Newly-revealed date glitch may render some iOS devices unusable

Though people have to go out of their way to trigger it, a time-related glitch discovered in iOS 8 and 9 will let users potentially "brick" many Apple devices, rendering them non-functional.

Users must go into the Date & Time menu under Settings, disable the "Set Automatically" option, and then manually roll the date back to Jan. 1, 1970, according to a YouTube video published on Thursday. This requires jumping in and out of the menu, since the date won't initially rewind that far.

Once the new date is set, rebooting a device may leave it stuck at the Apple logo, and even the full range of restore options may not work. In that circumstance there's likely no option but to get a Genius Bar repair or a replacement device (possibly free under warranty), though some people have reported that a device might spontaneously recover several hours later — albeit with extremely slow performance. That may allow users to change date settings and recover.

A Reddit thread suggests that the bug may be related to timezones, since rolling the date back as far as it will go could be setting the clock to a value less than zero. One person said they only bricked their phone after changing timezones from Beijing to New York.

In addition to requiring iOS 8, the bug is also limited to Apple devices with 64-bit processors, from the iPhone 5s onwards. Older products like the iPhone 5 or iPad 2 should be immune.

33 Comments

sockrolid 2789 comments · 14 Years

About 8 years ago

Let me guess. They're using NSUinteger instead of NSInteger?

jason98 768 comments · 14 Years

Exactly 0 people would have probably ever thought to set the date back to 1970, but now thousands of idiots will do it for sure.

foggyhill 4767 comments · 10 Years

AppleInsider said:

Though people have to go out of their way to trigger it, a time-related glitch discovered in iOS 8 and 9 will let users potentially "brick" many Apple devices, rendering them non-functional.

Users must go into the Date & Time menu under Settings, disable the "Set Automatically" option, and then manually roll the date back to Jan. 1, 1970, according to a YouTube video published on Thursday. This requires jumping in and out of the menu, since the date won't initially rewind that far.

Once the new date is set, rebooting a device may leave it stuck at the Apple logo, and even the full range of restore options may not work. In that circumstance there's likely no option but to get a Genius Bar repair or a replacement device (possibly free under warranty), though some people have reported that a device might spontaneously recover several hours later -- albeit with extremely slow performance. That may allow users to change date settings and recover.

A Reddit thread suggests that the bug may be related to timezones, since rolling the date back as far as it will go could be setting the clock to a value less than zero. One person said they only bricked their phone after changing timezones from Beijing to New York.

In addition to requiring iOS 8, the bug is also limited to Apple devices with 64-bit processors, from the iPhone 5s onwards. Older products like the iPhone 5 or iPad 2 should be immune.

I;m pretty tired of the word "bricked" being used so liberally. These thinks are not bricked at all. Brick means there is no possible recovery.

talexy 80 comments · 10 Years

Oh, and its also possible to render your iPhone useless when you slam it on a concrete table 1970 times. Probably it might stop working even earlier. Someone should make a YouTube video about this serious flaw.

radarthekat 3902 comments · 12 Years

You can also brick your iPhone, or any other phone, by boiling it in a vat of molten lead for 30 minutes. I guess there should articles warning about that too.