Summary: working on this thing which is supposed to just work, but I guess is too old and Apple just wants you to buy a new one even though the hardware is most probably just fine.
So we finally got word back from Apple and they enabled us to regain access to the iPad with our appleid. That's nice of them. But then... maybe I spoke too soon. After a few days of using the tablet, for browsing and looking at news, it started acting up, until it stopped responding So it was connected to itunes for recovery/update/dfu, a succession of these, because it kept either going into recovery mode or dfu. Also the bootloops. Lessons learned for others trying this:
Our old ipad mini 2 wifi is just cycling between updating/recovering, working for some moments, going into dfu or going into bootloop. Observing these it's possible that it has a weak battery. But probably not, because it goes into bootloops even when plugged into wall charger or pc. After a successful update or restore the ipad would work a bit, then just stop working again.
It was actually already working one time, but while charging unattended it reverted to the Apple logo and became really warm to the touch.
Other possible reasons:
What Apple can do to improve the process: just extract the iOS firmware one time and use it several times. Having to extract it every time to do an update is very inefficient, and also causes unnecessary wear on the pc drive.
Dealing with this just seems so primitive, when in the case of a pc or laptop, you can just install a new OS on a drive, swap out the drive if it's broken, forego using the battery if it's broken or get the battery replaced. Resources can be put to better use towards devices that actually are repair-friendly. The longer we use it, the longer it can be kept out of the landfill. And the more we would be amazed by new stuff, if many iterations/years have passed since our last purchase.
Still, it's been good exposure to old iDevice restore and repair procedures, and a good look at jailbreak efforts (make sure to only test these on non-crucial devices.)
Itunes Error numbers and error messages for this device (mentioned above), "the ipad could not be restored"
After the error (9) in #1 above the message appears that the iPad could not be updated, so there's a choice to Restore and Update, which is then clicked without disconnecting the usb cable. After which we got the error (4013) in #2 above. After this the recovery choices no longer appear, so it is decided to put the iPad into DFU and restore from there. Each and every time the updater needs to extract their file into computer hard drive increasing wear on the hard drive or SSD. After proceeding with DFU, the restore once again is unable to complete because the iPad reboots before the restore could be completed.
Either Apple updater and ipad firmware sucks or one of the 'tools' above messed with the firmware in the iPad. Next to try the restore again from another computer, the computer where Nicehash miners and 3utools are installed. Microsoft Windows 10, all updates installed, version 20H2, with Windows Defender. The dialog box that says "There is a problem with the iPad that requires it to be updated or restored..." appears again, giving the choice to update or restore. The restore option is chosen. Another window appears for confirmation, Restore and Update is confirmed.
So we finally got word back from Apple and they enabled us to regain access to the iPad with our appleid. That's nice of them. But then... maybe I spoke too soon. After a few days of using the tablet, for browsing and looking at news, it started acting up, until it stopped responding So it was connected to itunes for recovery/update/dfu, a succession of these, because it kept either going into recovery mode or dfu. Also the bootloops. Lessons learned for others trying this:
- First follow the instructions from apple and try the update or if not the recovery.
- If the update or recovery does not complete doing its thing and you keep getting errors. Try uninstalling itunes (doing this on Windows 10), after that deleting the itunes folder in %userprofile%/AppData/Roaming/Apple Computer.
- You can also try moving your usb cable to the other usb ports on your computer
- After installing the latest version of itunes from the Microsoft store, the location of itunes logs would be in C:\Users\(your username)\AppData\Local\Packages\AppleInc.iTunes__(customized characters)\LocalCache\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPad Updater Logs
- After the update the ipad might have a black screen. Try pressing on the home button first, then the power button to see if you can wake up the ipad and resume set up of your new installation
Our old ipad mini 2 wifi is just cycling between updating/recovering, working for some moments, going into dfu or going into bootloop. Observing these it's possible that it has a weak battery. But probably not, because it goes into bootloops even when plugged into wall charger or pc. After a successful update or restore the ipad would work a bit, then just stop working again.
It was actually already working one time, but while charging unattended it reverted to the Apple logo and became really warm to the touch.
Other possible reasons:
- checkra1n jailbreak was tried on this, but not successful. even after then, ipad was working. (this was before itunes updated the firmware to 12.4.9. After the update, the ipad was mostly good at doing one thing: flashing the Apple logo on a white background.
- good effort making checkra1n work on different devices and making it user-friendly
- also when the ipad was inaccessible because of activation lock, 3utools was used to update the ios version to work with checkra1n
- funny thing with 3utools, when you download ios update through the software's firmware section, they check the hash of the downloaded iOS update file, then they report that the hash for the firmware from their own program is invalid
- the good: but it looks like a useful (if not reputable) multitool for iDevice. Work did go into it to put together functions that iUsers might find useful
- also the untrusted computer where 3utools was installed also had nicehash miner being tested on it, with its miners being reported by antivirus and you're not really sure if it's because they're miners or because they have trojans and keyloggers (but that's material for another post)
- basically for greatest chance of success, don't use these three above when dealing with your ipad (versions as of this post)
What Apple can do to improve the process: just extract the iOS firmware one time and use it several times. Having to extract it every time to do an update is very inefficient, and also causes unnecessary wear on the pc drive.
