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!
Damn it. I followed the instructions and it bricked my phone!
Actually, I did it to my Droid. The Droid is fine but every iPhone within 20 feet got bricked.
No matter what, NEVER devide by zero!
I tried that in my Delorean and it took me back to 1970.
Don’t believe what they say about having “it all to do again” and being smarter about it the second time around.
Oh no, I hope you get it fixed.
UNIX of the iPhone
***************
Apple gave up on their own OS’s years ago and they run a customized Unix ... so why all the non-stop hate for Android?
This thread is technically inaccurate. Setting an i-phone or other IOS device to the UNIX “0” date automatically routes Federal funds to the “Hillary 2016” campaign and also automatically generates thousands of Facebook “likes” for pro-Hillary posts. Every sincere Clinton supporter should do this immediately.
Seriously, one of my kids fell for this prank, it took the Apple store 10 minutes to fix it and they didn’t even charge us for.
Actually, this “trick” is a space-time continuum issue. Setting the date for 1 Jan 1970 is pre-Apple founding. So doing so is impossible, as your iPhone would exist in a time before the company Apple was founded, making it a paradox, hence the iPhone is bricked.
This whole thing reminds me of telling a room full of 11yo kids, “Don’t look out that window at those elephants or they’ll stampede and hurt somebody!”
...where’s that Picard_Double_Face_Palm gif when I really need it???
I wouldn't change a thing. Although, I remember waking up with a hangover in my own vomit on the bathroom floor. The following year, I made it to a sink before vomiting. I had fun back then on New Years Eve.
Tech bkmk.
Ditto that.
What are Apple and all those Linux people planning to do to get rid of the Y2K+38 bug? Or are they just not going to worry about it until 2036? After all, we may be governed by robots or Muslims then, anyway.
Your iphone would also be worthless if you physically took it back to 1/1/70 in your time machine.
But it wouldn’t set time_t to 0 for anyone in the Western Hemisphere?
Quite seriously and if-and-only-if there was even such a thing as Time Travel.....my preferred destination would likely be 1 Jan 1963.
1970 was about six months AFTER I'd finished active duty, 1966 was about the time that I realized that I had screwed up when I'd enlisted, 1964 was when I actually did the deed and that second semester in '63 was when I goofed off and put myself in the position where I had to enlist or get (shudder) drafted.
Still, if all of those things had not occurred, I'd never have met Grandma and.....
Hell, Time Travel would probably require most of the energy involved in the collision of two Black Holes anyway, so screw it.
School will be out in a few minutes and the grandkids are supposed to come over and play. I can live with that.
Plus, even if it works, it could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe. Granted, that's the worse case scenario. The destruction might, in fact, be very localized, limited to merely our own galaxy.
Damn it, Larry. I told you not to do that!
Now that's funny. Thanks.
Good to know. Thanks. I certainly was NOT going to test the Genius Bar's ability to fix this issue by doing it to any of my iOS devices; I was not that curious.
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