Another day, another potentially catastrophic iOS flaw…
A new iPhone bug could completely break your handset, with little hope for a fix.
It’s all to do with how your phone calculates the time and date, which (thankfully) means it’s avoidable.
According to a number of online bug reports, setting your iPhone to January 1, 1970 and trying to reboot will “permanently brick” your phone.
Most of the reports emerged after a Reddit user posted about the issue online with the warning “beware: do not try”.
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“Connecting the device to iTunes and restoring the device to factory defaults will not put the device back in working order,” the user continues, adding: “Instead, a physical repair is required.”
However, despite the extensive cautioning another user – /u/Brohdr – posted:
“I just tried on a 6S Plus. Can Confirm. iPhone does not start.”
The user even turned to Apple for help, but the technology giant was stumped.
“Just went to the Apple store, they could not repair it,” writes /u/Brohdr. “They tried several different restore and factory reset methods, nothing worked. The Genius was stumped.”
What’s more, the user claims Apple offered a brand new phone instead of a fix.
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But why is it just one specific date that seems to be affecting iPhones so dramatically?
Well Thurdsay, January 1, 1970, is known as ‘Epoch time’. Many computer systems – including phones – count away from that time to work out what the date is.
However, it’s not exactly clear why changing an iPhone to ‘Epoch time’ is bricking devices.
We’ve contacted Apple and we’ll update this article with any response.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
