iPhone 5 owners urged to update software to continue using device

Apple users who still use the iPhone 5 have been urged by the company to check for a new software update, bearing firmware version number iOS 10.3.4. The new update, which has been rolled out now, should be installed by users of iPhone 5 by November 3rd, following which the seven-year-old iPhone will no longer be able to access a bunch of crucial services, such as accessing the iOS App Store, sending and viewing emails, browsing the internet, accessing iCloud or any other feature that requires the updated date and time stamp to run unless updated. Essentially, if you still use an iPhone 5 and do not install this update, you will be practically frozen out of using your phone for anything good.

The issue at hand is a GPS time rollover issue, which was reported in April 2019. This occurred due to serial logging of weeks, which tipped the existing log in August this year, and if this update is not applied, the date and time logging of any GPS-equipped device may erroneously make a system think that the actual time has gone back to 1999, hence breaking important services. The issue is a bit of a roadblock for any GPS devices and not particular to Apple, and will seemingly occur once every 20 years. However, the extent to which devices are impacted also vary by their software features, and the firmware updates that have already been rolled out to them.

As a result, users of the iPhone 4s, or any iPad up to the 4th generation iPad, will only see the device's GPS functionality being broken, if they do not update their devices with Apple's latest software patch. It is important to note that for any user who may not be able to update their devices by November 3rd for some reason, they can still choose to do so by tethering their iPhone 5 with a PC or Mac, backing it up on the device and updating their devices from there. For those who may not have seen or realised that a new software update is at hand, go to Settings and tap on 'Check for Updates' to ensure that the update is installed.

The Apple iPhone 5 was launched back in September 2012 and is now in its seventh year of the life cycle. Given its age, it is pleasantly surprising to see Apple rolling out occasional maintenance updates even today, and speaks volumes regarding the kind of extended life cycle that an iPhone can still offer. While there is no data at hand to lend exact figures, Apple presumably still has quite a few active iPhone 5 users in the world, for whom this update would be of considerable importance.