This is the text message that is causing Apple users so many problems:
“Power لُلُصّبُلُلصّبُررً ॣ ॣh ॣ ॣ 冗”
It’s a bug within the Notification System. After a few trials, I found that the phone only resets when the message is received as a drop down notification or in the lock screen.
If the user is viewing their conversations list or is viewing the conversation with the individual who is sending it the phone will not reset.
Your iPhone will shut off. You will restart it and it will start short-cycling the restart process. Then:
– restart the phone by pressing and holding down the home & power button
– keep holding until the screen goes black
– restart the phone again, if it did not already
– once phone starts, delete the offending message
– resist the urge to return the favor of whoever sent it
Apple advises the following to avoid the problem until they update the iOS:
– “Users can avoid the problem by turning off text previews on the lock screen.”
If the user is in another conversation and receives the message (it will be a drop down) it will reset the phone.
If your iPhone is getting bombarded with the new Unicode crash message, do this:
Settings>Notifications>Messages>Show Previews⇒OFF
If you receive the problem text message, send a regular text message back to the user, and you should then be able to view the other text messages.
UPDATE, May 27, 12:45 p.m. ET: Apple said in a statement that it was aware of the issue and would make a fix for the bug available in a software update.
It will be interesting to watch how long it takes Apple to release the fix.