A bricked phone can be a nightmare for iPhone owners. Smartphones can be bricked intentionally as well as accidentally by owners themselves, and there are many methods iPhone owners should be way of.
Here are some of the ways in which an iPhone gets bricked.
Crashing Link
iPhone owners should refrain from opening crashsafari[dot]com (not hyperlinked for the security of iPhone owners) if they receive it as a link. If the link is clicked, it generates a string of text that is designed to overload Apple's Safari browser.
The link fills the address bar faster than an iPhone can process it, affecting the phone's memory system and heating up the device. After roughly 20 seconds the phone shuts off and reboots.
Date Bug
Not many iPhone owners would have thought that setting a date in the past can brick their device. Many iPhone users have complained and iClarified has confirmed that setting the date of an iPhone to Jan. 1, 1970, can brick the smartphone.
The bug affects all 64-bit iOS devices powered by Apple's A7, A8, A8X, A9 and A9X processors. However, 32-bit iOS devices are not affected by this issue.
"Connecting the device to iTunes and restoring the device to factory defaults will not put the device back in working order. Instead, a physical repair is required," says a Reddit user. "When connected to public Wi-Fi, iPhone calibrates its time settings with an NTP server. Theoretically, attackers can send malicious NTP requests to adjust every iPhone's time settings to Jan. 1, 1970, hence brick every iPhone connected to the same network."
Error 53
Many iPhone users have complained that Error 53 has left their expensive smartphones useless. The error mainly occurs on the iPhone 6 if the handset's home button is modified or repaired by a third party. When the device is switched on, it fails the security checks that are related to Touch ID and disables all features connected to Touch ID.
Error 53 can also occur when the iPhone is damaged but the owner continues to use it. When the owner of the damaged iPhone updates or restores iOS, then the mobile phone's internal hardware checks will trigger an unrecoverable loop into "Recovery Mode" and all attempts of restoring the device through iTunes PC software will result in the Error 53 message.
Antonio Olmos, a freelance photographer, says that in September 2015 he was in the Balkans covering the refugee crisis. He accidentally dropped his iPhone and had to get it fixed at a local shop as there were no Apple stores around. The screen and the home button of the iPhone were repaired and then the phone worked fine.
However, when Olmos received the notification to upgrade his software and he accepted, he received the Error 53 message within seconds of the update.
Apple is aware of the issue but has not issued a fix for the problem.
"The whole thing is extraordinary. How can a company deliberately make their own products useless with an upgrade and not warn their own customers about it?" says Olmos. "Outside of the big industrialized nations, Apple stores are few and far between, and damaged phones can only be brought back to life by small third-party repairers."
iPhones include a number of security features for a pleasant user experience. However, owners should also keep themselves up to date for ensuring the safety of their mobile phone.
Photo: John Karakatsanis | Flickr
