“Uh, this looks fake but, alas, it’s our iPad today after 3-year-old tried (repeatedly) to unlock. Ideas?” Evan Osnos, a staff writer for The New Yorker, tweeted on April 6. The photo shows a shot of his Apple device’s lock screen which reads “iPad is disabled” followed by “try again in 25,536,442 minutes.” While some of the comments were joking (like the user who quipped, “Do you still have the receipt for your 3 year old?”), many offered helpful advice for Osnos, from connecting the iPad to iTunes to doing a factory reset to simply taking the device to the nearest Apple store. And apparently, some of those tips were learned from personal experience as it isn’t the first time a parent has been locked out of an iPad or iPhone. There were more than a few people who shared photos of their own devices being disabled by their kids for upwards of 24 million minutes. According to Apple’s website, there’s an easy fix—but it means all of the data on Osnos’ iPad will be deleted. “If you enter the wrong passcode on an iOS device too many times, you’ll be locked out and a message will say that your device is disabled,” the company explains. “Data on the device will no longer be available, and you’ll need to erase your device.”
