There has unfortunately been a rise in reports of iPad Mini’s resetting/rebooting/restarting themselves intermittently.
Notwithstanding what each iPad Mini owner describes the phenomenon whether be it “resetting/rebooting/restarting” the common experience which binds them together is the fact that the iPad Mini’s screen abruptly goes black accompanied by the familiar Apple logo splash screen which is displayed upon each boot of the iPad Mini.
The most common advice cited across the internet is the suggestion to either (a) reset the iPad Mini by holding down both the power and Home button together or; (b) restore the entire iPad Mini iOS via iTunes.
Assuming that you have already done one or both of the above without success, you are strongly recommended to send your iPad Mini into your nearest Apple Service Provider. Before your warranty runs out.
Here’s the skinny on it – (as with our own personal experience) its most likely that the flash memory on your iPad Mini is faulty and the reason why the abrupt shutdown occurs intermittently is because it only occurs whenever the iOS attempts to utilise the sector of faulty memory in your iPad Mini.
Instead of crashing the iOS and locking up, Apple has a failsafe where in the event of such a catastrophe the iOS simply reboots itself.
This is especially useful since, unlike ‘the good ol’ days’, we can no longer simply remove the batteries out of our iOS devices to commit a complete hard reset in the event the system locks up entirely.
Therefore, its very likely that most iPad Mini owners may not be aware of this issue until they have filled their iPad Mini’s close to capacity before this issue surfaces. When the iPad Mini is almost full up, there is a higher likelihood any faulty sector of Flash memory may be accessed or utilised.
For relatively newer iOS device owners, you may not be aware that in the past Apple had a “sad Mac” icon which would appear on iPods if a hard drive failure occurred.
Instead of leaving iOS device owners chasing their own tails by either attempting hard resets or restoring their iOS devices before deciding to make the trip to their nearest Apple Service Provider maybe Apple should consider re-introducing this to make troubleshooting easier?
I had the same problem. Did everything I could find online but nothing helped. I made the decision to remove the virus protection and now it works fine. I think Apple does not want us to have virus protection even though it was an app for the app store.
Hello Fernando Espinosa, I’m having the exact same issue with my iPad mini 2 since after I left it unused in my drawer for over 6 months and the battery completely drained out.
Did you have any further updates to your revised method to keep iPad mini on? Did the new battery and screen resolve the issue? Did it fix the battery indicator or did you find any other fix to it?
Of all the comments and advice littered over the web, yours matches the most to my iPad mini 2’s symptoms too. And it is doing this even on iOS 10 and 11. So neither upgraded hardware nor upgrades firmware has fixed the root susceptibility to develop this issue.
It’s been over three years since your comment. But if you see this, would really appreciate any further updates or insights you gathered after your posts here.
Thank you!
My Ipod Mini would restart 10+ times per day. Once I removed alot of old files on the hard drive I now dont have any more issues of the random reboot
Hope that helps
UPDATE: 1/26/2015
Issue with iPad Mini re-booting after 2.5 to 3 minutes.
(iPad Mini will not stay on, Battery indicator not changing)
I would like to post an addendum to my recent explanation of a procedure I have been using to force my cantankerous iPad Mini to remain on and stop re-booting itself over and over. I am not yet sure if this is caused by Software, firmware or hardware issues. My new replacement screen and battery have not yet arrived. However this morning after completing a recharge cycle (preceded by using it for almost 9 hours to run you tube videos until it auto shut down at 1%). After I plugged in the charger prior to the charging process, I went to the setting and turned on airplane mode. (Which I had read would enhance the charging process). I pressed the sleep/wake button, did the slide to shutdown and went to bed. (10:00 PM)
(6:30 AM), I powered it up as normal by pressing the sleep wake button. After booting it went to the opening lock screen and surprisingly the battery level indicator showed 100%, no reset to see greater than 1% where the charge process started was needed)? As I stated in my previous post, in the past in order to see any significant difference in battery indicator level I had always had to do the “Re-Set”?
To complete a battery calibration, I pressed and held the sleep/wake button and the home button until it reset back to the white apple logo. At that point on a hunch, I decided to try something new. Instead of unplugging it from the charger and taking my previously described convoluted start up steps, and before doing a slide to unlock procedure, I just pressed the home button and said play music.
Siri complied by starting iTunes radio. I waited the normal 2.5 to 3.0 minutes expecting it to just re-boot. “it didn’t re-boot”! I let it continue to play iTunes radio, while it got distracted with making a cup of coffee. When I returned it was still going, playing iTunes radio. I touched the home button brought up the lock screen, did the slide to unlock and tried a couple of small apps. Keeping in mind, I did not “unplug” it from the charger prior to or during any of this time.
(one curious thing, and perhaps this is normal), I have never paid any attention to it before, instead of after 2 minutes then having the screen start dimming and then going to a dark or black blank lock screen, the screen just dimmed way down and the icons were visible in the background.
At this point I unplugged the Charger plug from the iPad Mini, the screen went to bright, I waited 2 minutes for it to go to auto lock, which it was set to do. At 2 minutes it began dimming down then it blinked out to the dark or black blank lock screen as should be expected. Waiting another couple minutes it stayed on playing iTunes radio in the back ground.
Tapped the home button did a slide to unlock, brought up Safari, did a couple of internet searches, and it appeared to remain on and operate as normal. After no use for 2 minutes lock screen on, then tapped home button, slide to unlock, right back to my selected internet search page where I left off.
This is definitely good news, because if it can be started up this way, it relieves the need to go through my previously described long convoluted process to get this particular iPad Mini to turn on and stay on without re-booting!
