TL;DR: To force restart an iPad without a Home button (like the iPad Pro M4 or iPad Air M2), press and quickly release the Volume Up button, press and quickly release the Volume Down button, then press and hold the Top (Power) button until the Apple logo appears.
A force restart (sometimes called a hard reset) is a hardware-level command that cuts power to the iPad's processor and forces it to reboot, bypassing the operating system entirely. It is the only way to restart an iPad that is completely frozen, unresponsive to touch, or stuck in an infinite bootloop.
For years, iPad users were trained to hold the Home button and the Power button simultaneously to reset their devices. With the removal of the Home button across the entire modern iPad lineup (Pro, Air, mini, and entry-level), Apple fundamentally changed the hardware button combination. If your iPad is bricked during an iPadOS update, knowing this new sequence is the first and most vital step to recovering it.
This button sequence must be performed relatively quickly. If you pause for too long between button presses, the iPad will simply register them as normal volume adjustments.
If you perform the sequence correctly and the iPad remains stuck on the Apple logo (a true bootloop), a force restart is not enough to fix the corrupted software. You must proceed to reinstall the operating system.
To fix a deep software corruption, you need to put the iPad into Recovery Mode and connect it to a computer. To do this, connect the iPad to your Mac or PC using a USB-C cable. Perform the exact same "Up, Down, Hold" sequence, but do not release the Top button when the Apple logo appears. Keep holding it until you see the "Connect to Computer" icon on the iPad screen. From there, you can use Finder or iTunes to download the latest iPadOS IPSW file and update the device.
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