There’s a nasty bug in iOS that’s crashing your iPhone. Both iOS 17 and iOS 18 are affected. Here’s what you need to know.
This iOS Bug Will Crash Your iPhone: Don’t Try It
There is an annoying bug (error in the software) in iOS on the iPhone. As far as we have been able to test it, the error is present in both iOS 17 and iOS 18. The error is in the search window of the ‘Settings’ app. If you search there for the character string “”:: then the Settings app crashes and you return to the home screen.
In iOS 18, that is annoying, but it is not that bad. Your iPhone does not restart first and you can continue immediately. It is mainly an annoying bug.
But if you have iOS 17, you need to be extra careful. If you type the same code into the App Library search box, the entire iOS crashes. Fortunately, your iPhone will reboot automatically and it will only take a few seconds (on a recent iPhone) before you are back at the home screen. But that makes this software problem in iOS 17 on your iPhone extra annoying.
There is currently no fix for this bug on your iPhone. So keep that in mind when using the search box. Fortunately, the string consists of a few characters that you don’t often put together. Still, it’s strange that such a bug is in the iPhone’s operating system.
It remains to be seen when Apple will release a fix. This could be a small update, which they will release quickly. This can even happen without restarting the iPhone. But Apple can also choose to fix this error (along with a number of other problems) in a larger update. Then it will take a while before this bug is fixed on the iPhone.