Apple Promises 1970 Date Bug Fix In Future Software Update

You might have read about a bug affecting iOS devices recently. It’s a rather odd one. Basically, you can render the iOS device useless if you change the day to May 1970 or earlier. There was no word from Apple on this for the past few days but the company today posted a support document finally acknowledging the existence of the 1970 date bug.

“Manually changing the date to May 1970 or earlier can prevent your iOS device from turning on after a restart,” Apple acknowledges in the support document and promises that it’s going to release a fix for this bug in a future software update.

Apple has chosen not to detail precisely what’s causing this bug so there’s no official explanation about why your device can be rendered useless if you change the date back to 1970. The support document also doesn’t provide a temporary fix for the bug, but then again, why would you willingly turn back the date to 1970 anyway?

The bug has caused a lot of problems for a lot of people though as online trolls are trying their best to trick people into resetting the date on their device. Once that’s done the device gets stuck on the Apple logo at reboot and is no longer able to finish booting. Even the full slate of restore options doesn’t seem to work after that.

Until Apple releases the software update with the proper fix it’s best to ensure that you don’t dial back the date, and make sure a friend doesn’t play a prank on you by doing this to your device.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Apple
Tags: iPhone