Putting an M4 iPad Pro into DFU Mode

I recently ran into an issue with an 11" iPad Pro where I wanted to revert from an iPadOS beta (18.4) back to the release version (18.3.2 at the time of writing). I've done this a million times over the years on various iPads & iPhones and across various versions, but this time I couldn't get the thing to actually perform the restore no matter what I tried.

Typically, the steps I take are very simple:

1. Download the restore image from the Apple Developer downloads page
2. Plug the iPad into my Mac and put it into recovery mode
3. When Finder opens with the iPad, option-click the "Restore" button, and choose the IPSW file downloaded in step 1
4. Sit back and let the restore do its thing
5. Set up iPad again

This time, I'd get to step 4, but instead of restoring, the iPad screen would flash with Apple logo, then back to the "connect to computer" screen. It would do this twice and then throw an error 4013. Unfortunately, the items in this support document didn't help and I ended up stuck in recovery mode with error 4013 no matter what I tried, including trying to restore from multiple computers (including a Windows system) and using different cables.

Out of curiousity, I also tried reverting from the 18.4 beta back to 18.3.2 on my 13" iPad Pro just to see if it would work. Spoiler alert: it did not. Now I had 2 iPads stuck in recovery mode with error 4013 😂😬

To get out of recovery mode, I downloaded iMazing, used it in trial mode, and used their "Exit Recovery" option. This got me booted back into iPadOS, but I was still on the beta.

After getting the iPads out of recovery mode, I remembered that there's another mode called DFU mode (which stands for Device Firmware Update). I had to search around and watch a YouTube video for the right magic button combination to invoke it since Apple appears to have removed it from their docs.

To get the iPad Pro into DFU mode, do the following:

1. Turn the iPad off
2. Quickly press the volume button closest to the power button (we'll call this volume up even though it may not actually be)
3. Quickly press the other volume button (volume down for the sake of this article)
4. Press the power button AND volume down for 5 seconds
5. After 5 seconds, release the power button but continue holding volume down for another 5 seconds
6. You should get an alert in Finder that it has detected an iPad in DFU mode and needs to be restored
7. Option-click on the Restore button and choose the IPSW file you downloaded from the developer center
8. The iPad should now start restoring

I'm not sure if this is specific to the iPadOS 18.4 betas or not, but I definitely didn't have this problem back in the early iPadOS 18 beta days last summer & fall. Anyway, if you get stuck like I did, this should get you going again.

Good luck! Hit me up on Mastodon if you run into the same thing and let me know if this worked for you.