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Simple date bug bricks iPhones and iPads

You've heard about Error 53 bricking iPhones, but here's a way to brick an iPhone or iPad by simply setting it to a specific date.

Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer on Feb. 12, 2016

It seems that it's not just the dreaded Error 53 that can brick your precious iPhone. A new date bug has been uncovered that can also brick iOS devices.

UPDATE: Here's a fix (but it involves removing the battery).

All you have to do is set the date to 1 January 1970, and the device will no longer reboot.

Here's a video showing it in action (so you don't have to!).

ZDNet strongly suggests that you do not attempt this with your iOS device. Short of getting a replacement handset, there is no known fix for this.

There is also concern that devices accessing a public Wi-Fi could be maliciously bricked by a hacker setting up a rogue time server to broadcast the date as 1 January 1970.

The issue affects iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices which have a 64-bit processor and which are running iOS 8 or iOS 9. This means that the following are affected: