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iPhone 5 wiped itself last night. Anyone else experience this?

R

Ramius

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 2, 2008
492
197
Over the night, my brand new iPhone 5 just wiped itself out completely.

Using the phone on its own, trying to back up it up, provided several errors. When I used the "Forgot my Apple ID" function, it could not successfully proceed. Instead it gave me the error message "Wrong language code input".

The phone had deleted everything, so I had to set up my network and all that again. But just imagine if I was expecting a call from some important people, or was on business trip. Then without me knowing it, the iPhone was deleting itself spontanously.

Im wondering if Apple has been hacked or anything, because my Apple ID password did not work. The same password I´ve been using for a year now. So no matter what, I had to go through the forgot password-process and change it. Because it simply did not work anymore.

Through this process I am actually discovering that there are two different back ups you need to go through. My music is not stored in iCloud right? So I have to sync with old iTunes again for that.

Is anyone else experiencing any of this recently? Phone wiping itself, Apple ID suddenly invalid?
 
DoFoT9

DoFoT9

macrumors P6
Jun 11, 2007
17,586
99
London, United Kingdom
Ramius said:
Over the night, my brand new iPhone 5 just wiped itself out completely.

Using the phone on its own, trying to back up it up, provided several errors. When I used the "Forgot my Apple ID" function, it could not successfully proceed. Instead it gave me the error message "Wrong language code input".

The phone had deleted everything, so I had to set up my network and all that again. But just imagine if I was expecting a call from some important people, or was on business trip. Then without me knowing it, the iPhone was deleting itself spontanously.

Im wondering if Apple has been hacked or anything, because my Apple ID password did not work. The same password I´ve been using for a year now. So no matter what, I had to go through the forgot password-process and change it. Because it simply did not work anymore.

Is anyone else experiencing any of this recently? Phone wiping itself, Apple ID suddenly invalid?
Click to expand...

Oh my! I initially thought that it may have been that you had a Beta installed, and it expired... But now that your password changed, it sounds as though your device was remotely wiped!!

You should most certainly change your password again (to something VERY complicated), ensure you don't have any charges to your iTunes CreditCard, and let Apple know of this incident...
 
pman219

pman219

macrumors 6502
Feb 8, 2011
479
2
Rochester, NY
Ramius said:
Over the night, my brand new iPhone 5 just wiped itself out completely.

Using the phone on its own, trying to back up it up, provided several errors. When I used the "Forgot my Apple ID" function, it could not successfully proceed. Instead it gave me the error message "Wrong language code input".

The phone had deleted everything, so I had to set up my network and all that again. But just imagine if I was expecting a call from some important people, or was on business trip. Then without me knowing it, the iPhone was deleting itself spontanously.

Im wondering if Apple has been hacked or anything, because my Apple ID password did not work. The same password I´ve been using for a year now. So no matter what, I had to go through the forgot password-process and change it. Because it simply did not work anymore.

Through this process I am actually discovering that there are two different back ups you need to go through. My music is not stored in iCloud right? So I have to sync with old iTunes again for that.

Is anyone else experiencing any of this recently? Phone wiping itself, Apple ID suddenly invalid?
Click to expand...

Anyone you know, maybe that might play a prank on you, that knows your apple ID and password ?
What happened to you, I believe, can all be done with the find my iPhone app should someone have your log in information.
 
R

Ramius

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 2, 2008
492
197
I actually found out this has happened to several people after searching on Google. (Try "Iphone wiped itself") But only with iPhone 4. And no, there is nobody who knows the password or would play this prank on me.

I just used the phone regularly before I fell asleep. Browsed Instagram a little and thats it. When I woke up eight hours later, the phone was wiped.
 
jer04

jer04

macrumors regular
Nov 17, 2012
237
7
Townsville, Australia
Sounds like someone hacked ur account n performed a remote wipe, you might wanna call apple to check whether it was the case. they might hv a record of this kinda things.
 
HiddenPuppy

HiddenPuppy

macrumors 6502
Dec 31, 2011
284
0
Ramius said:
Over the night, my brand new iPhone 5 just wiped itself out completely.

Using the phone on its own, trying to back up it up, provided several errors. When I used the "Forgot my Apple ID" function, it could not successfully proceed. Instead it gave me the error message "Wrong language code input".

The phone had deleted everything, so I had to set up my network and all that again. But just imagine if I was expecting a call from some important people, or was on business trip. Then without me knowing it, the iPhone was deleting itself spontanously.

Im wondering if Apple has been hacked or anything, because my Apple ID password did not work. The same password I´ve been using for a year now. So no matter what, I had to go through the forgot password-process and change it. Because it simply did not work anymore.

Through this process I am actually discovering that there are two different back ups you need to go through. My music is not stored in iCloud right? So I have to sync with old iTunes again for that.

Is anyone else experiencing any of this recently? Phone wiping itself, Apple ID suddenly invalid?
Click to expand...

