iOS 16.1 Face ID not working

If anyone can get it to work for more than a day or two please let us know.

I can reset my phone, sometimes turn it off and on a few times and face ID will reset , however it does not last more than 2 days at most.

very annoying that their is no fix for this .

iOS16.1.1 update causing nothing but trouble. BT connection to car now buggy w calls crackling and barely understandable. Siri randomly dropping. And not able to search the web while in a car by voice even when Focus is off (deleted). The local Apple Store techs were useless.

Same issue here. After update to iOS 16.1 FaceTime just stopped working. Can’t register my face at all, did factory reset and all diagnostics . It’s quite sus because it occurs only on iPhone 13 Pro Max. Apple is not aware of the problem - they support is just replacing devices, and issue persist. Do you think software update could damage hardware of our iPhones?

iphone 13promax IOS 16.1.1. Face ID stopped working right after the software update. Did all the trouble shooting recommended here and by Apple. It wouldn’t fix the problem. Took it into to the Apple Store and they ran a diagnostic. They tried to replace the front camera unit but were unable to and ended up breaking the phone speaker on top. Apple really needs to make these things easier to repair since their own technicians can’t even do it without worrying about ruining the phone. Also, why haven’t we heard from the company on this software issue with FaceID? There are 100s of post in the last few weeks about this from other users reporting the same issue.

Yeah the only thing that worked for me was to replace the phone. It's really weird, I do agree.

If it was really software, it would have been fixed when I reverted from ios 16.1 to Ios 15.x, but it did only, for a while.

If I were a conspiracy theories, I would say it's almost as if they pushed a firmware update to whatever sensor in charge of Face ID (truedepth) and it messed up the sensor or it would not be recognized correctly anymore.

But then again, in my case since it would stop working after reverting to ios 15.x, maybe it was indeed really a hardware problem.

But then again, seems I'm not the only one with the same problem...

So maybe it's a design problem and after a year of use or something the sensor goes bust (?).

It’s hard to know for sure but it seems the software update could indeed be responsible for messing up the sensors causing a hardware problem. The iPhone 14 cameras had that crazy issue where the camera sensor would vibrate very loudly. If you saw those videos on YouTube, you could see how software damaging hardware is very possible. They are replacing my device so hopefully it will be fixed. Fingers crossed

i am having the same issue and local apple IT can’t find a solution as well.

I manage to chance upon a forum and this works for me.

but Face ID is still not stable. But at least I manage to setup and this is definitely not my hardware issue

Workaround For Face ID Not Working iOS 16

Apparently, Face ID will work if you place your iPhone screen down before you pick it up to scan your face!

I do not know what language this screenshot is in, but I assumed it had to do with Face ID options. I turned off the “require attention slider”, and lo and behold. I was able to register my face! I returned to the Face ID options and re-enabled the require attention slider. So far, it is working.

Thank you so much.!

i have the same issue!

but weirdly there is a way to get face id working again...idk how this works..but here goes..

try tapping on the region below the face is area..on the screen knock on the phone like you would on a door...and face id works for me...after a while face id stops for me like every other person..and on tapping on the screen it works again!

I have the exact same problem iPhone 13pro max. But it happened after the update to 16.1.1 .

I can’t even register a new one just like you said it always says go up or down.

I tried resetting the device multiple times nothing helps. So now I’m stuck either the 6 Number code. It’s really annoying.

Same here on 13 pro after 16.1. Most of the time of the day face id is not working and asking for a passcode immediately before even trying to recognize my face, like it's completely off.

Sometimes it starting to work, but for a short period of time. Tried almost everything: alternative appearance, dfu, reset face id, vpn profiles deletion – nothing.

Same issue on my 13 Pro Max, my warranty expired on November 24. Tried to book an appointment for 2 days, but there were too busy. Got one today, sat down with the "Genius" and was told it's a 400$ (Canadian) repair. I was outraged and I think steam was coming out of my ears. First they tried finding a scratch on my front camera, which they couldn't because my phone looks like new. No damage, only mistake I did was updating the phone and it all started then. 1600$ Canadian dollars and they will not fix my phone because I was 3 days late on my warranty. Pretty disapointing.

I tried various forum suggestions, but here was my solution. I registered an "alternate face" with the "Require Attention" turned off. That worked, but only for a while. Then I thought about a suggestion that I make sure the camera lens was clean. When I checked it, I noted that my screen protector was cracked and the crack went through that area (of the lens) - couldn't see the crack until I started to lift my protector off (then I found it looked like the shell of a cracked hard-boiled egg!). I removed it, made sure the lens was clean, registered my face, and put on a new protector. So far everything now works great.

Thanks to all of the other posters with their suggestions for this. Don't know if mine will help, but I hope it does!

Ongoing issue with no permanent fixes out there. Apple needs to admit there is a problem and at least tell us they don’t have a fix yet.

to the people taking their phones in to Apple and it’s out of warranty or there is a defect on your phone trust me when I say there is nothing that can be done don’t let them make you get a new phone for that reason.

We have reset our phones, rebooted, got new replacement phones and the problem goes away for a few hours to a few days if you are lucky.

As much as it pains me to say we just have to be patient and wait for Apple to come out with a permanent fix.I personally just has a defective front camera that caused my Face ID not to work that’s why I got a new phone and the problems are two very separate and distinctive issues.

Don’t let anyone tell you they are related .

Good luck and lots of patience to us all.

It will probably take a big social media personality or a news station to put this out there to get traction and get an acknowledgment from Apple that they are aware and working on it.

This is absolutely scandalous by Apple. Imagine wrecking perfectly functioning phones that are out of warranty by pushing a bad update, whether it was by accident or otherwise. The worst thing about it is that they mark the Face ID camera as bad in non-volatile phone memory, so resetting the phone doesn't help.

They need to fix this, pronto.