There's now a fix for that time-traveling iPhone bug

iPhone 1970 bug

Remember the bug that turned your iPhone into a brick if you tried setting your handset's date back to May 1970 or earlier? After taking about a week to acknowledge the bug, Apple finally has a fix coming down the pike.

The bug would essentially force a reboot if you used the Settings app to change your device's date to any time between January 1, 1970 to May that year, after which any 64-bit iPhone would brick.

Apple last week noted the bug and said that a fix was on the way, but at the time the way to get your iPhone working again was to go to an Apple Store for a replacement handset.

Now, with the new iOS 9.3 beta update released this week, a fix is starting to make its way out.

According to users on the MacRumors forum, the iOS 9.3 beta update should fix bricked iPhones when using iTunes to restore the device and allowing it to boot back up to its original state.

The iOS 9.3 update is only available to developers and public beta testers at the moment, but it should become more widely available in the spring.

The update will also prevent users from actually setting their iPhone's date to a time before January 1, 2001, even if they tried, therefore preventing the bug from causing further mayhem.