Any way to recover Pages documents on disabled, never-synced iPad Mini or connect it to network so Lost message will appear?

Question

Hi,
Apologies for the long post. For my three questions, please skip to the bold copy below. The first couple paragraphs are preamble.
Yesterday I unwittingly--and dimwittedly--disabled my 2012 iPad Mini by entering my password too many times. (Or rather my coat pocket and Bluetooth keyboard did it as I walked all over town, unaware of what they were up to. The activated keyboard in one pocket continually woke the sleeping iPad in my other pocket, the iPad kept demanding a password, and in the jostling I must have entered password after password. Finally it disabled because I'd set it to do so. I didn't know it was permanent though. I thought it would ask me to try again in a few hours. My oversight.)
I'm desperate to get my Pages documents off the iPad, which I've never backed up on iCloud or synced with iTunes. (My Macbook went belly up in July and I couldn't afford both a new computer and the more portable iPad--so I just bought the iPad and the Pages app.) Until December I was emailing myself the Pages manuscripts I was working on, but a few weeks ago I got lazy about this, and now I've lost a month's worth of work. I couldn't be madder at myself.
The Genius Bar gave me only the Erase/Restore option, which I can't bring myself to do. So I tried a couple third-party apps (Dr. Fone and Phone Unlocker) on my office iMac. But both require me to tell the iPad to "Trust this Mac" when the iPad shows the prompt--which the iPad doesn't do because it's completely disabled. The only words that ever appear onscreen are "iPad is disabled" and "Connect to iTunes."
So I'm scouring my brain for solutions:
1) Is there any hope of re-enabling the iPad while preserving the data, maybe by starting a restore process in iTunes and aborting before data is erased? Then maybe the password field will show up again and I can type in the correct one?
2) Or, even better, is there a way to connect the iPad to a network via the Lightning connector or even by taking it apart and hooking it up to something or other? (WiFi was on when I last used the iPad, though I don't have a cellular plan.) I ask because if I can get it online, then it will get the Lost iPad message I sent via Find My iPhone (in iCloud), and presumably the password field will show up on the iPad (along with my phone number), allowing me to enter the password once I've marked it as Found. But the iPad will only receive my message to it if it's connected to a network--which it can't do while disabled.
3) Is there any chance that in the next few months or years someone will figure out a solution (maybe a better recovery software) that will let me access my documents again? I just can't delete them, even if it means putting it in a drawer and saving up for a new iPad.
Many, many thanks for any suggestions, no matter how outlandish. I'm desperate!

Answer 1

Hi Brian
I had the same exact thing happen to me - except it was my wireless keyboard that disabled my ipad.  I also have documents on Pages that I did not want t to lose.  This worked for me!  Found it on another help site....I was able reactivate my ipad - nothing lost - all is good!
1. Open iTunes with the iPad disconnected.
2. Connect the iPad to the computer and wait for it to show up in the devices section in iTunes.
3. Click on the iPad name when it appears and you will be given the option to restore a backup or setup as a new iPad (since it is locked).
4. Click ‘Setup as new iPad’ and then click restore.
5. The iPad will start backing up before it does the full restore and sync. CANCEL THE BACKUP IMMEDIATELY. You do this by clicking the small x in the status window in iTunes.
6. When the backup cancels, it immediately starts syncing – cancel this as well using the same small x in the iTunes status window.
7. The first stage in the restore process unlocks the iPad, you are basically just cancelling out the restore process as soon as it reactivates the iPad.
If done correctly, you will experience no data loss and the result will be a reactivated iPad. I have now tried this with about 5 iPads that were locked identically by students and each time it worked like a charm.