Face ID won’t work if you get your iPhone 13’s screen replaced by anyone but Apple

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Apple finally relented and let third-party repair shops fix its precious iPhones a couple of years ago, but if you’re buying the iPhone 13 you should know it’ll be more of a pain to fix. The issue? It seems that if anyone but Apple replaces the screen on an iPhone 13, Face ID stops working.

In a video posted to YouTube over the weekend, Phone Repair Guru dove into the tech inside the iPhone 13 Pro, with an ever-popular teardown video. After swapping the logic boards, he said that it didn’t seem Apple had changed anything from the iPhone 12 Pro, but then found he had to revise that and put out another quick video explaining why.

See, it seems that even though there are no memory chips (that he could see) inside the iPhone 13 Pro’s screen, changing the screen stops Face ID from working.

Yes, once the screen has been replaced by anyone but Apple, you’ll get a popup that says “Important Display Message” and “Unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple display.” That message means no access to Face ID, as Apple can’t verify there aren’t any dodgy components between the Face ID sensor and the iPhone.

That means you’ll be shelling out $279 (or more if you have a Pro model) to replace the screen of your iPhone 13 at an Apple Genius Bar. No more getting third-party repair shops to fix the screen for more competitive prices.

Maybe this isn’t the intended outcome for any screen replacement, and Apple will be able to fix the Face ID issue in a future software update. This isn’t the first time Apple has locked out third-party repairers from its devices and the company has been warned by the FTC in the past for the practice.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.