Posting an update to its support page, Apple revealed that changing the date to Jan. 1, 1970, on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running an iOS 8 or 9 will shut down your phone once you restart it. The company also announced that a fix will be provided in an upcoming software update.
What began as a bad joke turned out to be a serious iOS bug to which Apple has confirmed. It was discovered on a Reddit thread last week that changing an iOS device's date to May 1970 or earlier can would unlock a secret 1970s theme, reports Forbes. Rather, it will effectively "brick" the device entirely. This means that users won't be able to use their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
The device will just continue to reboot without actually turning on. In fact, even setting the device on Recovery Mode has failed to address the ridiculous bug. However, some users have reported that restoring the device through iTunes can fix it but it has not worked with everyone.
Unfortunately, the bug has affected more users as friends began playing pranks on one another. Customers flooded AppleCare when they triggered the bug in their devices, reports 9To5Mac. Some users were given replacement units while others were turned away.
Although Apple has already acknowledged the bug and has promised to provide a quick fix, the company has failed to explain why the bug has existed in the first place.
Design and Trend tried to identify what might have caused the 1970 bug. According to YouTuber Tom Scott, manually setting the device's date to Jan. 1, 1970 or to May 1, 1970, will cause a negative integer use under Unix Time, the website reports.
The website further explained that Unix Time is the language used by operating systems to represent time. It works by counting the number of seconds that have elapsed since Jan. 1, 1970.
Apple has not provided information exactly how and when the 1970 bug fix will be rolled out to users. They may simply include the fix in the upcoming iOS 9.3 update that's scheduled to be released in March.
Check the explanation of Tom Scott about the 1970 glitch:
