Troubleshooting Steps 2 and 3: Restart and Reset Your iPad
If you recharge your iPad (Step 1 of troubleshooting) and it still misbehaves, the next thing to try is restarting it. Just as restarting a computer often fixes problems, restarting your iPad sometimes works wonders. If restarting doesn't do the trick, move on to resetting your iPad.
Restart your iPad
Here’s how to restart your iPad:
Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button.
When the red slider appears, slide it to turn off the iPad and then wait a few seconds.
Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button again until the Apple logo appears on the screen.
If your iPad is still frozen, misbehaves, or doesn’t start, press and hold the Home button for six to ten seconds to force any frozen applications to quit.
Repeat Steps 1 to 3 again.
If these steps don’t get your iPad back up and running, move on to the third R, resetting your iPad.
Reset your iPad
To reset your iPad, merely press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and then press and hold the Home button, continuing to press both for at least ten seconds. When you see the Apple logo, release both buttons.
Resetting your iPad is like forcing your computer to restart after a crash. Your data shouldn’t be affected by a reset — and in many cases, the reset cures whatever was ailing your iPad. So don’t be shy about giving this technique a try. In many cases, your iPad goes back to normal after you reset it this way.
Sometimes you have to press and hold the Sleep/Wake button before you press and hold the Home button. That’s because if you press both at the same time, you might create a screen shot — a picture of whatever is on your screen at the time — rather than reset your iPad.
This type of screen picture, by the way, is stored in the Photos app’s Saved Photos (iPad) or Camera Roll (iPad 2 and third-generation) album.
A screen shot should only happen if you press and release both buttons at the same time, but sometimes pressing and holding both buttons triggers the screen shot mechanism instead of restarting your iPad.
Unfortunately, sometimes resetting doesn’t do the trick. When that’s the case, you have to take stronger measures.
At this point, it’s a good idea to back up your iPad’s contents by right- or Control-clicking its name in the list on the left side of the iTunes window and choosing Back Up. Or, look in the Backup section of the Summary pane in iTunes, which identifies when the last backup occurred.
