The little one was meant to be watching kids videos but turned on the lock screen instead.
A toddler in China managed to enter the wrong password on the iPhone lock screen enough to block access for almost 48 years. The child continually entered the wrong password on the screen.
The kid had been watching educational videos on the iPhone and had been left unsupervised.
The Shanghai family must now face an iPhone lock out for over 25 million minutes. A South China Morning Post report stated that the two year old was left alone with the smartphone. The toddler accidentally locked the device and repeatedly entered the wrong pass code. An iPhone’s lockout screen will allow for only so many password attempts.
When too many have been entered, the entire device is disabled for a certain length of time. If the individual persists at entering the wrong code, that disabled time continues to increase.
As the toddler persisted at entering the wrong passwords the iPhone lock disabling extended.
“Each time the wrong keys were pressed the phone was disabled for a period of time,” said the media outlet’s report. “The mother returned home one day and when she checked the phone found it had been disabled for 25 million minutes.”
The iPhone onwner brought the device to the nearest Apple Store. There, an Apple Store technician informed her that she could either wait 47 years to unlock the device or do a factory reset. Naturally, the woman decided to have a factory reset done, despite the inconvenience. After all, that is a much smaller inconvenience than having to wait nearly half a century.
“I couldn’t really wait for 47 years and tell my grandchild it was your father’s mistake,” said the smartphone owner.
Though this does sound as though it is an isolated incident, other similar events have happened. For instance, in 2014, another iPhone owner managed to disable their smartphone by entering the wrong password too many times. That phone was locked out for 23 million minutes, which equates to about 45 years. In that case though, that person entered the wrong iPhone lock pass code only five times.
