Microsoft responds to 2016 SMS bug; not just cell phones affected

The saga of the Year 2016 text message bug continues. While there's not an official fix as of yet we, do have a workaround (download here). And we just received an official statement from a Microsoft spokesperson:

“Microsoft is aware of reports that phone messages received after 1/1/2010 may be dated 2016. These reports have not yet resulted in widespread customer inquiries; however, we are working closely with our manufacturing and mobile operator partners to investigate the cause and correct the issue as appropriate.”

So, they're on it. Sort of. Hopefully we'll see an official patch soon.

In other news, just heard that this sort of bug is affecting not just cell phones. Philip tells us:

The bug is also affecting EFTPOS terminals in Australia. Retail stores can't charge transactions to customer's credit cards, because the EFTPOS terminal thinks the data is 2016 and therefore the customer's card is considered expired.

Everybody into the bomb shelters.

Phil Nickinson

Phil is the father of two beautiful girls and is the Dad behind Modern Dad. Before that he spent seven years at the helm of Android Central. Before that he spent a decade in a newsroom of a two-time Pulitzer Prize-finalist newspaper. Before that — well, we don't talk much about those days. Subscribe to the Modern Dad newsletter!