Most devices these days have protections built-in so that they can be protected against brute-force attacks which attempt to break the lock by trying as many passcode combinations as possible. The device would time out in this instance and ask the user to wait for a certain amount of time before trying again. All of that probably didn’t make sense to a toddler who kept punching in an incorrect password on his dad’s iPad, locking it out for almost half a century.
Journalist Evan Osnos tweeted over the weekend that this three-year-old son had locked out his iPad for 48.5 years after he kept typing in an incorrect password repeatedly. He posted a photo of the disabled iPad’s screen online which told him to try again in 25, 536, 442 minutes. That’s around 48 years.
A follower responded with a screenshot of a text exchange with a friend of theirs who is claimed to be “certified by Apple.” That person said that the father will “never be able to use” the iPad again given that it has now been locked out for almost half a century.
Data on a locked out device will have to be erased if it hasn’t been backed up. Those who have backed it up can restore their data and settings after restoring their device, Apple’s guidelines say. If the data has been backed up, users are advised to connect their device to iTunes and restore it.
Uh, this looks fake but, alas, it’s our iPad today after 3-year-old tried (repeatedly) to unlock. Ideas? pic.twitter.com/5i7ZBxx9rW
— Evan Osnos (@eosnos) April 6, 2019
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