Replacing an iPhone 13’s screen with the same exact screen from an identical brand new iPhone gives this error: “Unable to activate Face ID on this iPhone.”Īpple hasn’t said anything publicly about this issue.
We’ve tested it on iOS 15.1, the latest official iPhone software release.
Going forward, the first tool you need is a microscope.” Face ID error message, after replacing the display on an iPhone 13 Pro Max with another original iPhone 13 Pro Max display, on iOS 15.1. “But our industry’s definition of what basic repair is needs to change … this is the new basic. “This IC swap thing, it’s a disaster, and we definitely need to fight it, 100 percent,” said Justin Ashford, a repair shop consultant and popular YouTube repair instructor. Obviously, it’s still an incredibly important part of our business model.” We worked really hard to push that figure down, so that one revenue stream wasn’t such a huge part of what we do. “At one point it was 60 percent, a few years ago. Justin Drake Carroll, CEO and founder of Fruit Fixed, a regional repair chain in Virginia, said that screen replacements were about 35 percent of revenue. And Apple is, with one fell swoop, seemingly cutting the industry off at the knees. Tens of thousands of repair shops around the world support their communities by replacing screens for customers at competitive prices. We’ll go into more detail on that process below, but it’s important to note how completely unprecedented this is. The most sophisticated repair shops have found a workaround, but it’s not a quick, clever hack-it’s physically moving a soldered chip from the original screen onto the replacement. ICorrect shows one procedure for removing the iPhone 13’s display, and verifies that it re-enables Face ID, once transplanted onto a new screen. This gives Apple the ability to approve or deny each individual repair.
Authorized technicians with access to proprietary software, Apple Services Toolkit 2, can make new screens work by logging the repair to Apple’s cloud servers and syncing the serial numbers of the phone and screen. The iPhone 13 is paired to its screen using this small microcontroller, in a condition repair techs often call “serialization.” Apple has not provided a way for owners or independent shops to pair a new screen. Removing the center chip from an iPhone 13 display. And it’s all because of a chip about the size of a Tic-Tac, tucked into the bottom of a screen. It is likely the strongest case yet for right to repair laws. It’s totally new in the iPhone 13, and hard to understand as a security measure, given that the Face ID illuminator is entirely separate from the screen. This unprecedented lockdown is unique to Apple. Small shops could be shuttered, forced to choose between spending thousands on new equipment or losing a major source of income.įor shops that want to survive, their only options will be to join Apple’s onerous IRP network-not an option for shops that value their customers’ privacy-or work past the iPhone’s locks with microsoldering tools and training. It also has huge implications for the professional repair industry, for which Apple is the dominant brand to service. This means you won’t be able to fix your iPhone screen yourself without sacrificing major functionality.
One of the most common phone repairs that could once be done with hand tools now requires a microscope. This is a dark day for fixers, both DIY and professional.
We have confirmed this repeatedly in our lab, testing with many different phones on iOS 15 and 15.1, and our results have been replicated by numerous repair professionals. The new iPhone 13 completely disables its flagship Face ID functionality when you replace its screen. With new changes to the iPhone 13, they may be aiming to shatter the market completely.
9, five days after this post was widely cited in news reports, that it would issue a software update to prevent Face ID’s disabling after screen replacements.Īpple has been chipping away at iPhone repair work outside their control for years now. IFixit’s Taylor Dixon digs into the process of removing the iPhone 13’s Face-ID-saving screen chip, including an interview with The Art of Repair’s Justin Ashford.