A recently discovered bug in iOS 17 is causing some iPhones to unexpectedly reset when certain characters are typed into the App Library's search field. The issue, known as a "respring," is not as severe as a full system reboot but is enough to knock an iPhone back into its Lock Screen.
The bug occurs when users swipe to the App Library and type "": (two quotation marks, followed by a colon) into the search field followed by any other alphabetical character. As soon as these characters are entered, the iPhone's Springboard — essentially the interface that manages the Home Screen and apps — suddenly resets, dropping the user back to the Lock Screen. Fortunately, this behavior only lasts a few seconds, and the device quickly returns to normal minus any lasting effects.
Interestingly, this issue doesn't seem limited to the App Library. Typing the same sequence into the search bar within the Settings app causes the app to crash instantly. However, performing the same action in a Spotlight search doesn’t appear to cause any problems, suggesting that the bug is somewhat contained to specific areas of the operating system.
The bug also varies depending on the iOS version. In iOS 17, the respring happens reliably. But in iOS 18, which developers and public beta users are currently testing, the characters might disappear after being typed, and the Settings app may crash, but the device doesn't perform a full respring.
This isn't the first time that specific character sequences have caused problems on iPhones. In the past, similar bugs were able to crash devices through the Messages app, often spreading quickly as users sent the problematic characters to each other as a prank.
Thankfully, the current issue is less serious since it requires the user to manually input the characters into a search field rather than being triggered by a received message. Apple is surely aware of the issue and is likely to address it in an upcoming iOS update.
