Update: The Guardian notes that the bug also crashes the Apple Watch when you try to reply to a message.
Today news is flying around regarding an iOS bug that causes the Messages app to crash and iPhones to reboot when a certain string of text is received. There isn’t an official fix from Apple yet, but there are a few workarounds and fixes that you can do in the meantime before Apple patches the bug.
Here are a few fixes that users have discovered and sent in:
- —Have the person who sent you the malicious message send another message effectively canceling out the initial strand
- —Alternatively, send yourself a message via Siri, the share sheet, or from your Mac.
- —Another reader notes that “sending a photo to the contact via the Photos app can allow them to access the message history and delete the conversation”
These fixes should do the trick while we await an official fix from Apple in an upcoming software update. An Apple spokesperson already confirmed it’s working on a fix that will deploy in a future update:
“We are aware of an iMessage issue caused by a specific series of unicode characters and we will make a fix available in a software update.”
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NICE:)
BIG DEAL
JERKS!!!!!!!!!1111111
I noted that the bug for me was because the characters were in the notification center, as people send to me via whatsapp, when I turn off the message preview on whatsapp, I became sort of inmune to that message (only on whatsapp), soy maybe a fix for some people could be that or delete all of their notifications.
Also I have friend that now can’t use his iPhone, it just restarts and restarts by itself having no time to change things on the iPhone.
Siri too! I asked Siri last night, “What’s the score on the NBA?”, and it repeat the answer over and over again until I tap the home or sleep buttons…
Tell to your friend to reset the phone (press home and sleep/wake button together untill you see the Apple logo)
Have the person that sent you the original message text you again so you can get into the message app, then delete the original message
Same. Someone sent me a bunch of these messages and its been restarting for over an hour.
YO MAMMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111
so where are the fixes?
Have the person that sent you the original message text you again so you can get into the message app, then delete the original message – I just got mi iphone 5s working
Funny! How do you get to know who sent the message and how will you contact him?
the same thing happened with me a friend played a prank on me and my phone crashed. I managed to find a solution from here and it fixed my problem.
http://stonednerds.com/simple-text-message-can-crash-your-iphones-message-app-heres-how-to-fix-it/
Non of these actually worked for me.. my best method was Siri: “Text myself” then touch the message and go inside to get full control of deleting the message. Going in via the Photos app doesn’t allow you to actually delete the message. Last of all make sure you’ve totally wiped the message clean from all of your other conversations!
These fixes do not apply for the situation where you also sent someone else the malicious text. They must reply to you to fix
Agreed. It works
Rather than them reply you can block the number in messages and go into messages then you can delete the message you sent
For me all it does is just respring the phone and that’s it? I can get on messages absolutely fine afterwards; I don’t need any of these fixes or anything. iPhone 5s iOS 8.3.
Me too iPhone 6
Same here; iPhone 6 plus, iOS 8.4 (beta 3)
I tried everything to get this to work and nothing… iPhone 5s with iOS 8.3. I do have my messages se tup as alerts instead of banner notifications, but even changing it to banners wouldn’t allow the exploit to work. I also tried an iPhone 5c with iOS 8.3 and still couldn’t get it to go.
by removing the “power” line, It’ll become fatal. It’ll keep crashing the messages app…!
I noticed that if you put your phone on Do Not Disturb mode, and also put the sender of the message on DND mode, the message doesn’t affect your phone (:
To stop future crashes I went to notifications center and turned off “Show on Lock Screen” and set “Alert style when unlocked” to none. Still get sound when a message comes in and still have the number showing on the badge app icon.
Meant to say do the above in the messages notification settings.
you need to have the person that sent you the message text you again so you can get into the message app, then delete the message string
Thanks – both options 1 & 2 Worked!
thats nyc keep on
THIS WORKS – If you received it and sent it, you have to have everyone text you back for it to clear..both whomever you sent it to and whoever you sent it to.
the 2 step Solution :
1-put your iPhone date two month forward
2-go to settings > Messages >(under Message History, select keep messages 30 day)
NB: this will fix the problem but will delete all your messages inbox.
