Face ID not working on iPhone after iOS 18 update

I tried all the suggestions so far on this thread on my 16 Pro Max and nothing worked! It's very frustrating.

I updated my phone to 18.2.1, and I only get the brackets [ ], no circle. It says "Reposition your face within the frame" and then "Your face is out of view".

When I try to make a portrait selfie the depth doesn't work. I think here is where the issue relies.

Does anyone have any news?

Took me 3 hours to reinstall all apps after returning all to factory settings. 1 day all works fine and this morning hello malfunction Face ID. My unit brand new iPhone 16 pro max all issue appeared after 18.2 iOS.

i got my phone 1st week of October and it was running well on 18.1 after update Face ID got doomed at first, not working at all after so many attempts to bring it to live it’s start working but building up vertical lines sometimes colorful sometimes black it’s goes for few second when u unlocking or use Face ID

Hi

As I have previously put I already did that.

the phone went through all diagnostics and came back fine

i I have reset Face ID around 15 times, done reboots and reset the things too.

has to be a bug somewhere because up until iOS 18 I had NO issues

Did you have any problems before iOS 18.2? Because I have had them since updating to 18.1 (iPhone 16 Pro Max).

I updated it to 18.3 last night and still have issues with FaceID.

[Edited by Moderator]

Hello~ I volunteer here each day to assist people…period. I am deeply offended by your accusation. Do you perhaps have an answer that will prove helpful? If so by all means be our guest….

~Katana-San~

Agreed. We are all just trying to help. Question for you since you’re more active on here than I am:

Any hypothesis on why so many of us are having this issue? Is it that all of our true depth sensors just happened to fail? (And I wonder why?)

Or could there be some kind of driver / software issue or conflict?

To a point you made earlier, if it was a global issue Apple would have some real trouble on their hands. Some with new and old phones on the latest update work fine. Others not working with seemingly no reason.

I’m at a loss. :)

Hello~ I can point out Apple’s articles and provide their contact information. I can also point to how my own device is performing and my Face ID is working just fine. If it weren’t I would be adding my voice to the chorus. I don’t come here to speculate…we can’t do that here per terms. We also aren’t supposed to deride and be rude to others…per terms as well but then we should not have to be told how to treat others. I have drawn great joy from helping many and will continue to try and do so. I don’t have the answer to many things…

~Katana-San~

Hey buddy. Yes I’ve had issues since I first updated from 17.6.1 to iOS 18.0.1. Now I just get the Face ID not available, please try later….

nothing wrong with the hardware on my phone as Apple confirmed all ok.

i may do a diagnostic check myself using my MacBook for it. See what that says.

I am having this same issue. It won’t let me reset my Face ID; keeps telling me to move the phone up and down but still unable to access/add my Face ID. It did this after I updated to 18.3.

i have rebooted my phone multiple times and tried turning things off and on without success for the past couple of days. This is not acceptable after an update. Please help.

So once it was off did you do your Face ID scan again or did you do this toggle off function after your face is was done?

mine is coming up with the error of TrueDepth camera. I tried your trick but it doesn’t unlock. Do I have to reboot my phone after or something?

I got so fed up waiting for apple to fix the bug. I waited almost 2 months. There was nothing wrong with the phone other than the Face ID and random battery power drop. I relented and upgraded my phone which is probably what apple are trying to achieve. So so wrong 😡😡😡😡😡

Absolutely helpful! The only thing is you can’t change old Face ID if u have stolen device protection on as that requires the old Face ID itself but nevertheless setting up an alternative Face ID does the trick

It’s big 2025 and this is still an issue. My iPhone 11 FaceID just stoped working after updating to IOS 18.3.1. Please provide a clear guideline of how to go about this issue. Also, when holding your iPhone, it feels like there’s some sort of radiation coming from the back making it feel like it’s some invisible fire. Even when making phone calls. Or it’s just me

I Own the Iphone Xr and lets me just about set up up face id. But when i tr gc use face id for anyone its keeps failing so i reset my face ids and tried making new ones i wear glasses so i had to make two but neither face ids are working to sign in or let apps download and its getting really annoying