PSA: There's a New Character Bug That Can Cause iPhones to Crash

There is a new character bug that can result in a respring on the iPhone or iPad, reports TechCrunch. Typing "":: in the search field after swiping over to the App Library will cause the Springboard to reset, dropping you back at the ‌iPhone‌'s Lock Screen. A respring is not a full reset, and it only takes a few seconds for the ‌iPhone‌ to be functional again.

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Typing the same characters into the Settings app search interface will cause the Settings app to crash, but putting it in a Spotlight search doesn't seem to impact anything. The respring seemed to only happen on devices running iOS 17 when we tested, but putting those characters into a search interface on a device running iOS 18 does result in some odd behavior, such as the characters disappearing and the Settings app crashing.

You can actually type in just "": and any other character to cause the respring to happen, so it's something related to the first three symbols in a four character sequence.

Character bugs have in the past spread though Messages and have allowed users to crash the iPhones of others, but this is a much more insignificant issue because the ‌iPhone‌ owner needs to manually type (or paste) the characters into a search interface. There does not appear to be a way to affect an ‌iPhone‌ through Messages or another texting platform.

It's likely Apple will address the issue with an iOS update in the near future.

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Top Rated Comments

klasma Avatar
18 months ago
Now try typing “""::; DROP TABLE APPS;--”.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PsykX Avatar
18 months ago
Seems random, how do people find these things? Are they just accidental discoveries?
I'm serious, I develop apps as a hobby and I want to become better at finding/fixing bugs.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JosephAW Avatar
18 months ago
What percentage of MR users just went into settings and searched for that to see what happens? :rolleyes:
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
icanhazmac Avatar
18 months ago
In before "You're typing it wrong!" ?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Simon89 Avatar
18 months ago
Doesn’t crash on 18.1
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pdaholic Avatar
18 months ago
Fighting the urge to try this stupid bug and waste 20 seconds of my life for no good reason…fighting…fighting…can’t resist…arrrgh!

*springboard crash*
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)