Latest iOS 9.3 Beta Unbricks iPhones Affected by 'January 1, 1970' Date Bug

[naeS1Sean]

LOL - I heard that letting it run completely flat or removing power causes it to reset back to factory default time/date - thus fixing problem......I had to try it!....Set date and rebooted....sure enough it "bricked" my iPhone6 (9.2.1).
Opened up and unplugged battery (that reset time & date to factory default)- iPhone6 "un-bricked!"

Brave man.

 

[rdlink]

...My oldest son works for a structural engineering firm and all these highly educated, type A personality types spent days sending each other the special texts just for kicks.

All the while complaining that American companies keep sending high paying jobs overseas for cheaper (and harder working) labor...

 

[captain cadet]

This makes me curious what date the iPhone would fall back to once it reaches January 19, 2038. Right now, it reverts back to January 1, 1970, but if that's no longer a selectable date, I wonder what would happen.

Its a 64 bit unsigned integer - the problem was that it was shot millions of years into the future when you set it to the 1st of jan 1970. it just when uh whats happened?! If you did that it would just go "ah its 19th January 2038" and work normally

 

[Old Muley]

Is there some technical reason that the date can be set back so far? I've always wondered why it's even an option.

 

[KdParker]

Nice to see something fixed in a very timely fashion.
Now... when will this make it to the release version?

Sure they fixed it, but how many people have the need to reset their phone to 1970?

My guess this has always been the case, and only someone being a complete jerk would do this to any persons phone.

 

[dk001]

Sure they fixed it, but how many people have the need to reset their phone to 1970?

My guess this has always been the case, and only someone being a complete jerk would do this to any persons phone.

Quite likely. Someone somewhere is always tinkering. Then you have those who use stuff like this in poor humor or ...
Anyway, one less issue

 

[Count Blah]

Can't imagine how many idiots went into the Apple Stores and set the phones back just to be jerks.

Oh please.

Like you didn't

 

[definitive]

what about those who don't use beta releases?

 

[C DM]

what about those who don't use beta releases?

The public release will contain the fix.

 

[definitive]

The public release will contain the fix.

Obviously, but when will that happen? Not everyone uses beta firmware, or even knows of its existence...

 

[dennysanders]

Obviously, but when will that happen? Not everyone uses beta firmware, or even knows of its existence...

i would guess around mid March

 

[C DM]

Obviously, but when will that happen? Not everyone uses beta firmware, or even knows of its existence...

Nor should they really. At this point it's looking like the next release should come out sometime in March.

 

[cobaltrich27]

Great news! I am on the Public beta that allows a person to run the Beta via update.

I have another iphone with this problem and would like to try this fix anyone know how a public Beta tester can try this? I cant into the iphone to do it via public beta update method the iphone just reboots over and over cant get in.

I know I can wait for the real version and not Beta. Im not going to sign up as a developer looking for a non developer way. So no need to suggest those options to me.

Thanks.

 

[C DM]

Great news! I am on the Public beta that allows a person to run the Beta via update.

I have another iphone with this problem and would like to try this fix anyone know how a public Beta tester can try this? I cant into the iphone to do it via public beta update method the iphone just reboots over and over cant get in.

I know I can wait for the real version and not Beta. Im not going to sign up as a developer looking for a non developer way. So no need to suggest those options to me.

Thanks.

Is the other device already part of the public beta? If so, you can try plugging into iTunes and see if that latest public beta would be offered as an option to restore/update the phone. Otherwise, I don't think you can get a public beta IPSW file to use to restore the phone, so either you somehow get a developer beta IPSW to do it via iTunes, or probably wait until the new version is released publicly.

 

[uid15]

An Apple engineer friend of mine explained what caused the bug to make the iPhone crash - He said: "when the iPhone enters the 1970s, when instructions are written into RAM locations, the electron trips over its bell bottoms as it tries to enter the memory cell, and ends up falling into the wrong one."

 

[macintoshmac]

There are many phones where you cannot set the phone date back more than a couple or so years. People just love finding stupid issues that do not matter for half the population and file a bug report and make Apple fix something that does not even need attention in the first place. Does the pencil misspell or do guns kill people? You, because you were missing your wife, start jerking with your phone and set it back to a date you wouldn't ever need it to, and then when it fails for some reason, Apple has to rush a fix for you. It is just insane how people work sometimes.

 

[C DM]

There are many phones where you cannot set the phone date back more than a couple or so years. People just love finding stupid issues that do not matter for half the population and file a bug report and make Apple fix something that does not even need attention in the first place. Does the pencil misspell or do guns kill people? You, because you were missing your wife, start jerking with your phone and set it back to a date you wouldn't ever need it to, and then when it fails for some reason, Apple has to rush a fix for you. It is just insane how people work sometimes.

Because it's a problem that results in something rather bad (as obscure it might have been) that got wider and wider public attention and thus increasing implications?