It’s not been a good week for anyone with an iPhone.
First we learned about a the phone-killing ‘Error 53’ message which permanently ‘bricks’ any device that has been repaired by a non-Apple technician.
Tech experts claim the iPhone 6 is rendered completely useless – with no known software fix, no way to change any parts or even a way to access the phone’s memory.
But now it appears there is another bug which can permanently brick your gleaming iPhone – and it’s a weird one.
It relates to the date and time in iOS. Some users report that if you set the date and time to January 1, 1970 then your iPhone will die permanently.
It would require you to go into settings and do it manually – but even if you reboot your device after that, it will be stuck permanently on the reboot screen.
However, some users report their phone were hit by the problem when changing time zones.
According to 9to5Mac, it affects any iPhone, iPad or iPod using a 64-bit processor and running on iOS 8 or newer.
So if you have an iPhone 5s or a later model you could be affected – but any Apple product running on a 32-bit processor should be okay.
Reddit users posit the theory that it may come down to an issue with time zones and setting the date to 1/1/70. It appears to cause the internal clock to be set to less than zero, which confuses your iPhone and crashes it.
iClarified does claim there is one fix for this bug – but it requires a physical repair by Apple’s Genius Bar.
So probably don’t try this at home… and certainly don’t let any of your mischievous mates your device.
