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iPhone Disabled For 47 Years After Too Many Failed Passcode Attempts

Apparently, that is an actual FML thing that can happen, but seriously, who would have thought?

Everyone has accidentally disabled their phone for 15 or 30 minutes at one point or another. For some people, perhaps even a little longer. But most people aren't aware of just how long it's actually possible to disable your iPhone, and after this news, we're not sure if even Apple knows; or if they've placed any limit on it at all. 

A mother in shanghai learned this the hard way when she left her phone with her two year old son so he could watch educational videos. The toddler reportedly got locked out of the phone and attempted to log back in incorrectly enough times to lock the phone for 25,113,676 minutes -- the equivalent of 47 years.

And believe it or not, the lady, who goes by Madam Lu, is actually waiting! According to the straights times, she has been waiting for two months.

You may be thinking: "why can’t she just go to the apple store and have this taken care of?" Don’t worry, she’s not so off her rocker that she hasn’t thought of it.

"I can't really wait for 47 years and tell my grandchild it was your father's mistake," she was quoted as saying.

Here’s the kicker: The apple store has no way of fixing the issue other than rebooting her phone, which would mean losing all her files.

Lady, we think the answer is pretty clear. Just reboot the phone and say goodbye to the files.

In the end, we think the craziest part of the story isn’t that the phone can be locked for 47 years, it’s that when it happens, Apple doesn't actually have a way of just fixing the problem.

Time to find an alternate solution, Apple. In the meantime, it’s a big FML for this lady.

By Nadine / Thursday 8 March 2018 16:10 /
FMLNews

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Top comments
By  Madrias  |  36

Here's the thing: Why is it even allowed to rack up more than a 30 day shut-down? Or if the goal is a semi-permanent shut-down, why not tell the end user "Your phone has been locked." instead of locking down for a ridiculous amount of time.

30 days would be more than enough time to lock-down and stop all but the most determined people from breaking into your phone. It would also be enough time to serve as a painful lesson to wait out for those who don't do backups, without actually being a total screw-over.

Send a private message 22 3 Reply
By  Callyn  |  47

Apple being able to unlock any phone whenever would be a huge privacy issue. If they give themselves a backdoor like that, other people are going to get access to it and their phones will no longer be secure. If they implement a feature like that, I will never buy an Apple phone again and they know that a large portion of users feel that way. The answer is to just back up your phone.

Send a private message 18 4 Reply
COMMENTS
By  Callyn  |  47

Apple being able to unlock any phone whenever would be a huge privacy issue. If they give themselves a backdoor like that, other people are going to get access to it and their phones will no longer be secure. If they implement a feature like that, I will never buy an Apple phone again and they know that a large portion of users feel that way. The answer is to just back up your phone.

Send a private message 18 4 Reply
By  mike3775  |  32

How is it Apple’s fault the lady didn’t back up the phone often? I back my phone up every single night when I go to bed, just in case something like this happens, and believe me, with 10 kids, it has happened before.

Send a private message 8 2 Reply
By  Madrias  |  36

Here's the thing: Why is it even allowed to rack up more than a 30 day shut-down? Or if the goal is a semi-permanent shut-down, why not tell the end user "Your phone has been locked." instead of locking down for a ridiculous amount of time.

30 days would be more than enough time to lock-down and stop all but the most determined people from breaking into your phone. It would also be enough time to serve as a painful lesson to wait out for those who don't do backups, without actually being a total screw-over.

Send a private message 22 3 Reply
By  Dave_Davington  |  33

This story is absolute bullshit. You can't lock your phone for 47 years within the space of a few minutes. The first time you lock it, it locks for (as I recall) a couple of minutes or so, then doubles every subsequent time you fail to unlock it. Meaning this toddler would've had to have been playing with the phone for 23.5 years at the very least in order to lock it for this long.

Seriously, this is FML, not Buzzfeed. Can we please ease off on the bullshit clickbait?

Send a private message 6 2 Reply
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  tonyfan00  |  38

You just answered your own problem: Everytime that the kid tried to log back in, the amount of wait time doubled . That doesn't sound like a big deal, so let me put it this way: the first lock out would be, in theory, 15 minutes. The next fail is 30 minutes, the next 60, then 120, 240, 480, 960, 1920, 3840...it adds up really quickly.

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  Dave_Davington  |  33

As I said already, it would take far longer than iPhones have even existed to build up to a 47 year lock. In fact, I fucked up the first time. The second to last lock alone would last 23.5 years. All locks leading up to the 47 year lock would add up to something like 46.9999 years. Not possible, period. Much less by accident in the space of maybe an hour or two at the very very most.

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  Dave_Davington  |  33

Oh, and one more thing. Here's a quote from the original article.

"According to the mother, who posted about her plight on an online forum, the toddler repeatedly attempted to unlock the phone, but with the wrong password.

The woman, who was only identified as Madam Lu, was reported as saying that she has waited for two months so far."

Basically, the one and only primary source for this story is a fucking forum post. That should just say it all.

Send a private message 1 3 Reply
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