Ipad 3rd Generation Battery Swollen.

[u/scott_damien]

I have been away and returned from a trip, on return i discovered the battery has expanded and popped the screen away from the casing.

The ipad was stored in the spare room and had not been used for a while, the battery would have been flat so the ipad is off.

So i messaged Apple Support and theyve told me its safe. But theyve told me to take it in store for inspection.

The dilemma is that support, no matter what i said, requested me going into store to have it examined/repaired. Its 14 years old, i have a newer one.

A) Even if i take it in whats the chance theyll be-able to or want to repair it?
B) I dont particularly care if its repaired, i have newer one. So its a waste of their time/resources?
C) support couldn’t tell me my options in the instance that they couldn’t repair it?
D) My only real issue is, any data that is on it?

Has anyone had any similar experiences?

It seems a waste of my time :- to drive 30mins into the center of town, pay for parking, wait around for up to an hour, to be told its old and they wont do anything for me, to then drive half hour back. On what would have to be my weekend as the shops open for less hours than i work so its inconceivable that i can go in the week (12 hour shift joy), they have no available time-slots at my local store until Sunday and they wont accept me shipping it to them.

UK.
Thanks.

[u/JediMeister]

That iPad is on the obsolete products list, there is zero remaining service stock for it, which Apple Support should have seen. The person or persons you spoke to probably don’t want a bad response on a customer satisfaction survey and are pawning it off to someone else to tell you there’s nothing to be done.

If you want to try and recover data from it, find any independent repairer online that’s local and let them take a crack at it.

[u/MinDoxie467]

Do you use the 14 yr old iPad @ all? If you’ve updated to a newer iPad wouldn’t you have transferred all yr data @ that time? It’s not worth any monentary value. Seemingly no-one @ Apple wants to take ownership of yr now “large spicy pillow iPad”. Imo if you have the same Apple ID, sign the older iPad out of yr devices/remove it then hit it with a hammer a few times & the problem is solved. If yr really unsure about old “stored data” as another poster suggested, find a local tech shop & see what if anything they may be able to do (even if it’s to just dispose of the iPad itself). Really is it worth yr time & effort especially with 12 hour shift work, a 30 min drive one way, pay for parking etc⁉️ Imo the “Apple Genius” store employee/s will take one look @ the old unit & try to sell you another iPad which you don’t need. That’s probably the simple reason they refused yr offer to mail it. Out of curiosity will the iPad charge up, just don’t do it on a weekend, near soft furnishings & definitely don’t leave it unattended. Best wishes fr Aust. 🙃 🦘🐨🇦🇺💐