Apple, an American multinational tech company, has warned users of old models of iPhones and iPad to update their devices or risk losing access to the internet among others.
The smartphone brand stated that certain devices like the iPhone 5 or iPad 4 among others will be affected by a Global Positioning System (GPS) rollover bug that would cause them to lose GPS functionality, see incorrect times and dates, and have issues with certain apps they run.
This, according to 9to5Mac, includes the App Store, email, web browsing and the storage service iCloud.
The said bug affects gadgets that rely on the GPS for their time and date and had hit a number of other devices on April 6, 2019 — a problem that might reoccur on November 3.
UK SUN reports that iPhone 5 and iPad (4G, WiFi + Cellular) devices would need to be updated to at least iOS 10.3.4 while iPhone 4S, iPad mini (1st generation, WiFi + Cellular), iPad 2 WiFi + Cellular (CDMA models only) and iPad (3G, WiFi + Cellular) should be notched up to at least iOS 9.3.6 to avoid the bug.
“It’s especially important to update your device’s software before November 3 to make sure that its GPS, date and time continue to work properly,” Apple warned.
“If you don’t update to the newest version of iOS available for your device before November 3, some models might not be able to maintain an accurate GPS position. And functions that rely on the correct date and time – such as syncing with iCloud and fetching email – might not work.”
According to DailyMail, the GPS rollover, which happens once every 19 years, had seen Apple push out a bug fix to stop devices’ location services and clocks from “becoming confused” in a manner that only applied to software iOS 10.3.4 and iOS 9.3.6 and later.
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