Posted on 02/12/2016 10:53:21 AM PST by Swordmaker
We’re going to show you how this date trick works to destroy an iPhone so that you can avoid it yourself. Absolutely do not try this yourself, do not set the iPhone clock to January 1 1970 under any circumstances, it will break any iPhone. It will supposedly also brick any iPad or iPod touch as well, so do not try it on any iOS device.
Do not try this yourself, you will ruin the iPhone. That can’t be made more clear, if you try this, you will ruin the iPhone. In other words, do not try this yourself with any iPhone that you care about, unless you don’t mind sending it back to Apple for repair. Doing this will destroy the iPhone and make it inoperable. That means you won’t be able to use the iPhone at all, it will be broken. So we repeat, again, do not try this yourself. Do not try this at home. Do not try this with your iPhone. Do not try this with your friends or anyone elses iPhone. And most importantly, don’t be fooled into trying this by someone else, as there are several ridiculous pranks in the form of various claims circulating on the internet as to what happens if you set the iPhone date far into the past – don’t do it, it breaks the iPhone. This is often referred to as a bricked phone, because the iPhone becomes as useful as brick.
What not to do: All that is required to brick the iPhone is to set the clock back to January 1, 1970. This is done through the Settings app > General > Date & Time, disabling Automatic, and setting the clock manually to January 1 1970. Then, turn the iPhone off and again or force restart it. The iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is now bricked. That’s it. The iPhone then boots back up and gets stuck on an  Apple logo screen, unable to do anything else. It’s completely stuck and the device becomes unusable.
Don’t do this:
You’ll get stuck on this, the iPhone becomes useless:
This is quite obviously a bad bug, and though it’s unlikely that average users will attempt to set their iPhone clock back to the Woodstock era, there have been various pranks and claims surfacing on the internet that try to trick people into setting their clock way back into the 1970’s. Don’t fall for it.
The embedded video below demonstrates this with a user setting an iPhone clock back to January 1 1970 and then restarting the device, it then gets stuck on the Apple logo and won’t boot further. The device is effectively bricked.
How you should NOT do this video. WARNING TOXIC TECHNIQUE!
Apparently there is one reliable way to remedy this: take the iPhone to Apple for repair. That’s it. Some users report that placing a new active SIM card into the iPhone can make it work again as well, but given the uncertainty of that it would not be advised to rely on the SIM card approach to fix the bricked iPhone. Interestingly enough, the typical method of fixing an iPhone stuck on the Apple logo with DFU restore does not work, which is why the iPhone must be taken into an Apple store to fix.
So, now that you’re aware of this awful bug, whatever you do, don’t try this at home with any of your iOS devices!
Apple made it as difficult as possible for a user to reset the clock back to 01/01/1970, dropping the user out of the setting not once, but I think, four times, and then requiring a reset of the iPhone for it to take. However, the system should have not permitted that time setting at all. That needs to be fixed.
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Change date? Why?
You mean, like, it won’t make calls anymore?
I don’t get it and please don’t use up alot of energy explaining it because I probably still won’t get it.
And that’s just fine by me. I got one more day of waterfowl season so I’m going to the woods to be quiet.
Wow.
Yeah, but will it break the iPhone?
just tried it and it worked fine, reset itself.
Yes but it sent all your stuff to Valerie Jarrett’s Bidet server
Beat me to it. Unix time began Jan 1 1970.
I have a Motorola Moto E.
I am not going to try that because I do not want to “brick” my phone.
[What is ‘bricking’ a smartphone?]
Kind of like turning your desktop into an anchor.
My teenage son did this. Going to the Apple Store today.
The software, if the date is reset to that date, apparently would result in some of the boot-up software getting results divided by zero. And as everyone knows, you cannot divide by zero. It makes computers very upset.
I am not going to bother with this, but my wife needs a new phone, so I might try it with hers.
I would imagine an update could be made where that date is simply not allowed to be inputted at all.
I wish I could go back to January 1, 1970, knowing what I know now.
It makes your smart phone dumb as a brick=useless.
Y2K is still alive!
I think it might do something bad to your phone.
Maybe.
I'm not sure, though.
I have an idea!!! Why don't you try it and tell us what happens?
Yeah ... buy AAPL and MSFT.
I seized up an I-pad to frozen on the Apple logo by doing an incredibly moronic stupid stupid stupid idiot halfwit bozo imbecile action.....
I downloaded upgraded software from Apple.
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A kid at the Apple store took it to the backroom and got it running after awhile.
I never allow updates to software, except my antivirus. if it ain’t broke... Don’t update. Probability is good that it will be broke afterwards!
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