Disclaimer: I don’t believe I am in violation of any terms with Apple because I am not revealing anything specific to iOS 5 beta in regards to features
or the like. It’s just a fix, and intended for registered Apple developers only.
So, as an excited iPad2 (and iPhone4, and MacBook Pro, and Apple TV) user (and registered developer), when I heard about the iOS 5 beta 7 OTA update, I was quick to just tap my way
on my iPad to the OTA install. Yeah, not so smart!
Totally my fault – I decided to quickly apply the update though I hadn’t synced in a week nor did I have my MacBook Pro with me. So when the update was “complete”,
the iPad was unfortunately stuck in recovery mode (where all you can see is that little image of a cord, and the message to connect to iTunes).
Wonderful! 
Note: This is BETA, I shouldn’t expect everything to just work, and I shouldn’t have even thought to dare update without having an up-to-date sync.
Anyhow, the following day, I return home from work, get out my MacBook Pro, and decide to fix my temporarily bricked iPad 2. Thinking I just needed to “sync”
it with iTunes, I plug it in.
Uh-oh: The iPad is stuck in recovery mode! I begin to get nervous. I figure, I might as well restore – and click the restore button, to realize that it was going
to try and install iOS 4.3. And I know THAT would not work because I’ve already updated to iOS 5 beta (which is a different firmware version).
So here is the fix if you attempted to update your iPad OTA to iOS 5 beta 7:
- Make sure you have the recent version of iTunes beta installed from Apple’s Developer Portal
- Place your iPad in DFU mode:
- Press and hold both the power and home screen buttons at the same time
- After 10 seconds pass, release the Power button but continue to hold the Home button for another 3-5 seconds
- When in DFU mode, your iPad screen will stay completely black. If you see an Apple logo or otherwise you did not enter DFU mode.
- Once this is completed iTunes will again say that it has discovered your iPad in recovery mode.
- Hold down the control key while you click on the restore button in iTunes. This should allow you to choose the specific IPSW file to restore to.
I just went back to beta 6 (which I had to download from the developer portal).
- iTunes will begin restoring and syncing your iPad.
- Then, (if you dare lol [I did with no problems]), attempt to update to beta 7 OTA or otherwise.
Luckily, my last sync was only a week old, so I lost only a few downloaded apps that I re-installed. No biggie.
Hope this helps anyone with the same problem.
Thanks for reading!
