There’s a new character bug affecting iPhones and iPads running iOS 17. If you type the characters "::" in the search field of the App Library, your device will “respring,” meaning it will reset the Springboard and take you back to the Lock Screen. It’s not a full reboot, just a quick reset that only lasts a few seconds.
Typing these characters in the Settings app search bar will crash the app, but doing the same in Spotlight Search doesn’t seem to cause any issues. Interestingly, on devices running iOS 18, typing "::" leads to some strange behavior, like the characters disappearing or the Settings app crashing.
You can actually cause the respring by typing "": followed by any other character, so it’s connected to the first three symbols of a four-character sequence.
Thankfully, this bug is not as severe as past character bugs that spread through Messages, because you have to manually type or paste the characters into a search bar for it to trigger. It doesn’t seem to affect devices through text messaging or other platforms.
Apple is likely to fix this issue in an upcoming iOS update.