Thank you!!!!! I tried every other way that everyone posted and this is the only way I could fix!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!
Try erasing all of the content and settings from your iPhone and then restoring it to the latest backup
a person sent this to me and before my messaging app started crashing i put them on “do not disturb”… it will not let me access the messaging app and it will not let me use siri to text him either
Go into settings, general, date and time
Switch off set automatically
Change date to 30 days + how ever many days old the text message is.
Go into settings, message
Scroll down.
Change Keep Messages to 30 days. You now can access iMessage.
Hope this helps
-Spectre
How Do you fix it if it’s group
Reblogged this on StevenGoodwin and commented:
Good to see that Apple is aware of the bug and will have it fixed soon! If you’ve been hit by the bug, there is a simple fix for it.
Just an FYI, this also works if it is sent from a non-apple device. Sent it to my Android and then to a Hangouts friends session and it crashed his phone.
Go setting
Scroll down to message Turn on Filter unknown senders.
Now go to your messages at the search bar type in any letter.
When you see the name of the person that send you the message delete the name.
And that should do it
Now go back to settings and turn off filter unknown senders.
HOLY FUCK! THANK YOU SO DAMN MUCH!!!
What if we don’t know who sent it?
Absolute fucking legend thank you !!
If the “effective” is removed, its a world of pain. I managed to fix it by removing the contact then in imessage settings enable “filter unknown senders”
my Iphone 5 keeps crashing and turning off, when it reboots it turns straight off?? my friend who sent the text has now texted me many times to try resolve the issue. but it still keeps crashing and turning on and off for a brief second?? HELP
i have exactly the same problem! :( i don’t have enough time to open my phone it just immediately shuts down and restarts, and i also am not able to restore via computer and the restore via the home button and +/- doesn’t solve the problem either :(::::: anyone any suggestions?
My iphone is restarted, and does not give me the time to change something and it restarts again. Help me please!
this happened to me too i don’t know how to fix it
I’ve got a few good laughs out of this. Anybody else get a good laugh in?
Yeah it is worth a good laugh. I remember when the Apple fan mob got up android for having vulnerabilities similar to this. Seems that the Apple ecosystem isn’t immune after all.
joe…always worth a good laugh when peoples livelyhoods are compromised by a little dweeb that has nothing better to do than to swing wildly at that which their little specks of intelligence can never understand. I would love to meet this little entitled individual and help them understand the ramifications of their actions.
Any idea how long untill the fix comes out?
The resolution to the problem, until Apple comes up with a fix, is to turn off Preview and Banners in Messages,
Go to Settings > Notifications > Messages
set “Alert Style” to “none’ and turn off the switch for “Show Previews”.
This will prevent the malicious text from being sent to the screen, which then fails to be able to complete the subroutine, causing a respring that then causes the iPhone to reboot and occasionally crash Messages.
You will still know when you are getting an incoming text from the “ding” [or what ever other noise you have assigned it} and the icon badge showing a new text message has come in… you just won’t see a preview of it.
When Apple gets the fix distributed you can turn the setting back on.
My phone just keeps restarting. It turns on for about half a second then restarts again. I can’t do anything! Please help. I need a solution ASAP.
Hold down the home button and lock button
I have the exact same problem, I haven’t found any good methods on fixing it, but if you hard reboot it (holding lock button and home button simultaneously, it sends it to the home-screen, DO NOT UNLOCK IT, or the phone will start the reboot loop again, just take it somewhere and try to get it fixed, they may tell you to reset your iPhone to factor settings as well, (erasing all apps, music, etc. from the phone) though I have yet to try this do not do it unless assured that it will work, and that you have a backup on your computer. I’ll try to find a solution soon, until then I guess we’re both out of luck. If you find any solutions, e-mail me at unrealpictures68@gmail.com and I’ll try to get back to you.
