After the iPhone 13’s launch in September, it was discovered that Apple was blocking third-party screen repair by disabling Face ID on such units. The company was doing this by pairing the display to a microcontroller on that specific iPhone 13 unit. Unless the replaced display was paired with the microcontroller again, Face ID would stop working on that iPhone 13 unit. Apple was subjected to a lot of criticism for this, as screen replacement is among the most common repairs and the company was unnecessarily making them a lot more complex.

Following all the backlash, Apple has confirmed to The Verge that it will roll out a software update that will ensure Face ID continues to work on iPhone 13 units whose display is repaired from a third-party independent store. The company did not specify when the software update will be rolled out, but presumably, this should be a part of the iOS 15.2 update.

As a workaround to the microcontroller pairing, many small shops were de-soldering the chip and soldering it again on the replacement unit. This made the entire screen replacement process more complex and convoluted than needed. Once Apple rolls out the software update, this won’t be an issue for them as they will be able to replace the displays without having to worry about the microcontroller pairing.