iOS 7.0.6 Bricks iPhones, but There’s a Fix

Following the release of iOS 7.0.6 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch last week, a growing forum thread on Apple Support Communities started to reveal an anomaly: the firmware update bricked users’ devices.

iPhone 5s users in particular seem to be the most affected by the so-called bricking issue, but it seems there’s an easy fix. Simply resetting the device by holding down the Home and Power buttons for 10 seconds seems to do the trick. Apparently, some handsets will fail to reboot after installing the new firmware, leaving users with a device that won’t power on anymore. However, with the device in “bricked” state, users can simply perform the hard reset and get the thing working again. One customer in particular claims that, because of the update, he is now forced to visit his local Apple retail store and ask for a replacement. It isn’t clear if this user actually knows of the hard-reset fix, as he doesn’t mention trying this method.

“Same here,” user oregonjoe writes on Apple's forums. “My iphone 4s won't turn on or restore. It happened after I had tried to update to 7.0.6. It froze in the middle of the update, so I had to restart, and then awhile later it turned off and hasn't been able to get past apple logo since.” “I tried restoring through itunes, and just kept getting ‘unknown error (9).’ Took it to an Apple store, and to summarize, I have to buy a new phone because I tried to update,” adds oregonjoe. “Thanks, Apple, way to stick it to the customer.” Others managed to fix their problem by restoring their firmware manually through iTunes, but are still disappointed that Apple doesn’t seem to be offering its support for those who are having problems updating their iDevices.

“Just restored through Itunes and now restoring my stuff from my icloud,” writes TragedySherbert. “It's really kind of awful that Apple's own software would do this to people's phones,” he adds. Apple released iOS 7.0.6 – and an adjacent 6.1.6 firmware update for old-generation devices – to patch a severe SSL flaw that affects the way iPhones communicate with servers, failing to protect the user’s identity. The flaw is present in Apple’s desktop software too. OS X 10.9.1 Mavericks has the same bug in its SSL code strings, and the company is yet to deploy OS X 10.9.2 to address the issue. Security researchers have criticized the Cupertino giant for taking the flaw lightly, but a spokesperson for Apple said on Saturday that a software patch would be released “very soon.”

iOS 7.0.6 OTA
Image credits to Apple

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