Mail program doesn't work

[Photo Jeanne]

Now for a new subject -- my mail program has stopped responding -- nothing happens - no spinning dial, no new messages, no nothing. Help! Not that I rely on my iPad for mail, but it sure is nice to use occasionally. Any ideas?

[Richard Serkes]

Can you send mail? Try sending yourself a message and see if it goes through.

[Ray Bentsen]

Have you tried Googling "ipad mail stopped working"?

Do that and you can read about several things to try, like going to Settings and then turning off that account and then turning it back on again.

Or quitting the Mail app and then restarting it. Or restarting the iPad.

[Photo Jeanne]

I tried the google search. Found the suggestion to hold down the Sleep and wake buttons at the same time. Worked perfectly. Thanks for the help.

[Richard Serkes]

I tried the google search. Found the suggestion to hold down the Sleep and wake buttons at the same time. Worked perfectly. Thanks for the help.

That little trick is analogous to doing a "hard boot" on your Mac or PC. It never hurts to start from scratch and that's what you did. Congrats!

[Photo Jeanne]

I just can't seem to get anything right today. After the reboot, everything worked just dandy until I tried to sit down and read. The icon for iBooks is still there, but when you try to open it, the bookshelf shows up briefly and then it all closes again. I thought I could reinstall iBooks, but the apps won't let me do that, saying that it's already installed. Can I just delete the icon and program and reinstall without losing all my books?

Thanks guys

[Richard Serkes]

I just can't seem to get anything right today. After the reboot, everything worked just dandy until I tried to sit down and read. The icon for iBooks is still there, but when you try to open it, the bookshelf shows up briefly and then it all closes again. I thought I could reinstall iBooks, but the apps won't let me do that, saying that it's already installed. Can I just delete the icon and program and reinstall without losing all my books?

Thanks guys

OK, new topic but here we go. Before you do anything else connect your iPad to your Mac. ITunes will open. Make sure you backup your iPad before you delete anything.

After the backup, you can delete iBooks and then reload it from the App Store. Once you do that you can reload the books you've already purchased either by downloading them again or using the iTunes backup assuming the books were also backed up. I don't really know how iBooks does an archieve as I use the Kindle app to read books.

And rumor has it that iOS5 will do backups via WiFi. No more need to connect via a cable.