Chosen Solution
Hi! I have an iphone x with face id and selfie camera portrait mode not working. For the moment I don’t know if any of the internal components were changed or not. Here is what I know: face id fails to detect a face during the setup process. Keeps sending the two messages: move iphone a little lower/higherAnimoji works ok thoughFlood illuminator also works as I can see it with an older cameraProximity sensor and autobrightness are functionallyAttention thing works (when picking up the phone it turns display on if it detects any human face)Front camera works (without any blur) aside from the portrait mode (It says move further away and only takes a normal photo)Back camera works ok, portrait mode is functioningPhone has liquid indicator turned red (unfortunately I haven’t saw this before buying it)The phone seems to have been opened up before as the adhesive was loosen whet I opened it up.I have tried to clean the dot projector and the infrared camera along with the lens on the front glass but without luckI have tried also the DFU restore, and every type of resetIphone is running ios 12.3 My question is that if the display is changed without transferring the other components from the glass assembly, will iphone send the faceid unavailable error or it could just never let you setup it like in my case? Has anybody been able to repair an iphone x with these symptoms? Thanks a lot! Update (05/29/2019) Photo taken while trying to set up face id
I have yet been able to find a solution to the problem, but I have found a fairly definitive way to test for the issue. Answer to your first question: If an LCD is changed and you do not swap the components on the LCD, Face ID will error out when you try to set it up. It will also tell you that Face ID failed to initialize when your phone first boots up. To answer your second question there is a lengthy explanation, but I will try to keep it short. I made a compilation of images including using the image provided by iFixit. The iPhone X flex has a proximity sensor (Red circles) and Flood Illuminator (Orange Square) - The second flood illuminator is with the camera assembly, but it won’t turn on until it starts to “record” your face. I have found that the flood illuminator on the flex will not turn on for phones that have an issue with recognizing your face. This is where it will say “move your iphone higher, then move your iPhone lower” over and over again without ever successfully recording your face. You can easily test this issue by using another phones camera to able to see the infared lights. Compare to the image below. Bottom Left - Functional Face ID. You can even see two Purple dots through the LCD, so you don’t have to take apart a phone to test this issue. Bottom Right, only the proximity sensor IR LED is working. Face ID will not work.
I have yet to find a way to fix this issue. If someone else finds a fix, please post!!! 9/13/2021 UPDATEThere are a couple companies that advertise being able to fix this problem, but it looks like a very lengthy and risky process. One company is JC Programmer. You would need to get your hands on the following… https://www.jcprogrammer.com/v1s-4-in-1-...https://www.jcprogrammer.com/jcid-face-i...Or the other company is QianLi in which case you would need to also get similar items. Here is a link to a tutorial video on how to do the repair. It looks pretty extensive.https://youtu.be/cTo8CZRClTw This is assuming you have original parts. This will not work if the serial numbers don’t match (check with 3u tools).
Just turn off the iPhone completely, then turn on again. Go to setup and it should work. Modym02
Mine was doing the same thing. I rebooted and then it set up fine.
Ir camera,Flood illuminator,front camera both are necessarily need from the same like fingerprint . Apple encrypt this all to compatibility for only one iPhone.
Actually the most likely reason is the dot projector. The DP has some kind of active optics in front of the IR/laser chip, water or impact may have damaged them and you may need to find a way to separate the optical block from the silicon part and solder a replacement module on. The chip beneath the DP must stay intact because that part is paired to the phone. This is another kind of microsurgery difficulty level repair. People can do this won’t charge for cheap even in China.
Now I had this issue after replacing lcd and housing only to find out that the pins that connect the lcd ear peace to motherboard weren’t contacting the ear peace and I had to rub out some of the film on the new lcd were the sensor array sits . And the ambient light sensor after about 2 hours of fiddling boom it worked I also lifted the pins more and made shore I reseated the front dot projector and camra and made shore I place the emi sheilds back on correctly and hey presto it fixed it end results were no more higher alittle lower problem all fixed
Troubleshooting iPhone X Face ID Not Working ‘Move iPhone a Little Lower/Higher’ Update (10/08/2020) Here comes the latest dot projector repair technique for Face ID move iPhone a little lower/higher iPhone XS Max Face ID Not Working Fixed - Dot Projector Repair
Face ID parts are complicated and difficult to repair. To fully understand Face ID, you can check below. Why Face ID Not Working After Repair And for a detailed repair process, you need to pinpoint the faulty component first. Whether the flex cable has been ripped-off or relevant component has missing. As for the move iPhone a little lower/higher problem, words are that there is actually a solution in China right now. Just stay tuned!
