Beware: Recently Discovered 5-second Video Clip Can Cause Your iPhone to Crash
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iOS 10 users beware: a new video making the rounds is causing devices running the operating system to freeze after it’s been played.
The five-second, MP4 video clip, which was first pointed out by Reddit user ridddle, is corrupted, and seems to generate a loop that causes iPhones with iOS 10 installed to crash and freeze up. The crash takes about 10 seconds to take effect, and users have reported being able to perform tasks while their phones gradually slow down. Once it freezes, the touch display and home button cease working.
The video only seems to cause the problem when it’s sent as a link, like if it’s delivered through iMessage and played through the default iPhone video player. Simply transferring the video file to an iPhone doesn’t seem to cause the smartphone to freeze, The Verge reported. Similarly, Redditor ridddle reported that viewing the clip on sites that process their video files, such as YouTube or Vimeo, doesn’t cause the bug, either.
Luckily, it seems that a simple reboot — holding down the Home button and Sleep/Wake button for 10 continuous seconds — will fix the problem. Afflicted iPhones seem to function normally after being rebooted, so there shouldn’t be any long-term side effects, AppleInsider reported.
Currently, the video only seems to cause devices running iOS 10 to freeze up. The Verge tested several iPhones running iOS 10.1.x and the iOS 10.2 beta, and were able to replicate the glitch.
Apple has had trouble with crash bugs in previous versions of iOS. Last year, there was a specific string of text that could disable the iMessage app. And earlier this year, there was an issue that caused the iOS version of Safari to randomly start crashing. Apple was prompt in releasing patches that fixed both of these problems, and it’s likely that a fix for the video clip glitch will be included in an upcoming patch.
We won’t link to the video here, obviously, but iPhone owners should be cautious when opening links to MP4 videos or shady-looking URLs on their devices — especially if you think your mischievous friends might be attempting to prank you.