Okay, so I was able to fix my phone, now, if you want to fix it, you must sync your phone to your iTunes on your computer to keep everything you have on your phone. The reason for this is, that the phone must be restored through your backup. So, If you want this to be done easy, read everything on this link, http://www.ebay.com/gds/How-to-Fix-Constant-Reboot-of-Your-iPhone-5S-5C-5-4S-4-3GS-/10000000178022257/g.html and also to get into DFU mode (Device Firmware Update). Here is a link to a easy way to get your phone into DFU mode, http://www.tenorshare.com/products/reiboot.html and don’t worry, the app is safe to download. So, if all goes well and you follow the directions of the first site, your phone should work.
I still can’t access I message
What do I do
I took my phone to the apple store, I tried all of these and this the only thing that works: Back up your phone, Settings>General>Reset>Erase all content and settings. After your phone is reset and it’s turned on make sure you SET IT UP AS A NEW PHONE. Then you can back it up AFTER that. It’s a pain, but the only thing that actually works!
it really works. the person you sent it to, have them send a picture to you and you’ll be able to delete the message.
heres what i did, i turned imessage off, i changed the date forward to august, and then i went into the message app, and change the message history to 30 days, now when u do this u will be asked if you want to delete all messages, u want to hit yes, after leave settings and go into messages app, u should be able to start sending texts again, log into imessage again and your good to go
My brother sent this message to me and now my messages app just keeps crashing any idea on how to fix this issue? ive tried all the above but no luck thanks
Go setting
Scroll down to message Turn on Filter unknown senders.
Now go to your messages at the search bar type in any letter.
When you see the name of the person that send you the message delete the name.
And that should do it
Now go back to settings and turn off filter unknown senders.
If you go into notes and make a new note then go to the share button down the bottom and send it to who you think sent you the message or too everyone it fixes the problem. It worked for me. Let me know if it helps anyone else
Thanks a ton! I had become bald pulling my hair out of irritation !
Can someone please help me? I noticed that my Message App keeps crashing if the Message appears on the “Preview”-Screen when double tapping the HomeButton. I already send myself several messages but the preview does not refresh. I also restarted my phone but nothing helped. Is there a way to fix that?
You need to call a friend. Instead of answering the call, he need to tap the message button on the call screen. And then pick one of the opportunities e.g. I call you later.
Then you can open the “I call you later” message, and your message app work :)
Your first tip worked. I asked the sender to send the message again and it fixed it.
My son, who sent it to me (both iPhone 6) and messed up my messaging, was able to fix it. Try this: text the person who sent it to you via Siri, and then have them text you back via Siri. It work for us – both phones are fixed. For now…
Get a free app on the Appstore called Battery Doctor. Go to the memory tab in Battery Doctor and boost your memory. Tada, iMessage should now work.
I also have found that if you turn off your imessage notifications it will not crash or restart your ios device.
HOW TO FIX:
Step 1: Select a random phot from your camera roll
Step 2: Click the share button located in the lower left hand corner (a box with an arrow going through the top)
Step 3: Click iMessage and type in the person who send you the stupid code, for a lack of better words.
Step 4: If the solution has not worked by now, try sending the photo to another random contact.
photo*
Does anybody know if this is limited to iMessage only. Would it affect those that have iMessage off?
Tried this + resetting the settings and it does NOT work!
You need to call a friend. Instead of answering the call, he need to tap the message button on the call screen. And then pick one of the opportunities e.g. I call you later.
Then you can open the “I call you later” message, and your message app work :)
Although this didn’t happen to me, despite someone sending the malicious text to me, I see this as a very big deal. As of the time of this post it has been nearly 24 hours since this was widely reported and I’ve yet to hear of a software update that prevents the problem.
I believe I wasn’t affected because I don’t see previews of text messages in my notification center. When the malicious text was sent to me from a family member I didn’t see the contents until I went into the messages app. I was pretty mad that they’d try it. I’m sure a lot of people view it as a simple prank, but I’ve read comments online, including on here, that some people were completely locked out of their messages app by this and had to go through Photos to fix it. Apple needs to get the update out today.
go to settings and change notificstions from “banners” to “none” on all your messaging apps. this has been working for me so far. i have gotten the message a number of times and still no reboot :))
My phone doesn’t seem to crash from it
I found that if you go under settings, then messages, then turn on filter unknown senders, it works again :)
Watch me rebooting five iPhones at the same time using this bug @ https://youtu.be/uxQt0LKSbYo !!!
