iPhone users are reporting they are receiving ghost emails dated Jan. 1, 1970 that can not be deleted from their mailboxes. The emails themselves are blank, with no content or subject, and are harmless despite being an irritant.
Apple hasn't commented on the bug just yet, but the ghost email glitch likely has something to do with the way unix systems handle date and time. Apple had a similar bug pop up recently, where switching an iPhone’s date and time could brick an iPhone until the device’s battery was physically disconnected and reconnected.
These glitches stem from the way unix devices, such as the iPhone, compute date and time by keeping a running tally of the amount of seconds since Jan. 1, 1970. That means that the ghost emails popping up in iPhone mailboxes are simply emails that have a send date value of zero.
As Cult of Mac reports, this specific glitch has been around for quite some time. If it’s happening to you, the best bet would be to turn your device off and on again, before logging out of your email accounts on your iPhone before logging back in.
