Chinese five-second video crashes all iPhones and iPads

A video from a Chinese user on a movie site causes iOS devices to crash. It is still unknown why this happens. It is believed to be a flaw in the way iOS handles videos.

When users play the video of a few seconds, the phone initially continues to work for another fifteen seconds, after which the interface suddenly freezes. Force restarting the phone by pressing the Home button and Power button on older models and Volume Down and Power button on iPhone 7 phones will make the device work again.

It concerns a video by user Heroong on the Chinese video network Miaopai, in which an unrecognizable person throws up a card. It appears to be an accident as other videos from this user have no problems playing. Supposedly due to a flaw in the way iOS decodes videos, the mp4 file forces a memory leak, causing the phone to stop functioning after some time.

Heroong posted the video on October 2, after which someone responded to his video after two weeks that his phone no longer worked after playing it. The Swiss site Watson was also the first to notice it, which is now about two weeks ago. The video started circulating in Western media after EverythingApplePro, known for its lockscreen bypass videos, included it without credit in a publication with a link to a mirror on Russia’s vk.com.