February 2016 was a time of unprecedented demand for Apple Service Center services. People massively carried their favorite "apple phones" to specialists because of one simple bug discovered by users. The fateful date of January 1, 1970, set on the iPhone, after turning off the phone, turned it into a useless piece of plastic (or, in common people, a “brick”).
The discovery made by someone quickly spread across the expanses of the Web as a joke. It was massively published by various communities on social networks. And often under the pretext that setting this magical date opens the hidden functions of the phone. As a result, thousands and thousands of users disabled gadgets with their own hands.
How did it all start?
About the fact that after the installation on January 1, 1970, the iPhone "goes crazy", Reddit users started talking back on February 11. The exact algorithm that brought the phone to a non-working state looks like this:
- You need to go to your phone settings.
- In the "Basic" tab, select the date and time settings item.
- Move the slider to disable automatic time change.
- Manually set the "magic" date to January 1, 1970. The time needs to be changed to 1:00.
- After that, the owner reboots the phone, and voila, the phone stops working. Only the Apple logo is displayed on the screen, and no manipulation helps to solve the problem.
Why did this date and time become the "root of evil"? The fact is that the iOS system is based on UNIX. And in it, the countdown begins just from the designated date. In this regard, a theory of the origin of the problem was derived. When the user sets 01.01.70, the time value from the reference point becomes negative. Why negative and not zero? Simply because the iOS system will automatically adjust the displayed time according to the time zone. A minus value "confuses" the hardware stuffing. As a result, the phone fails.
This problem could remain the discovery of a narrow circle of people, which in the future would be "fixed" by the developers. If not for the numerous pranksters who began to spread evil jokes on the Internet. All of them were aimed at getting more users to set themselves a dangerous date of January 1, 1970. Which led to a massive panic among iPhone users.
What is the "terrible power" of January 1, 1970?
After users followed the step-by-step instructions to set the specified date and time, the phone had to be rebooted. After that, the coveted apple popped up on the screen and … that's it. Further, the phone no longer loaded and gave the impression of a completely out ofbuilding things.
It is worth noting that not everyone immediately began to panic and rushed to the specialists. Those who are good with technology, of course, tried to solve the situation on their own. But the reboot used in such cases (by holding Home and Power) did not give any result. As well as restoring with iTunes. In fact, there are still working methods, and you will learn about them later.
It is curious that this "trick" worked only on new phones that have the A7 processor and subsequent versions. While 32-bit devices remained in their normal state after manipulations. In addition, even some users of gadgets with modern processors have not been affected by this problem either. To which the reason was expressed in Internet communities about the impact of the time zone in which the person is located. However, when testing this version in practice, several situations disproving the theory happened.
Gradually, the number of people who got into this trouble randomly began to fade away, and specialists developed ways that helped return everything “to normal”.
How to solve iPhone problem?
Users searched for solutions to the problem on their own. Among the solutions, one was proposed, which in the end turned out to be the only true and working one. Disconnecting the battery or completely draining the iPhone will reset the date to January 1, 1970.
And if the problem was not solved by full discharge for everyone, then removing the battery helped to100 %. It is important to note that performing the procedure on your own deprived users of the right to free warranty service. By the way, Apple management has been silent about the problem for a long time. And they refused to repair or change devices for free in service centers.
How did Apple react to the problem?
The January 1, 1970 issue was ignored by the company for some time, despite the crowds of users pouring into service centers.
But already on February 15, an appeal appeared on the official website that informed people about the danger of changing the date. The management also recommended that anyone who managed to check the bug on their device should contact support.
Subsequently released iOS 9.3 corrected the mistake. After the update, users could change the dates as much as they wanted, including this ill-fated one. In any case, even after the reboot, the device continued to work normally.
