Toddler Disables Dad’s Apple iPad For 48 Years

An American father has revealed that he would have had to wait a staggering 48 years to be able to unlock his Apple iPad tablet.

New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos tweeted the news after his three-year had tried repeatedly to unlock his iPad, and each failed attempt disabled the device for a period of time.

The passcode is one of a number of security features that Apple has built into its devices. In late 2016 it was revealed that British police at Scotland Yard’s cybercrime unit took down a credit card fraud racket by legally ‘mugging’ or ambushing the criminals while they were using their iPhones, in order to get their hands on the device whilst it was unlocked.

Passcode failure

But that doesn’t help when there is a young child involved.

“Uh, this looks fake but, alas, it’s our iPad today after 3-year-old tried (repeatedly) to unlock. Ideas?” tweeted Evan Osnos.

His iPad had been locked for a rather lengthy 25,536,442 minutes, until he would be allowed to enter in the right code and gain access.

Over 25 million minutes essentially works out to be 48.5 years, which would have meant that Osnos or his descendant would have only been able to unlock the iPad in 2067.

Thankfully Osnos was informed of a possible solution.

“Update on toddler-iPad-lock-out: Got it into DFU mode (don’t hold down the sleep/power button too long or you end up in recovery). Now restoring. Thanks to those who shared advice!” he tweeted a couple of days later.

There is no word yet on whether Osnos has managed to successfully unlock his iPad however.

Security measures

The Apple passcode used to unlock the device is not infallible method of securing your mobile device.

In 2016 Apple confirmed it had fixed an issue in its iOS software that could have let anyone hack into a customer’s iPhone by bypassing the lock screen.

That vulnerability allowed access into a locked iPhone without needing to enter a password or TouchID fingerprint scan by using Siri and a Twitter search for contact information such as an email address.

And law enforcement regularly requests Apple and others such as Google to help them unlock mobile devices.

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