How To Update iPad Air 2 To iOS 10 And Sync To iPad Mini. Here's The Solution.
It may come preloaded with iOS 10 if you purchased it from Apple but the update and backup can be done in any order. If you update first, you will have to do a restore and add the backup later. You need to get past the activation stage before you can choose the option to “restore from a backup” or “set it up as a new device”.
If your iPad Mini runs on iOS 10, we recommend doing the update first because most backups aren’t backward compatible. Meaning you can’t backup an iOS 10 device to an older version. Please remember that the process for iTunes restore and iCloud restore is slightly different.
For iCloud restore, go to General -> Reset -> Erase all content and settings. This will let you set it up as a new device or restore from iCloud. To restore a backup in iTunes, you plug in your device, go to the Device Summary and select Restore Backup.