I updated my mom's iPad to iOS8 and come to find out she has never backed up her iPad EVER in the many years she's had it. Are all of her settings and most importantly thousands of photos gone forever? All that is showing up now on the screen is the plug telling me to plug into iTunes. She has no idea what iTunes is… I tried the hard restart and no luck. I may have just broken my mom's heart and iPad… (She also has no idea what "the cloud" is so most likely has not changed her settings to back up automatically to the cloud)
Read more: I didn't back up before updating iPad to iOS8. Is everything gone forever?!