iOS 16.1 Face ID not working

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 talked them into doing an express switch around without paying the 99€ fee that would have been left although my phone is still inside Apple care. They said they couldn't do it because it wasn't damaged from a drop or anything but I told them that it was their fault, so they got frustrated and did the switch without me paying the fee.

Yea all I had to do was escalate it to a supervisor…. Let them know about this discussion. Got 3 options Best Buy, exchange via mail or Apple Store. I’m disabled so I couldn’t make it to a store so we did the mail option.

I’ve been to the Apple Store 2X now (highly inconvenient BTW) and the FaceID diagnostics show no issues, ran a full diagnostic on my phone, again, no issues. Agreed to do a full factory reset of my phone, lost countless contacts even though we did a back up prior to taking in and again in store, worked while in store, stopped working about 3 hours later.

The “fix” mentioned to me if the factory reset didn’t work was to replace the front true depth camera but if this is a software issue that won’t fix anything.

Super frustrated!

Ok so after a couple of days, no problem with FaceId anymore with the replacement phone (same model), so it seems my problem was a hardware problem after all...

I am running a pro max 12 on 16.1. Face ID stopped working out of the blue, took it in and got a replacement phone and it worked for a few days and then stopped.

took it to Apple on 11/07 and they did a software reset and suggested I try that, well it’s 11/08 and it’s not working again. No luck with new phone and the software reset.

I showed Apple the screenshot of “Face ID not working” and they were surprised and said they hadn’t seen that issue before?

[Edited by Moderator] 

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?

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

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.

I did read it and understood u did that so did I. Raise some heck and they replaced it. You just have to push back. But it is what it is wasn’t being mean to you. Was just saying how Apple does their customers. Triggered much. U can keep making fun of me I didn’t pay a dime to get mine fixed but I guess I’m wrong… have a merry Christmas and a happy new year

This is same thing is happening to me. After updating to IOS 16.1, my face id worked then completely stopped until I wiped the phone and then when I restore it, it works for a day then stops working completely again and will not allow you to re-add your face. Apple store employee told me to live with it or wipe my phone and do not use backup. When you spent over 10 years setting up your apps and phone, not using backup is not an option. He would not replace my phone after countless hours on the phone with Apple and them telling me to go to store to replace phone. Buying Applecare is useless because they won’t replace it and do not help. I have an iPhone 13 Pro. I have wiped and restored my phone twice and this only works temporarily. I have updated to 16.2 and still not working. I have no screen protector or case covering screen.

Me too — iPhone 13, FaceID quit working a few days after upgrading to iOS 16.3. So I tried upgrading to 16.4 but no fix. I then tried toggling FaceID off then on, no fix. Next morning (today) I was about to clear FaceID and give it new images but weirdly it started working again, sporadically, but solidly for 5 hours now. We’ll see. Btw, phone front camera was/is clean and none of the password required bullets of support.apple.com/en-us/HT208108 applied to my scenario.

I’m having the same problem. Updated to 16.1. Was actually fine for a few days. Now it won’t work. I tried to reset it. Now I can’t even set it up.

iPhone 13 Pro on 16.1.

Interesting. They couldn’t fix mine, so ended up giving me a replacement. Working better so far.

they did ask me about an error message. Mine never gave me one, but testing showed a faulty part.