Of coarse only through repeated testing of what I discovered this morning, Can I be sure these described steps will be consistent. As previously stated, I hope this will be helpful to anybody else experiencing this issue.
Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any change in the Battery level indicator as it is still showing 100%. If anyone has an answer to the Charging indicator issue, I would like to hear or read about it!
Issue with iPad Mini re-booting after 2.5 to 3 minutes.
(iPad Mini will not stay on, Battery indicator not changing)
I have an iPad Mini first generation, which was dropped and the glass was damaged.
The damage was not such that the screen requires immediate replacement, but it is planned in the near future. The issue at this point is that the iPad mini has three distinctive issues, two of which do not seem to be uncommon to the device according to the hundreds of other posts I have read online. Before I continue, let me first say I have done all the suggested steps, resetting all settings, complete reset to wipe the iPad Mini and re-set as a new device, sync, backup and restore in iTunes. Restore and update from IOS 7.1.1 to 8.1.2. Recovery mode restores, DFU restores. All of the issues I am about to describe were happening before the iPad was accidentally damaged. The damage was not excessive and the impact which caused the cracked screen was not excessive.
1. When powered The IPad Mini will only stay on if it is left on the opening screen. (That is if the slide to unlock is not performed). At this point it will go to sleep and remain accessible to the opening or slide to unlock screen. It is accessible if the sleep wake or home buttons are pressed. If the slide to unlock is performed the iPad Mini will go to the home screen and remain there for 2 minutes, (for purposes of testing, the auto lock is set for 2 minutes). At approximately that time or 2.5 minutes, the iPad Mini will re-boot.
2. If left alone, it will attempt to auto lock in 2 minutes (for purposes of testing, the auto lock is set for 2 minutes), normally at that time it will just re-boot and return to the opening “slide to unlock”, screen. A slide to unlock can be performed, and Apps can be opened, however it will repeat the re-booting process at approximately 3 to 3.5 minutes. Settings can be adjusted, operations can be performed, music and videos can be played, camera’s can be used, but nevertheless, it will re-boot after 3 to 3.5 minutes.
3. The battery level/charge indicator will not change; it will remain at whatever level it was at when the iPad Mini was first turned on. It will not change after the iPad Mini re-boots itself. However if a reset is performed by holding the “sleep wake+Home buttons”, when it comes back up to the opening screen, it will show a decrease in batter level, if it has been a long enough time for a battery level change to normally show.
This same anomaly is present when the iPad is plugged into a charger, (for purposes of testing, (the larger iPad brick charger is being used, not the small tiny cube). The battery indicator will change color from black to green, and the small lightning bolt icon will be present, as in normal charging.
If after some time has passed, and a “Sleep wake+home button” reset is performed during charging, the battery level indicator will usually show an increase, but will not continue to increase . If the iPad Mini is powered completely off and left for a period of time, when it is powered back up the battery level indicator will show an increase as normal, but will not continue to increase, unless one of the two steps, reset or power off re-done.
By a lot of experimentation and swapping through various settings, to basically disable things like location services, and other power hungry background operations, I have arrived at a convoluted multi step procedure which seems to make the iPad Mini boot up and stay on so that it can be used normally. However, the continued curiosity and annoyance of the battery level/usage indicator not changing, remains.
Following are the steps I have found will somehow make the iPad Mini turn on, boot up and stay on past the annoying initial 2.5 to 3.5 minute normal re-boot, it wants to do on its own.
1. Press power, (sleep/wake) button, 7-8 seconds, release it and normally the white apple appears after that.
2. Slide to unlock opening screen.
3. Select iTunes music, (red music note icon), in iTunes radio channels select something, I like country music so for me it’s what I select. It will start playing and that will normally be followed by re-boot shortly after 2.5 to 3 minutes. The Screen may get as far as the dimming point right before the iPad would normally go into auto lock mode. However at this point it has normally already re-booted.
3a. Alternate step, Slide to main screen wait for it to make it to the auto lock point (auto lock must be set to 2 minutes, no more). If it makes it to the auto lock point,
wait at least 3 minutes and keep an eye on the screen to see if it re-boots back the white apple. If it makes it past 3 minutes, then go to step 4. If not, wait for it to finish rebooting, and go to step 4.
4. Press home button, using “Siri” say, “Play Music”. Wait for iTunes radio to start playing music. If music continues to play past the 2.5 to 3.5 minute mark, it will stay on and you can continue to use the iPad Mini as normal for internet or any other applications. “Don’t expect to see the battery level indicator change however”!
4a. if for some reason it does not make it to the 2.5 to 3.5 minute mark without rebooting, wait for it to boot up to the opening screen, wait 2.5 minutes and then try using “Siri” again and say, “Play Music”. Wait for iTunes radio to start playing music. If music continues to play past the 2.5 to 3.5 minute mark, it will stay on and you can continue to use the iPad Mini as normal for internet or any other applications. “Don’t expect to see the battery level indicator change however”!
The above method almost always works, while it is frustrating, I have had success with this complicated workaround allowing me to continue using the iPad mini. I will be changing the broken screen, and plan to replace the battery at the same time, however I don’t believe the screen or the battery are at fault, I believe this is a fault in the iPad Mini, and based on the number of other frustrated users, I don’t expect any assistance fom Apple until the next Software update, or the next generation iPad Mini, if there is going to be one?
I hope this will be helpful to anybody else experiencing this issue. If anyone has an answer to the Charging indicator issue, I would like to hear or read about it!