It’s no surprise that lawyers are considering suing Apple, but this is an interesting case.
People who have iPhones running iOS 9 sometimes see “Error 53” when trying to restore the phone through Apple’s iTunes software after being prompted to connect the device to a computer. The error, which prevents the user from using the device, seems to occur on the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6S, and iPhone 6S Plus after their Touch ID sensors are repaired by unapproved retailers.
I can understand Apple’s reasoning, but perhaps they should have been more proactive in letting people know before they updated.
They shouldn’t throw an error but simply disable TouchID and give a warning.
It sounds like these third-party repair vendors didn’t follow protocols and screwed up the Touch ID connection. Yes, Apple should have been more transparent with customers – like giving them an option to skip the upgrade or disable the sensor if it didn’t check out – but they were probably clear with their own repair techs about how to do this repair correctly. It’s not like Apple was making the sensor irreparable.
I’m fairly certain only Apple has the ability to authenticate a new Touch ID module with an iPhone.
iPhone repairs cost an arm and a leg. Perhaps that is where the authentication problem lies?
Right, so the third-party vendors are at fault for saying they could make the repair in the first place, IMO. In this case the protocol would be to say “Take it to Apple.”
The error message should provide better communication to the user, not just Error 53. You know something like “iOS has detected a security issue with Touch ID. Please visit an authorized Apple repair location. Error 53.”
I’m with Apple on this.
Yep. What I don’t understand is that they don’t do this and seemingly won’t fix it correctly if someone has this happen. I do get that they want to be cautious about allowing TouchID to be tampered with, but some people don’t have Apple stores or Apple certified repair places close by.
True, iPhones need a new battery after just about 1.5 years and all the other repairs are just as expensive.
If the phone had always worked that way, I’d agree. It’s putting extra effort into supporting people who have bought nonstandard parts, but sure.
However, I think the difficulty is at this point that the phones didn’t enforce this before. How do you gently tell the user “Hey! You changed your TouchID sensor, but we forgot to tell you. So you’ve been insecure for months. That’s totally our bad! But now we’re going to disable your TouchID sensor and pretend that just fixes everything.”
Did Apple ever make “Error 53” public knowledge prior to this? I think that’s why lawyers are lining up to sue. Third-party repair places aren’t really gonna be aware of this sort of thing happening until it happens.
One might argue the onus was on Apple to warn an iPhone user that the next update they install will render the thing unusable.
Only 1.5 years battery life is abysmal. Perhaps not using using the camera flash for all those selfies would stretch it to 2 years?
LOL I actually took exactly 3 selfies since I got that phone. But its normal in this region, it gets cold (relatively, below 50°F/10°C for 5-6 months/year). Whenever its under 50F all the iPhones here tend to shut down at 40-60% and come back to life when you’re inside. Its ridiculous…
That is so obvious. If you get a new TouchID sensor put in by an untrusted source, it should simply work as a plain home button.
Everyone has access to Apple certified repairs via courier or postal mail. That is not the issue. The issue is that users didn’t know that the shop down the street that does iPhone repairs while you wait was not actually going to be able to fix their home button.
I think the suggestion is that once an iPhone boots up with a TouchID sensor that it can’t trust, it should not allow that TouchID sensor to work as a TouchID sensor. It should just work as a home button, and when you try to use it for TouchID it should pop up a box that says TouchID is not available. The evidence that your TouchID has not actually been repaired to specification should come immediately after the repair, not after a restore.
Lawyers are only lining up to sue Apple because that’s where the money is. I’m not sure Apple has any obligation to make error codes public since they’re meant for authorized repair technicians to diagnose problems. If they’re authorized, third-party repair places are made aware of this sort of thing.
Another thing to think about… if Apple doesn’t want people making a repair, they don’t make the parts available. So where are these shops getting replacement Touch ID sensors? Probably from other busted or bricked phones. That doesn’t sound kosher.
Sure, but a) you’re not going to send your phone away for days or weeks to get a screen replaced etc if you can take it down the street and b) some of these cases are people in countries like Macedonia, etc – not everyone’s in the US.
Be that as it may, it’s asinine of Apple not to say “Ok, here’s what happened (explains repair and security issue)… send it to us or bring it to an Apple or Apple authorized facility and we’ll fix it right so the error goes away.” Bricking a device and refusing to fix it is over the line and would make even me, someone who’s used Apple products for 30 years, furious.
Oh BS. I live in Seattle where it’s often colder than that and my iPhones have never shut down like that. Then again, I don’t leave them outside….
Of course lawyers aren’t doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, but they typically don’t sue unless they think they can win. And if Apple obfuscated this, there could be a winning lawsuit to be had.
People are free to tear down and repair their lawfully-purchased products, no matter what Apple recommends. And as other articles have stated, Apple could be in violation of US and UK consumer protection laws by writing their software to brick itself without they themselves performing the repair.
It should but considering Apple has hardware separation of the touchID system and the rest of the system, it may actually be impossible.
Its all fine until you hold them in your hand with gloves on for over 10 minutes.
Class action lawyers file cases they can’t win all the time. Last year a case against Apple was thrown out because the lead plaintiffs (only two people!) didn’t meet the parameters of the class in the suit.
Yes, people can do whatever they want to their devices and I contend that bricking the phone is an extreme response, but I don’t think Apple caused the problem. Let’s go to the tried and true car analogy. Say you take your car in for service and the mechanic uses aftermarket parts. If the car doesn’t start afterwards, are you going to blame the manufacturer or the mechanic? This is a simple case of caveat emptor, IMO.
Voiding the warranty is one thing, and I don’t have an issue with that. But to make your analogy more accurate, it’d be more like Volkswagen designed your car to fail because you didn’t see them for the fix. It wouldn’t be because of substandard aftermarket parts– no one is saying these Touch ID modules are faulty. The software simply sees it’s not the original module and intentionally stops functioning because of it. THAT is the dilemma.
Now, whether or not it’s illegal, I can’t say. But I think Apple at least had a moral obligation to spell that out clearly in iPhone documentation.