Your iPhone has a new bug, and it could crash it entirely

Vaughn Highfield February 19, 2018

Your iPhone has another new bug, and this time it could trap your device in a bootloop – a continual cycle of restarting but not actually launching into iOS.

Your iPhone has a new bug, and it could crash it entirely

The bug, which Apple is urgently trying to fix, came as part of its latest software update and crashes applications that display a certain character from the south Indian language Telugu. Receiving or typing a message with that character in causes apps to stop.

If the symbol is displayed via a notification, iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, Apple TVs and even some desktops can slip into a bootloop with no end in sight.

There is a solution in the works though. After the glitch was first reported by Indian site Mobile World, Apple has said the problem has been fixed in beta builds of its various OSes. A permanent fix will be rolled out as soon as possible.

In the meantime, it’s worth being careful about receiving messages from unknown sources who may be out to bork your Apple device. When these errors have appeared in the past, they quickly become gags to prank others with.

Apply is advising anyone sent a message with the Telugu letter in to delete the entire message thread. Phones that have fallen into a bootloop may also need to be wiped and restored before they can be used again.

This isn’t the first time a language has crashed Apple’s devices. A similar bug occurred in 2015 with certain Arabic, Marathi and other non-roman languages causing Apple’s devices problems. More recently, iPhone was hit with a “text bomb” message bug and a crippling battery bug too.

Thankfully, the problem may not be all that widespread. In India most of the population uses more affordable Chinese or Indian phones instead of Apple’s expensive devices. Outside of India, those using iPhones and writing in Telugu is, comparatively low so hopefully, Apple can solve the problem without too many issues befalling its users.