1) go to settings
2) go to messages
3) set “keep messages” to 30 days
4)set your date 2 months ahead
5) you’re welcome
(all your messages will be deleted so if you have any important messages wait for apple to fix it)
My sons phone got this virus and we went to store and did everything. Called apple spent 2-3 hours on phone they had me plug it to my mac and back up also reset and still not working can not access the text to reply or send a text, keeps crashing. I am so mad at apple support when I called they said they did not know anything about the virus or bug! Now that I read it is through the server not the text app alone I hope my computer will still work.Any suggestions….
i have an iPhone6 running version 8.3. i just learned of the vulnerability. i have found if iMessage is open and i receive the malicious text message, my phone does not restart.
-My fix is to leave iMessage open until there is a software update from Apple.
none of these fixes worked
Okay, so I was hurting pretty bad without my texts, so I found a way out of this pesty bug! Ask Siri to read you your messages, once she reads it, she will read a name you did not see in your inbox, THAT is the person who sent the bug! I messaged that person VIA fb of course and told them to resend me a message. When they resent the new message, I deleted their entire convo. Deleted their number and put FILTER UNKNOWN SENDERS in my messages settings. I have too many jokester friends I tell ya! Hope this helps!
If you send yourself a text message through an iPad or a Mac, it will give you access to your messages app, thus enabling you to delete the message blocking your out of messages
what do you do if none of this works? my friend sent me that and now I’m having panic because nothing works…
I’ve tried all of these and it’s still crashing. Please help!!
Just turn off your iMessage notifications, that the band-aid until Apple comes up with a fix :)
tell your siri to delete the conversation with the person who sent you the bug
I found a temporary fix, turn your phone horizontal!!!
something else that works is to tell your siri to delete the conversation with the person that sent you the bug. or if you have a mac or ipad with the same iMessage, delete it from there and then you can access on your phone.
I found a solution to this night mare.
First change your time to future, lets say 2017! under settings, general, date &time, i did mine to 2017.
Second go to settings, messages, keep messages, change it to 1 year, this will ask you to delete all messages! click yes,
Third press and hold power and home button at the same time until phone turns on. Wait for iphone to turn on. this should fix it. then delete all your messages on the message app.
Hi, my message app crashes, there is no way I can get on it, no method on here seems to work, please help ?!!!!!
Hi, I’ve tried these steps and none of them works..
My message all does close while I try to open it.. Any one got another resolution?
I have the same problem
1. Open a pic in your photo gallery, send yourself that pic from WITHIN the photo gallery. Use the icon in the lower left corner of the pic (make sure you have yourself as a contact in your address book)
2. Swipe down from the top of your home screen. Select the ‘Notifications’ button on the top right, if it’s not already selected. Delete the prank text notification.
3. Go into your text app, which should now open, and delete out the prank text.
That’s what worked for me.
Mine does the same, we have to wait for the next software update which may take a few days
I sent it to myself and none of these are workin for me I completely wiped my phone and restored it from back up and it’s still broken
Apple Exploit Solution(s)
May 28, 2014
By Insinia Team
Earlier, we were attacked with the Apple exploit, which uses this code to abbreviate the text in a banner or notification with an ellipsis. The ellipsis causes the phone to crash and, in some cases, cycle and render the device useless.
Firstly; it’s worth noting that it isn’t just Apple that this exploit works with, it’s almost any device that displays notifications or abbreviations and can’t cope with the result. We’ve so far tested this on iOS and various instances on Android – further research to come.
We had a number of test devices running different versions of iOS and Android and experienced different results each time. We challenged the devices with various strings, and out of 74; only 2 worked. It rendered one of our personal iPhone 6 completely unusable, causing the phone to cycle from on and off, displaying the Apple logo intermitently, whilst offering no way of fixing the phone!
In the last hour INSINIA’s come up with a number of antidotes and defences, which we’ve listed below for your reference. We’ve so far not seen anyone else listing these antidotes, but I’m sure Apple are aware and are coming up with a fix.
