iPhone Face ID Failure & What Causes It

Apple’s Face ID is one of the most secure ways of unlocking your phone with un par accuracy, but sometimes it may be unable to scan it properly and here is why

We all know that Apple is considered a pioneer in the world of smart technology and that they are largely responsible for making smart technology available to us. Apple created the blueprint for other tech companies to follow. Apple has since then, continued to be a pioneer of advanced technology and has created more gems like the Airpods. Another advancement that can be credited to Apple is the use of facial recognition technology.

We are all used to typing passcodes, pins, patterns, and our fingerprints as safety mechanisms for our phones, and all of these are of course working perfectly fine and have no faults in them as is, however, Apple decided to push things even further and introduced a facial recognition feature, also known as Face ID. Like the biometric detector, you basically save your face on your phone, and when you try to unlock your phone, you will need to show your face to the camera which will scan your face and then see if it matches the face it has saved in its system, and once it matches, your phone will automatically unlock itself. This is a way to beef up your security because if your phone does not recognize the face, it will either stay locked or require you to enter a security code. This also adds a very futuristic feel and eliminates the need to type when unlocking your phone.

Of course, this technology, like all technology is not perfect and does have its share of issues. Some iPhone users have complained about issues related to the Facial ID feature. We will be covering some of these complaints down below, so if that is something you are interested in, then this is the article for you.

Clearing Background Applications

A common mistake a lot of people make is letting their background apps run forever. Having too many background applications open at once can end up causing a lot of issues in your smartphone in general including slower speeds, slower response times, and then issues with other functions. If you happen to have a lot of background apps running at once, then you should clear them and see if that makes any difference.

You can take this a step further and opt for a soft reset as well to clear your cache and any leftover unnecessary data. You have to hold down your start and volume keys until the power of pop up appears. You will then drag it to the right and wait for a minute. You can then restart your phone and see if the Face ID feature can be used to unlock it.

Configuration Issues

If your Face ID was working perfectly fine until you went ahead and customized the settings yourself, then you most likely have enabled an option that is preventing your iPhone’s Face ID from working. The best thing to do in this situation is to reset all of your settings and switch to default settings once again. If this fixes the problem then you know that the problem was somewhere in your configuration.

Require Attention For Face ID

This is a feature that you will find in your settings. This adds an extra layer of security since the True Depth camera of the iPhone activates itself to make sure that you are paying attention to your iPhone. This also leads to a failure to recognize your face if you are not looking directly at the iPhone camera, if you are wearing colored lenses, or wearing sunglasses. If you have this feature enabled, you can disable it and see if it makes a difference. The Attention Awareness feature can also be turned off to ensure that you do not have to look directly into your iPhone’s camera every time you need it unlocked. If tinkering with these settings does not fix your problem, then the problem probably lies elsewhere.

Updating Your iOS Software

The iPhone X has mainly faced the majority of the issues related to Face ID and the newer models no longer face issues from the manufacturing end. If you happen to have an iPhone X and are facing issues related to the Face ID feature, you should see if you have updated your iOS software since Apple usually fixes these sorts of bugs in their software updates so make sure to update your software. Even if you happen to have a different iPhone model, make sure to update your software because software related issues can also become a cause for issues in other iPhone features.

Correct Setup Procedure

You have to make sure that you are setting up the Face ID feature correctly. To do that you have to be sure to follow the instructions correctly; this includes making sure that the lens of your iPhone’s camera is clean, keeping the phone in portrait mode, making sure to keep a little distance between the camera lens and your face, and making sure that your entire face is visible to the True Camera Lens. If you have followed all of the steps correctly and still notice issues then the problem might be elsewhere.

Manufacturing Fault

In some cases, you have done everything correctly and you still find yourself facing issues with your iPhone’s Face ID. In this circumstance, there is a likelihood that there truly is a problem with your phone on the manufacturing end. If you have tried everything else, then you can assume there might be a manufacturing fault. In this case, you can try to get in touch with Apple’s customer support service and see if they get back to you. If you happen to have an actual Apple resource center near your location, then you can take your iPhone to the resource center and have one of the experts look at it and then tell you whether or not it is an issue on the manufacturing end or if something else might be causing the problem here.