installed iOS 9.3 successfully, but we just cannot reactivate the iPad afterwards to start using it again. It's bricked at the activation stage saying "Your iPad cannot be activated because the activation server is temporariliy unavailable". The problem is it's been saying that for the past three days now. The iPad is now effectively functioning as a large, flat, cumbersome LED light.