At first, I thought these were occasional errors, as it happened to me sometimes. But very quickly I realised: something was wrong with Face ID on my iPhone 13 Pro Max. All attempts at facial recognition failed, requiring me to constantly enter the unlock code in order to use my phone.
My first reaction was to turn the iPhone off and on again, but the error persisted. So I ran some more checks, including completely resetting Face ID and taking advantage of a pending iOS update to see if it was a system bug fixed with the new version. Bad luck: Face ID on my iPhone was definitely buggy.
Apple’s pandemic measures still have their uses
Given this, my reaction was to request an appointment with a trusted authorized technical service. I had to wait a few days for this, so I resigned myself to using the unlock code…until I noticed there were certain times when unlocking with Face ID worked. As the days passed, I realized two things:
- When it worked, the Apple Watch vibrated along with the unlocked iPhone.
- It never worked for me when I was at home, it always worked for me when I was on the go.
Soon I realized what was happening: I still use public transport, a situation in which it is still compulsory to wear a mask in USA. Turns out when I was wearing the mask, unlocking via Apple Watch has taken over from Face ID and unlocked iPhone automatically.
What did I do as a result? If I didn’t feel like entering the code, I would cover my mouth with my hand to pretend I was wearing a mask. And it worked: the Apple Watch unlocked my iPhone with no problem. Nothing to put the code constantly.
The technician who attended to me at the time of the appointment knew immediately that something was wrong when I told him everything I had checked, so he ran a diagnostic on the iPhone . Bingo: “TrueDepth lens verification failed.” The part had to be replaced.. And it was done, on the spot and at no cost thanks to the guarantee. Lesson learned for future times.