I think everyone has been locked out of their iPhone at one point or another. Before Touch ID and Face ID, many of us just used a passcode, so you know how easy it can be to fat finger your iPhone passcode when you’re in a hurry. Those of us who have children also know the frustration of being locked out of our iPhones as little fingers can wreak havoc.
One mother in China is feeling that very frustration after her 2-year-old continually entered the wrong passcode. The mother had given the child her iPhone to watch videos and when she came to reclaim the device, it was locked out and disabled. When she looked at the screen it contained a message that said, “iPhone is disabled, try again in 25,114,984 minutes” — which equates to 47.78 years. You can watch the news video here.
As a security measure, Apple adds time increments each time the passcode is entered incorrectly. It looks like the child tried enough times to drive that time up to 25,114,984 minutes. The only two options to unlock the phone would be a full factory reset or wait the 47.78 years in order to enter the correct passcode.
“I can’t really wait for 47 years and tell my grandchild it was your father’s mistake,” the Straits Times quotes Lu as saying. Regardless, she’s apparently found herself unable to go through with the factory reset and is now two months into her long wait for the phone to unlock.
It’s interesting that Apple allows the time to compound to such large numbers. Perhaps it would be helpful to allow locked out users to unlock via another trusted device such as an iPad, Mac, PC, or another iPhone. For now, this lady will be waiting for 47 years to unlock her phone. That’s not all bad though, one Apple Store technician in China says they’ve seen phones locked out for over 80 years.
What do you think about getting locked out of a device you own for decades? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”http://wgntv.com/2018/03/09/mom-locked-out-of-iphone-for-47-years-after-letting-2-year-old-play-with-it/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: WGN[/button]
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