Apple have so far not offered any fix (as of 22:30 GMT, 28th May 2015), so please do NOT take their preliminary advice of wiping your device! A number of people we’ve spoken to have taken their device to the Apple store and they’ve wiped it to resolve, but all this is doing is wiping the message cache, as well as pointlessly erasing all of your other data!
It’s unneccessary and there’s no need to wipe or reset your device, only upgrade or restore from iTunes as a last resort. Follow all of the steps below (or as many as you can do) before connecting your device to iTunes.
SOLUTIONS:
IF YOU CANNOT ACCESS YOUR PHONE AT ALL (CYCLING / BRICKED):
1. GET THE SENDER TO SEND YOU ANOTHER TEXT MESSAGE
If the person who sent you the message sends you another message; it should offer a quick and easy fix to the problem.
2. UPDATE / RESTORE YOUR PHONE ON ITUNES
Plug your phone in to iTunes and download the latest software update.
Update your phone through iTunes.
**NOTE that you will have to unlock your phones pin code before it will connect to iTunes if you wish to make a recent back up. This may be difficult if the phone is cycling. Be patient.
IF YOU STILL HAVE ACCESS TO YOUR PHONE:
1. GET THE SENDER TO SEND YOU ANOTHER TEXT MESSAGE
If the person who sent you the message sends you another message; it should offer a quick and easy fix to the problem.
2. USE SIRI TO TEXT YOURSELF
Save your number in your phone as “me”. Then, go to Siri and say “send myself a text message” – enter any message body and tell Siri to send. This will stop you from being locked out of the Messages app.
3. CHANGE YOUR MESSAGE SETTINGS
Go in to Settings > Messages > Filter Unknown Senders and switch ON
Go to the search bar in messages, type the “hackers” name who sent you the malicious message, and delete their message from your phone.
4. CHANGE YOUR NOTIFICATION SETTINGS
Go in to Settings > Notifications > Messages > Allow Notifications and turn OFF
**This will only stop the same attacker from sending you a malicious text repeatedly and will not repair an affected device**
5. CHANGE YOUR DATE AND TIME SETTINGS
Go to Settings > General > Date & Time then change the time to 2 months AHEAD of the date today. Then, go to Settings > Messages go down to Keep Messages > 30 Days. This should erase the malicious text you received.
**NOTE THAT THIS WILL ALSO DELETE ANY OTHER MESSAGES, SO YOU MAY WANT TO BACK UP YOUR PHONE ON ITUNES FIRST**
6. UPDATE YOUR PHONE THROUGH THE SOFTWARE UPDATE
Go to Settings > General > Software Update
7. SEND YOURSELF THE ANTIDOTE
If you find that the above fail, or your Messages app is still crashing then do the following:
Go to Notes and type a note with any message body (any text in the note)
Save the note, go back in to view it, and press the “share” button in the middle at the bottom of the page.
Share the note via iMessage to anyone and everyone who has either sent you the exploit or who you have sent it to.
DEFENSE(S):
1. CHANGE YOUR KEYBOARD SETTINGS
Do not allow your phone to use exotic or foriegn keyboards, and restrict it to use the Apple keyboard only.
2. DISABLE MESSAGE PREVIEW / NOTIFICATIONS
And only open messages from TRUSTED sources!
3. DISABLE ALL OTHER PREVIEWS
Including WhatsApp and any other messaging services.
4. DISABLE UNUSUAL LANGUAGES
Which will stop your phone displaying anything but Latin.
**CURRENTLY ARABIC, CHINESE AND MARATHI ARE VULNERABLE**
5. DO NOT SHOW NOTIFICATIONS ON LOCK SCREEN
Or your device is vulnerable… Even in your pocket!
The message makes my phone to crash and reboot constantly . Make the device useless . It restarts, showing a second screen unlock and then restarts . I cant access the menu . I cant use Siri.
