Apple faces a serious iOS problem that completely knocks out your iPhone by typing just 4 letters, which can cause the phone to completely freeze. No one knows what the cause of the fault is, but it is clear that it is an anomaly that can accidentally slow down performance.
iPhones are not prone to experiencing major malfunctions, although this one in particular is very striking for the simple fact that it is very specific and only occurs when typing those 4 letters in two specific places on the phone. Keep this in mind to avoid at all costs that it happens to you by mistake.
The iOS bug and the 4 letters
The person responsible for revealing this iOS problem was a security researcher from the company Mastodon, who discovered that when writing ‘«»::’ in the Spotlight search or in the application library causes that the iPhone is blocked. It also happens when you enter ‘«»:’ followed by any other random character. Many may think this is a joke in bad taste, but the guys at MySmartPrice have seen it first hand and the result will surprise you.
The tests were carried out on an iPhone 14 Pro Max with the iOS 17.6.1 version of the Apple operating system. Now all that is left to do is access the Spotlight search engine or the application library, although during the test the latter was chosen. The 4 characters were entered and suddenly the iPhone screen flickered to black suddenly with a loading icon spinning around. But there is nothing to worry about, wait a few seconds and the phone will come back to its senses and appear on the lock screen as if nothing had happened. The test was then repeated using Spotlight search and the outcome was exactly the same.
Apple says nothing
Apple has not yet commented on the iOS bug that blocks the iPhone. It is not the first problem of this type that the American brand’s phones have faced, although it has always been characterized by take action on the matter quickly and efficiently. Nothing has been said about this specific issue, although it is expected that the company will resolve it sooner rather than later.
It’s also worth noting that other users who have tried this have seen their iPhone completely reboot after being stuck on the home screen. The best thing to do is to avoid typing these characters at all costs. It’s not something you normally type, so it’s totally avoidable, which isn’t a huge drawback for iOS. At most it might serve to scare a friend as a prank, although you’ll have to take responsibility if by some chance it goes wrong and the device is rendered useless, which is unlikely, but not impossible. Our recommendation is to remember these characters in case you do end up typing them by mistake.