How to Turn an iPad On and Off

Turn Your iPad Off to Save Battery

Hand of woman pressing light switch
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Every iPad turns on and off in nearly the exact same way. It's obvious why you want to turn an iPad on, but not so clear on reasons for turning off an iPad. It can, however, be beneficial.

While you probably don't need to shut it down every day, it is necessary in some cases, such as when flying in a plane, if the software is being buggy or if the battery is about to die but you want to conserve the little remaining juice for later.

Note: Putting an iPad to sleep is sometimes preferred because it conserves a lot of battery and makes it much easier to quickly put up and resume where you left off. Enable low-power mode if you want to keep your device on but save on battery. 

How to Turn an iPad On and Off

  1. First, find the on/off/sleep button. It's at the top right corner of most iPads.
  2. Press and hold this button to turn the iPad on, where you'll see the Apple logo as the software boots up.
    If the iPad is already on, a slider will appear on the screen.
  3. Move the Slide to power off button all the way to the right, or choose to ​Cancel to keep the iPad on.
  4. You'll see a small, spinning wheel at the center of the screen before it goes dim and shuts off.

What If the iPad Doesn't Turn On or Off?

Sometimes, for whatever reason, an iPad might not respond to your request to shut it down or boot it up. In these cases, you can hold down the power button and the home button at the same time for around 5-10 seconds to force the device to reboot.

You can read more about restarting an iPad if it's stuck.

Should You Reset or Reboot an iPad?

It's important to recognize the difference in what's meant when talking about "resetting" and "rebooting." To reboot, as seen above, is when you shut down the iPad and then turn it back on. Resetting is removing any customizations made to the software and starting over with a fresh operating system.

You don't need to reset your iPad unless something is awfully wrong with the way the software functions. For example, if apps are installing incorrectly, the settings aren't staying intact or the menus and screen are never consistently working as you'd expect, you might consider resetting the device.

See how to reset an iPad and erase all the content if that's what you'd rather do.