A 3-year-old locked his brainy father out of his iPad until 2067

[samhexum]

A very smart journalist was locked out of his iPad for nearly a half-century by his 3-year-old kid.

 

“Uh, this looks fake but, alas, it’s our iPad today after 3-year-old tried (repeatedly) to unlock. Ideas?” New Yorker magazine staff writer Evan Osnos posted on Twitter over the weekend, along with a plea for “Ideas?”

 

That caption accompanied a screenshot of his iPad, which showed an onscreen notice that the personal tablet had been disabled for security reasons. The prompt advised Osnos to try again in 25,536,442 minutes. That comes out to 48.59 years, which would indicate Osnos may try and access his iPad again by late 2067.

 

“We’re still locked out,” Osnos told the Daily News by email Monday. “It’s down a few hundred minutes from yesterday, but it looks like we’ve still got 25 million minutes to go. On Twitter, people have suggested various fixes but the consensus seems to be that we’re using an old operating system that won’t let us restart fresh from iTunes. When I get home from work tonight, I’ll give it a try and see what happens.”

 

Canada’s CTV News asked a Toronto-based computer fixer how to solve Osnos’ problem.

 

According to Tom Wolanczyk of Fixt Wireless Repair, this sort of lock-out issue with Apple products happens from time to time. He said that the computer giant’s security systems ask users trying to log in with the wrong password to try again in a given amount of time that increases exponentially with each failed attempt. He recommends going through Apple’s website to completely reset the unit, which could erase data stored in the unit.

 

Osnos won a National Book Prize and was in the running for a Pulitzer for his 2014 book “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China.”

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Total Reset Is Best Move. He should be able do a full restore from his computer after that.

[+ g56whiz]

Total Reset Is Best Move. He should be able do a full restore from his computer after that.

IF he backed up the iPad in the first place. For most folks who aren’t IT pros that’s a big if.

[Guy Fawkes]

iTunes has a "Backup Automatically" option that's prominently displayed. If he didn't click it, he'll have to start from scratch or wait until late 2067.