WARNING: Setting Your iPhone's Date to January 1, 1970 Will Brick Your Device!! [Video]

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Posted February 11, 2016 at 10:06pm by Shalom Levytam

Setting the date of your iPhone to January 1st, 1970 will brick your device, according to users across the web and confirmed by iClarified. The bug will affect any 64-bit iOS device that is powered by the A7, A8, A8X, A9, and A9X. 32-bit iOS devices are reportedly not affected by this issue.

Once your date has been set to January 1st, 1970, the bug will prevent your iOS device from booting. Due to the limited scroller, the date needs to be set back multiple times until it reaches the year 1970. Since a DFU or recovery mode restore will not unbrick your device, we strongly recommend that you do not try to test this bug. Users report that while a restore may succeed, the device will still fail to boot after the restore.

So far it seems the only way to fix this issue is through a physical repair by Apple's Genius Bar. In order to reset the date, you must physically disconnect the battery from the logic board and reconnect it back. The bug is suspected to be related to the UNIX timestamp epoch. Due to time-zone settings, the date is causing a bit-underflow, which crashes the kernel.

Hopefully Apple will release a software update that fixes this and unbricks any devices impacted by this bug.

Take a look at the video below and please follow iClarified on Twitter, Facebook, or RSS for updates.

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Anonymous5220 - February 19, 2016 at 8:01am

Also possible to force a reset through the headphone port by sending garbage data up the video input pin. :-)

moussa tohme - February 13, 2016 at 8:17am

remove the battery for 5 min will resolve the problem

whocarez - February 13, 2016 at 1:52am

sounds like an exploit to me

SteveJ - February 13, 2016 at 12:01am

No thanks Apple, I can disconnect the battery myself.

Owen_Genius - February 12, 2016 at 7:12pm

Easy fix, I did mine today because I friend tricked me into doing it, i tried EVERYTHING! I went into my iPhone and disconnected the battery on the right hand side of the device and reconnected it, I then updated it and it came on. Simple.

Carlie - February 12, 2016 at 7:30pm

I guess he/she is not really your friend then.

Ron85 - February 12, 2016 at 6:50pm

I work at Apple as a software developer. The truth of the matter for all recent bugs attributed to recent hiring of Ex Android devs.

aligfx - February 12, 2016 at 5:09pm

or just don't set it to that time because it doesn't make sense at all! .. dumb bug and dumb attempt sorry!

Mert brg - February 12, 2016 at 4:53pm

Fixed mine! Put your device in recovery mode. Then shift+update (alt+update for mac) to 9.2.1. Then put in dfu mode and restore your device. Eject your simcard. It'll take 30-45 mins to boot after restore process (idk why) And profit!

King vinay - February 12, 2016 at 4:52pm

What is with Apple? Please improve your software; many bugs. Apple is upsetting its fans with software glitches.

Pocky777ab - February 12, 2016 at 4:35pm

People here are so gullible. This does not brick your phone. I just tried it. iPhone 6s 64 here. Restarted without issues.

Dylan Hall - February 12, 2016 at 4:05pm

So as dumb as I feel about doing this, the solution that I found was letting your phone die, I had managed to rest it and that did not fix the problem but when I let my phone die and turned it back on all I had to do was set it up. I set up as new I phone because I was unsure if the settings would be the same on old account but would be worth knowing

@A7medELseUOFE - February 12, 2016 at 12:59pm

the solution : just take out the battery and but it back again the phone work with no signal and you have to set time and date right . work 100%

anon430 - February 12, 2016 at 12:18pm

someone started sharing an image on facebook that told people that if you change the date on your iphone to january 1st 1970 and reboot your phone it'll boot up with the original macintosh logo instead of the modern apple logo. A cruel prank that a bunch of people apparently fell for.

Noman - February 12, 2016 at 12:04pm

Has anyone tried to completely drain the battery to fix this? If it is just a matter of battery power for the RTC on the logic board, finding a way to drain the battery (probably with repeated attempts to boot) to the point that plugging it in is required for a boot attempt could POSSIBLY reset the clock.

fizdog - February 12, 2016 at 5:38am

Failed to mention the closest Apple Store is 30 mins away.

me_salman148 - February 12, 2016 at 3:41am

The device will also brick for "19 January 2038" date

Amber2123 - February 12, 2016 at 3:27am

I did this before this arrival was even written basically a little less than an hour after the bug hit the news a friend sent a screen shot of what look liked the apple homepage and saying how it's like a blast to the past and to change the date in your phone to that. Little did I know. It was a meme. Now it is permentiy bricked. And I will be making a trip to the Apple Store tomm. Maybe somehow Apple has taken care of the issue now that it's viral. But as for me It happen before there was a solution. I was on chat with apple support for 2 hours. And I had to send them the link because one of the two people that helped me didn't know what I was talking about.

joshWUa - February 11, 2016 at 11:57pm

Didn't happen to me

Gh105 - February 11, 2016 at 10:41pm

Try it. Does not brick. I just did. Another article to get more viewership.

gamerscul9870 - February 11, 2016 at 10:42pm

Even resetting it?

Gh105 - February 11, 2016 at 11:04pm

Yes rebooted. No issues.

stevenlacross - February 12, 2016 at 2:06pm

Is your phone a 5s 6 or 6s or 6 plus or 6s plus?

Gh105 - February 12, 2016 at 3:02pm

I know what I a talking about. iPhone 6s 64gb

tmel4198 - February 11, 2016 at 10:21pm

And disconnecting the battery is easy as hell lol

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