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iPhones Are Crashing After Playing 3-Second Prank Video

A corrupted video is apparently causing a memory leak forcing a reboot of your iPhone.

 & Matthew Humphries Former Senior Editor

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iPhones are falling victim to a new type of crash bug that renders all of Apple's smartphones unusable after watching a short video. As The Guardian reports, It doesn't seem to matter which model of iPhone you use, watching the video will result in your smartphone grinding to a halt in less than a minute. The older the iPhone, the faster it happens.

Anyone unaware of the crash bug will have no idea what has happened when their phone ceases to respond to input. They watch the video and carry on using the phone as normal. However, after 10 seconds or so the interface will start to become unresponsive and slow. This will get progressively worse until the phone stops responding completely.

The video below shows the crash in action on multiple iPhones:

It is believed the video is able to crash an iPhone due to the way in which iOS media handling functions deal with corrupt video. The slow crash is most likely down to the 3-second video from Chinese video sharing site Miaopai being corrupt, leading to a memory leak, which eventually overwhelms iOS.

If you end up watching the video and crashing your iPhone, don't worry, all that is required is a reboot. On the iPhone 6S or older models, simply hold down the power and home buttons until you see the Apple logo. For the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus the reset process is a little different. Apple's latest iPhones require holding the power and volume buttons down until the logo appears.

I wouldn't recommend searching out this video to watch. For now it may be harmless, but its growing popularity means malicious versions are sure to appear that do far more sinister things than just crashing your iPhone.

About Our Expert

Matthew Humphries

Matthew Humphries

Former Senior Editor

My Experience

I started working at PCMag in November 2016, covering all areas of technology and video game news. Before that I spent nearly 15 years working at Geek.com as a writer and editor. I also spent the first six years after leaving university as a professional game designer working with Disney, Games Workshop, 20th Century Fox, and Vivendi.

I hold two degrees: a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree in Games Development. My first book, Make Your Own Pixel Art, is available from all good book shops.

My Areas of Expertise

  • PC components and system building
  • Raspberry Pi
  • Software development
  • Storage technology
  • Video games and gaming hardware

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