iPad ProSource: Rene Ritchie/ iMore

What you need to know

  • A new boot loop bug is plaguing the 10.5-inch iPad.
  • Users are complaining that their device gets stuck in the loop following updating to iOS 13.4.
  • Apple's community forums are full of complaints.

Several Apple Community Forum users are reporting that a reboot bug is plaguing the 10.5-inch iPad Pro running iOS 13.4 or later.

As first reported by NoteBook Check:

Apple's iPad OS has greatly expanded the iPad's multitasking abilities, but updates to the OS does not seem to have been a smooth experience for many iPad Pro owners. A reader wrote in to us describing that the iPad OS 13.4 and above update has resulted in constant restarts to his iPad Pro 10.5; a look at the Apple Community pages showed that the problem wasn't an isolated case.

Apparently, the iPad Pro 10.5 would restart every 180 seconds while in use. This issue wasn't noticed in iPad OS 13.3.1 but started becoming prominent after the updating the tablet to iPad OS 13.4 and subsequently, to iPad OS 13.4.1. The owner was informed by Apple Support that it could be a hardware problem, but manually downgrading to iPad OS 13.3.1 apparently rectifies it. The issue seems to be still persistent even with the latest 13.5 update.

Because the iPads seem to be constantly restarting, even a complete factory restore through DFU mode doesn't necessarily work. Some users note that Apple diagnostics did not find any hardware issues, and this certainly seems like a software issue. One strange remedy mentioned includes squeezing the iPad Pro near the battery, however even this proves only to be a temporary fix, and we wouldn't recommend it. Users who have rolled back to 13.3.1 were able to alleviate the problem, further confirming that this is a software issue.

It remains to be seen whether Apple will be able to issue some sort of fix for this through an iPadOS update.