iFixit confirms report that third-party screen repairs disable iPhone 13 Face ID
It was reported in late September, not too long after the official launch of the iPhone 13, that replacing or even swapping the device’s screen without using Apple themselves or an Authorized Repair Center could cause Face ID to be disabled. Now, iFixit has confirmed these changes and it doesn’t look good for DIYers or smaller third-party repair shops. iFixit claims that a microscope is now needed to complete “one of the most common phone repairs” that could once be done “with hand tools.” They go on to say:
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. 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. This gives Apple the ability to approve or deny each individual repair.
As previously reported, a workaround for the repair is possible, but iFixit describes this method as “sophisticated.” Independent shops would need to move “a soldered chip from the original screen onto the replacement.” Without this, iPhone displays that it’s “unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple display. Apple has updated the device information for this iPhone.”
Apple hasn’t said anything publicly about this issue. Dusten Mahathy, an experienced repair tech, said that a friend inside Apple’s Independent Repair Program was told by Apple support that the issue would be fixed in an iOS update. The only change we’ve seen is that in 15.0, the Face ID feature silently didn’t work, but in the latest version it displays the explicit error message. We reached out to Apple for comment, but they did not reply.