Title: iPad troubleshooting tips
Course: iPads for Middle School Teachers

Sometimes things go wrong. What do you do?

If you are having problems with your iPad, below are some things to try.
Try these possible solutions (in order from simplest to most complex):

1) Do a soft reset: hold the sleep/wake (on/off) on the top right for about 5 seconds until the red slider appears. Slide to completely turn off the iPad. Turn back on by holding the sleep/wake button again until you see the Apple logo. This often fixes simple problems.

2) Close all the programs that are in that "suspended" state. You can do this by double clicking on the home button and then press and hold one of the Apps in that quick switch section (I don't know the official names for these things yet) until it jiggles (just like if you were going to delete it on the main screens). Press the "-" (don't worry you aren't deleting the App, only closing it) do that for all the apps. Sometimes there is one that is just irritating all the other ones and needs you to put it in it's place.

3) If that doesn't work, do a hard reset: hold both the sleep/wake button and the home button for about 10 seconds until the Apple logo appears, then release. Don't worry, this doesn't erase any data or apps -- it just empties the device's memory cache and clears some basic iPad settings. This and the soft reset will correct most buggy behavior.

4) If these don't fix your lost folder problem, try restoring from the most recent backup. (Each time you sync an iOS device with iTunes, it creates a backup on your computer.) In short, connect your device, open iTunes, right-click (control-click) on the device in the left-hand column, then select "Restore from Backup...". Select the most recent backup for the correct device, then click Restore.

4a) As a last resort, perform a full restore. This will actually wipe your iPad clean, reinstall the current operating system, and offer to reinstall all your apps and data from the most recent backup. In short, connect your device, open iTunes, select the device in the left-hand column, then under the Summary tab, click the Restore button. Unless you've just synched, it will ask if you want to first backup your settings (you do). Here's the basic procedure from Apple support: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414

4b) However, as noted in this blog: http://www.macworld.com/article/159917/2011/05/ios_restore_folders.html ...even a full restore won't necessarily reinstate folder organization, so follow the author's instructions (under "The Process", toward the bottom of his long explanation) to also restore all your folders.

And good luck!

Rees Vaughan