iPhone 13 Face ID Could be Completely Disabled If You Go to an Unauthorized Third-Party Repair | No Payments, Signing in, Animojis, and More

Urian B., Tech Times 05 November 2021, 11:11 am

The Apple iPhone 13 Face ID feature could be completely disabled if you decide to have your phone fixed by an unauthorized third-party repair. If owners opt to repair their phone anywhere aside from the authorized Apple repair services, they could lose the Face ID feature.

Apple Face ID Unlocking Feature

According to the story by PocketNow, Apple is now known to disable Face ID unlocking whenever a screen repair was not made by an Apple Authorized technician or repair shop. The new iPhone 13 series, however, pushes this even further.

There has long been a discussion regarding the "right to repair" being disregarded by Apple as the company is discouraging people from getting their devices repaired through third parties by disabling functions. Now, Apple furthers this movement by completely disabling Face ID unlocking.

Apple iPhone 13 Features Lock

It was noted that suppose a certain third-party repair shop would fix the screen on any of the iPhone 13 series. The Face ID sensor will then stop completely working altogether. It was noted that it wouldn't let the user authorize any form of payment, sign in to an account, unlock the device through using Face ID, send animojis, and more. Check out a more detailed list of Apple "repair traps" and the consequences of getting unauthorized third-party technicians to fix your phone.

iFixit reportedly posted its findings via 9to5Mac on their own website and noted that there will be dark days for fixers that are both DIY and professional. It was said that screen repair is definitely one of the most common fixes that most third-party shops and even Apple do quite regularly, as many people tend to drop their phones.

Both iOS 15 and iOS 15.1 Under New Protocol

However, the new change could put even more pressure on those that are already struggling, like third-party repair shops that are trying to make a living out of repairing phone displays, changing batteries, and offering accessories. If fewer people would trust and bring their own devices into the said stores and decide to get their devices fixed with Apple, this will leave nothing for the rest of the repair stores that are just as good as Apple's qualified technicians.

It was noted that iFixit tried to test the iPhone 13 on both the new iOS 15 as well as iOS 15.1 updates in order to confirm its own findings. It was stated that the new iPhone 13 had completely disabled its own flagship Face ID functionality whenever the technicians would replace its screen.

It was noted that they had confirmed this repeatedly in their labs. This is through testing with a number of different phones on iOS 15 and iOS 15.1. Their results have reportedly been replicated by a number of different repair professionals, as seen on YouTube.

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Written by Urian B.