Are you on an Exchange Server account? The phone can be wiped from there also. I work for a school and my phone is part of my employment and my email comes through the Exchange server and the phone is listed there and can be remotely wiped by the IT guy or myself if I log onto the server.
 
M

madsci954

macrumors 68030
Oct 14, 2011
2,725
658
Ohio
Yeah, it does sound like your iCloud account/Apple ID was hacked. Better call Apple about this, especially if your bank account or credit card is tied to it, then a wiped iPhone is the least of your concerns.
 
R

Ramius

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 2, 2008
492
197
zorinlynx said:
That sounds awesome, until you have to enter that password often on a smart phone. Long passwords are the enemy when you're on a dinky little keyboard!
Click to expand...

I try to go against the stream, and have as easy passwords as possible, lol. So you know, you can actually remember them. So I just added one digit at the end of my old password. :apple:
 
Small White Car

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
Not me, but it happened to a friend of mine. After it wiped itself he wiped it again manually and set it up as new. It did the same thing again the next night.

He got it replaced at an Apple store. They had no clue what happened either, but once it happened more than once they exchanged it.
 
R

Ramius

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 2, 2008
492
197
Yeah if this happens again, I´m going to simply take it as a sign of a defect.

And no, it is not jailbroken.
 
B

Bahroo

macrumors 68000
Jul 21, 2012
1,860
2
I have never ever heard of this ever happening to anyone throughout all the years the iPhone was out, never heard/saw something like this on Macrumors or in real life...that is extremely incredibly weird...

Try changing all your passwords?
 
S

SoLongAndroid

macrumors member
Jan 18, 2013
79
1
My only bug ever experienced was a brand new iPhone that I restored with a backup from a brand new iPhone I had returned. The lock pin setting turned itself off after I had toggled Wifi. It was the weirdest thing ever.

I slide to unlock and have to use my pin. I toggle wifi leave the phone alone for like 10 minutes wake my phone slide to unlock and it unlocks to the homescreen.
 
mKTank

mKTank

macrumors 68000
Jul 2, 2010
1,537
3
Ramius said:
Yeah if this happens again, I´m going to simply take it as a sign of a defect.

And no, it is not jailbroken.
Click to expand...

Nice, so you just ignored all advice to call Apple and check to see if it was a remote wipe so that you could at least narrow it down to a hardware issue or not.

Stop being lazy and call Apple.
 
R

Ramius

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 2, 2008
492
197
Brian Y said:
I think that confirms this thread is complete nonsense. If he'd just been hacked and had his data wiped, he'd be a bit more concious about it.
Click to expand...

Wow, so just because I didnt change my password to something horribly complicated, I am lying?


What happened was very real. But there are nothing outside of this event that indicates a hacker has been behind it. That comes from speculation from others on here.

And for those who have never heard about it, and claim to never have heard about this on Macrumors in specific, have a look:

Macrumors: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1093632/

Macrumors: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1218002/

WP central: http://forums.wpcentral.com/htc-arrive-7-pro/180709-phone-wiped-itself-any-way-recover.html

Big resource: http://mobiles.bigresource.com/IPhone-Crashed-Erased-Itself-PdVWA71DF.html

Ask different: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/22484/so-my-iphone-4-just-decided-to-restore-itself

Apple forums: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3821493?start=0&tstart=0
 
PNutts

PNutts

macrumors 601
Jul 24, 2008
4,874
357
Pacific Northwest, US
OT: OP this doesn't have anything to do with your issue, but many of those links aren't applicable (non-iPhone, beta expired, April Fool's joke, Exchange remote wipe).

The responses you're getting are because of a very unusual problem that has a very common cause: An account is compromised, a remote wipe issued, and the password changed. If you feel like you've got a handle on it then don't worry about the criticism, but the warnings are valid.
 
R

Ramius

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 2, 2008
492
197
PNutts said:
OT: OP this doesn't have anything to do with your issue, but many of those links aren't applicable (non-iPhone, beta expired, April Fool's joke, Exchange remote wipe).

The responses you're getting are because of a very unusual problem that has a very common cause: An account is compromised, a remote wipe issued, and the password changed. If you feel like you've got a handle on it then don't worry about the criticism, but the warnings are valid.
Click to expand...

Your summary there seems constructed to suit your stance on this issue, rather than you know, being true. Because here is what the man in the the very first link says:
My iPhone 4 appears to have randomly wiped itself. I woke up this morning and it was fine. I put it down and went into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. When I came out, the phone was displaying the logo indicating I should connect the phone to iTunes. When I did, sure enough iTunes asked me to restore from a backup, and the phone had reverted back to it's out of the box state. It's almost as if someone had initiated a remote wipe. Has this happened to anyone else? Any idea why this would happen?
Click to expand...

In other words. The EXACT same thing that happened to me. So dont come and tell me this does not happen. I have proved that this DOES happen.

But then you are concluding by saying this was a remote wipe. And I would like to ask you for evidence of this? I certainly have not provided anything. There is nothing indicating any remote usage here. The phone wiped itself - thats what happened.
 
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