iOS 18 broken my 2024 iPad Pro 11" M4 512Gb

Just a warning to others...

This morning my 2024 iPad Pro 11" 512Gb notified me of the iOS18 update. After using the device quite happily for an hour or so I set it off to do the iOS18 update whilst I went to get ready for work. The iPad was fully charged overnight and was connected to mains power when I initiated the update.

When I returned the device was completely dead.

Black screen, would not enter recovery mode (quick press volume up, quick press volume down, long hold on power button).

When connected to my Windows11 computer it detected a device but said there was insufficient power available from the PC's USB port. The iPad did not show up in File Explorer/Device Manager etc.

Opened iTunes but this did not detect the iPad. Ran the diagnostics in iTunes - Help > Run Diagnostics - but this reported that no device was connected.

Got onto Apple support and ran through all the things that I had already done multiple times but no success. Advised to take the device to an Apple Store (none nearby) or send in for evaluation.

This is definitely an iOS18 issue. The device worked flawlessly before this. I updated my 2020 iPhone 12 Mini first to iOS18 and that has had no issue.

I googled and could see a number of references to users posting in the last 6-7 hours that their iPads had also been bricked by iOS18. Similarly others commented that they had updated without issue. Therefore it looks like it may be device configuration specific. Apple support denied any awareness of this being a problem.

I would recommend that others delay this update until Apple gets to the root cause of the issue and fixes it.