My iphone is restarted, and does not give me the time to change something and it restarts again. Help me please!
what if the person that sent me the email is having the same problem with messaging as i am
None of these fixes worked for me. Nor did any other I found on different cites. So for those still having trouble:
All you have to do is send a text to a number of people so that the strain with whom send you the encryption is no longer visible when looking at your messaging screen.
Then, slowly scroll down and tap on their strain and delete the text from the strain.
You also have to do that for anyone you sent it to afterwords so that the encryption is completely gone.
Thanks! The photo-text option worked for me. Cheers.
But what if i dont know the number?
Me and my fren both cannot open the message, how to fix it ?
Nvm fixed.
Just open the notes from your iPhone and press send it as text message and send to your friend, then your friend’s phone will be able to work.
then ask him to send u any message, then your phone will be fixed as well.
So what can you do if your iphone is resetting so many times the battery goes dead? My daughters phone has been starting and shutting off continuously for an hour now…and forcing a shut down doesn’t work.
go to the photo app and send yourself or anyone a photo through sms via the photoapp and voila your phone’s sms app is back to normal.
I have tried all of these fixes and nothing :( so frustrating! now only will let me open one message from imessage user also and thats it i cant get back into messages app at all! I have Iphone6 IOS 8.4
So the message have been send to me several times, and now my phone keeps restarting over and over. Sometimes I can get on my home page, but then after a second the phone already restarts. What can I do, if my phone doesn’t stay on for more than 3 seconds?
It is really bad, I had the bug sent to me around 20 times and now there is no way to fix it. It shut my Siri down to where my phone wont pick up my voice. So that way of fixing it is out, I even go to notes and send a message to myself and the people that sent the bug, Nothing!!! I have tried to change my message setting to 30 day and 2 minutes, nothing!!! I also reset my entire phone and still nothing. The people that sent the bug have sent me pictures to unlock the bug and again, nothing. Now about three times a day messages will come up and when I scroll down it kicks me off again. Ill go back and click on a message and when I click the message button it kicks off for the second time. Ill click messages again and it starts over and will not connect to the message board. Apple needs to send out a severe update so people stop getting this problem.
Did Work for me !!! With Siri send a Message To yourself ….. Open it when it shows in top of the screen … Go the bug message and erase it !!! It works!
Settings>>general>>date & time >> turnoff the automatically>>set the time 2years later>>exit |||||step 2||||setting>>messages>>keep message>> choose 1year >>delete all messages)) exit ! And problem solve)
My iPhone 6 is now a brick. yesterday I got a blue screen and had to reset it multiple times and it was working fine today, then it just turned off and I cannot reset or turn my phone back on. I received those text messages yesterday and the night before, has anyone has a similar issue? is it related to this glitch? or is it something else?
I’ve tried all information and nothing worked so I reset my phone and now it wont even turn on.. Anything else I can do?
None of these have worked for me… my phone shuts down as soon as it restarts…. can’t access the home screen or anything…. any ideas? Thanks!
Phone has been restarting for about an hour now. I only have twitter installed and never got any text with symbols in it. I’m on ios 8.3/4S with the latest apps(like that matters). The phone stopped rebooting after I flattened it with a full erase. I’m attempted to restore select apps now. Apple needs to get off their ass. The phone went into a persistent loop. Somebody could mass spam the planet and literally take out half the damn cell phone networks.
my iphone keeps rebooting is there a solution any suggestion is welcome
Yes get a Samsung Galaxy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72BXjaAjtl0
FOR ALL PEOPLE HAVING CONSTANT REBOOT:
1 – Click like crazy on the HOLD button while it is rebooting…
Continue clicking after a while even when you can see your welcome screen.
2 – When you finally get to stop the constant rebooting, slide the camera up as if you where going to take a photo. (sometimes it wont let you and you will have to repeat the whole process until you are able to do it)
3 – Now, go to your CAMERA ROLL.
It will now ask you for a password.
Enter your password…..
VOILA!!!!!!
(I sent this effective power text to my wife and she was basically divorcing me so I HAD to find a solution)
hope it helps!!!!!
Thanks so much! I was starting to get nervous, but sending the photo definitely helped. Thanks again!