Dealing with this just seems so primitive, when in the case of a pc or laptop, you can just install a new OS on a drive, swap out the drive if it's broken, forego using the battery if it's broken or get the battery replaced. Resources can be put to better use towards devices that actually are repair-friendly. The longer we use it, the longer it can be kept out of the landfill. And the more we would be amazed by new stuff, if many iterations/years have passed since our last purchase.
Still, it's been good exposure to old iDevice restore and repair procedures, and a good look at jailbreak efforts (make sure to only test these on non-crucial devices.)
Itunes Error numbers and error messages for this device (mentioned above), "the ipad could not be restored"
- An unknown error occurred (9):
- Actually your log gives more information than this, in this case:
- [17:18:22.0172] RestoreOS device removed before restored completed
[17:18:22.0346] recv(6640, 4) failed: connection closed
[17:18:22.0346] unable to read message size: -1
[17:18:22.0346] Failed to receive message from device, might be connection problem with USB host.
[17:18:22.0346] AMRAuthInstallDeletePersonalizedBundle
[17:18:24.0153] <Restore Device 0000017E097E4090>: Restore failed (result = 9)
[17:18:24.0153] Can't send dump_console command since device is not in recovery mode
[17:18:24.0153] Restore completed, status:9
[17:18:24.0153] Restore Checkpoint Fingerprint: 0665.0000
[17:18:24.0153] Failure Description:
[17:18:24.0153] Depth:0 Code:-1 Error:AMRestorePerformRestoreModeRestoreWithError failed with error: 9
[17:18:24.0153] Depth:1 Code:9 Error:Failed to receive message from device, might be connection problem with USB host.
[17:18:24.0153] AMRestorePerformRestoreModeRestoreWithError failed with error: 9
[17:18:24.0153] Finished RestoreOS Restore Phase: Failed
[17:18:24.0153] State Machine Dump, status:ERROR - [state:Recovery remaining-cycles:0] -> [state:RestoreOS remaining-cycles:0 (current state)]
[17:18:24.0153] Changing state from 'Restoring' to 'Error'
[17:18:24.0153] State is now set to error: AMRestorePerformRestoreModeRestoreWithError failed with error: 9 - What happened was for some reason the iPad rebooted during the main update process, and did the update was no longer able to resume
- Some people have reported that plugging their iPad into another computer that has never been connected to that particular iPad actually allows the update to finish. Why design/program it like this, Apple?
- [17:18:22.0172] RestoreOS device removed before restored completed
- Actually your log gives more information than this, in this case:
- An unknown error occured (4013)
- [17:44:53.0501] <Recovery Mode Device 0000017E097E9680>: operation 9 progress -1
[17:44:53.0501] <Recovery Mode Device 0000017E097E9680>: Recovery mode succeeded
[17:44:53.0501] Finished Recovery Restore Phase: Successful
[17:44:54.0704] Recovery mode device disconnected
[17:44:54.0704] Device removed when in state Restoring, moving device to transition state
[17:44:54.0704] Changing state from 'Restoring' to 'Transitioning'
[17:44:54.0704] Creating timer to monitor transition
[17:44:54.0704] Creating a timer for 10 minutes
[17:45:01.0394] Restore completed, status:4013
[17:45:01.0394] Failure Description:
[17:45:01.0394] Depth:0 Code:4013 Error:Unexpected device state 'Recovery' expected 'RestoreOS'
[17:45:01.0394] Recovery mode device connected
[17:45:01.0394] Transitioning device returned, continuing restore.
[17:45:01.0394] Canceling timer
[17:45:01.0394] Changing state from 'Transitioning' to 'Restoring'
[17:45:01.0394] State Machine Dump, status:ERROR - [state:Recovery remaining-cycles:0] -> [state:RestoreOS remaining-cycles:1 (current state)]
[17:45:01.0394] Unexpected device state 'Recovery' expected 'RestoreOS'
[17:45:01.0394] Changing state from 'Restoring' to 'Error'
[17:45:01.0394] State is now set to error: Unexpected device state 'Recovery' expected 'RestoreOS'
- [17:44:53.0501] <Recovery Mode Device 0000017E097E9680>: operation 9 progress -1
After the error (9) in #1 above the message appears that the iPad could not be updated, so there's a choice to Restore and Update, which is then clicked without disconnecting the usb cable. After which we got the error (4013) in #2 above. After this the recovery choices no longer appear, so it is decided to put the iPad into DFU and restore from there. Each and every time the updater needs to extract their file into computer hard drive increasing wear on the hard drive or SSD. After proceeding with DFU, the restore once again is unable to complete because the iPad reboots before the restore could be completed.
Either Apple updater and ipad firmware sucks or one of the 'tools' above messed with the firmware in the iPad. Next to try the restore again from another computer, the computer where Nicehash miners and 3utools are installed. Microsoft Windows 10, all updates installed, version 20H2, with Windows Defender. The dialog box that says "There is a problem with the iPad that requires it to be updated or restored..." appears again, giving the choice to update or restore. The restore option is chosen. Another window appears for confirmation, Restore and Update is confirmed.
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