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How To Quickly Fix iPhone 1970 Bug Without Removing Battery

Did you just brick your iPhone by changing iOS date to Jan 1st, 1970? Many people have fell into this trap lately, and bricked their iPhone. It was initially posted by someone in Reddit which claimed to unlock “Apple Retro” theme by changing date to 1st Jan 1970. In this post we will discuss a quick and easy fix to Apple 1970 bug.

What caused this iPhone bug? Seems to be Jan1st 1970 corresponds to Unix Time zero which have caused booting software to calculate into negative time and loop itself.

Many have suggested removing iPhone battery or draining out the complete battery charge so as to reset the iPhone time. It works but takes lot of trouble to unscrew iPhone and disconnect battery. Fortunately their is another easy and quick method of resetting iPhone time and fixing 1970 bug without removing battery. Read further and follow procedure exactly to unbrick your iPhone from 1970 bug.

If you’ve already brick your phone, you might be seeing the white screen with Apple logo and stuck on it.

  1. Install iTunes in your laptop and keep it ready. Plug your data cable to laptop but NOT to iPhone yet.
  2. Now Press on the Power button and home button simultaneously.
  3. After pressing for exactly 10 seconds remove the finger from power button but still press the home button and immediately plug the data cable to laptop.
  4. After holding home button for some more time, you’ll see a message pop out in iTunes that phone has entered recovery mode.iphone_recover_1970bug
  5. Now click restore iPhone in iTunes and wait for phone to to be restored.
  6. Once iPhone is detected in iTunes, configure it as a new device and don’t restore from backup.
  7. Once iPhone boots up, time will be reset and 1970 bug will be removed.

Update: Once iTunes detects iPhone in recovery mode. Configure iPhone as a new device and DON’T RESTORE FROM BACKUP and it will successfully solve this bug.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Daniel February 16, 2016, 8:44 pm

    Thank you! It works, just recovered my iphone!
    Saved from taking to Apple store.

  • Praveen February 16, 2016, 8:51 pm

    Itunes is not connecting for me..It’s restarting every time I press power button and home button…please help me

    • renjith February 16, 2016, 11:23 pm

      You have to precise in timing. When you see black screen immediately release ONLY power button & plug cable into iphone and continue to keep pressing home button till you get message in itunes. It might take two three tries to get it. Best of luck!

  • TOny February 17, 2016, 4:59 am

    it says update or restore which one?

  • Jenna February 17, 2016, 10:49 pm

    My phone happens to disconnect from itunes and it doesnt finish restoring

    • renjith February 18, 2016, 4:25 pm

      Hello Jenna,
      Once you restore from itunes using this method, it will shown an unfilled progress bar for about an hour or so. If you allow the iOS device to sit while connected via USB, it will restart and be back to normal..

  • Lalo October 21, 2016, 2:33 am

    It works for iphone 6s plus?