Apple iPhone 13 third-party display repair will not break Face ID following update

Published On: November 10, 2021

Highlights

Soon, Face ID will not malfunction after performing a third-party screen repair on an iPhone 13.
Apple is rumoured to push a software update to backtrack this irreparability.
Apple was found to disable or break Face ID when a screen repair was executed on an iPhone 13.

Apple is notorious for making its products difficult to repair especially compact devices such as the iPhone. Over the years this has become increasingly true and influential people of the tech industry has also complained about the same. With the launch of the iPhone 13, Apple had taken its irreparability up a notch by disproving repairs to be carried out by third party workshops and was found to disable important features like Face ID on the iPhone when such a repair was conducted. In a recent report, Apple is backtracking for this misstep and will soon be pushing a software update that would allow third-party repairs on the iPhone 13 display without having to worry about losing Face ID.

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iPhone 13 third-party screen repairs will not affect Face ID…soon

iPhones have not had a glorious past when it comes to repairability and in the case of the iPhone 13, Apple took another step to make the device even more irreparable. Repair specialists and enthusiasts tried their hands-on replacing iPhone 13’s display and found that Apple serial number locks its components rendering certain features unusable after a third-party repair. The most glaring issue of all came out to be a consistent malfunctioning of the FaceID security system. Previously a similar issue was faced when iPhone XSs reportedly lost support for True Tone after a screen replacement.

While complicated workarounds for this FaceID issue included iFixit‘s method of tinkering with the tiny Face ID chip, Apple repair shops adopted a simpler software fix. The Verge later published an article suggesting that the tiny microcontroller can be left untouched while performing a screen replacement with a software update that’s due on Apple’s end. This software update however doesn’t have a confirmed timeline of roll out yet.

This update could come as another step in the right direction after Apple re-introduced usable ports onto the 2021 M1 Pro and M1 Max powered MacBook Pros.