Tim Hardwick
In iOS 18, Apple included a new over-the-air restore feature designed to restore locked iPhone 16 devices using another iPhone or iPad, and it looks like the same feature can be used to restore the new iPad mini 7, too.
In iOS 18, placing an iPhone 16 near another iPhone or iPad can trigger an over-the-air firmware restore, which causes the other device to download the new iOS firmware and transfer it to the locked device, eliminating the need to connect it to a computer. This contrasts with the iPhone 15 and earlier models, which require a Mac or PC to restore the firmware.
9to5Mac today reports that the firmware shipped with the iPad mini 7, which runs on the A17 Pro chip, includes the same RecoveryOS partition that was added to the iPhone 16 models. This discovery disproves an earlier theory that the RecoveryOS partition was something exclusive to the A18 chip in the iPhone 16.
Evidence that Apple was working on an over-the-air restore method for iOS devices first surfaced back in iOS 13.4. Whether Apple intends to add the functionality to other iPhone or iPad models via a software update remains unclear. Apple unveiled the iPad mini 7 on October 15, and the first pre-orders are arriving in customers’ hands today.
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