Chosen Solution
Hi all, I had my iPhone X ear piece speaker stop working the other day. I bought a replacement Earpiece Speaker and Sensor Assembly for my model phone off of ifixit, and just replaced it today. After swapping it, turning the phone on, I got the message pop up saying “Unavailable to activate face ID on this phone”. I then go into my face ID settings, attempt to set it up, but then get the message “Face ID is not available, try setting up face ID later”. The ear speaker is now working fine, but face ID is not. I opened it back up, verified all the connections are good, re-seated all of them, checked the sensors, made sure they were all clean, no prints or dirt, but still no luck. Could the replacement I got have a bad sensor? Anybody have any other suggestions at all? Thanks!
The Face ID and earpiece assembly is paired to each iPhone, if replaced it will never work again. You need the original one from the original screen transferred over to the new display, then it will work again. If the original one is damaged, then you just have to live without that feature.
@skunkape … typically on any repair that involves removing the screen and accessing the internals, the cause of any new issue that arises after is typically caused by the individual doing the repair. that being said, and being that you have retraced your steps and reseated everything, i would look for damaged flex cables and or connectors. here is a guide specifically for this new issue: How to Fix iPhone X Face ID Not Available
@jostewcrew, thanks for the tips. Even though it was brand new, I did check over the flex cables, and didn’t see any rips or tears on any of them, but I didn’t inspect the connectors. I’ll double check those when I get a chance and see if those seem to have any issue.
I believe when you do a ear speaker replacement Face ID is no longer available. As the original apple ear piece has coding that others don’t have. I’m having this issue myself and hope this helped. Also if anyone has tips I’m desperate.
The Face ID and earpiece assembly is paired to each iPhone, if replaced it will never work again. You need the original one from the original screen transferred over to the new display, then it will work again. If the original one is damaged, then you just have to live without that feature found that on the internet
I know I’m late to the party on this one, but since people are still posting on this thread I would like to clarify a point here. First, yes, if you replace the entire earpiece speaker assembly, you will lose Face ID. As Matt and Ian have pointed out, the flood illuminator that is part of the assembly is paired to the phone so putting one in that isn’t paired will disable Face ID. That being said, the earpiece speaker itself is not paired to the phone and can be replaced without losing Face ID. One caveat here is that it does require soldering; there are two small points on the flex cable that have to be unsoldered and resoldered to the the new speaker. If you have any soldering skills at all, it’s an easy fix. I ran into that situation and wrote up a guide for it for the iPhone X, so I know whereof I speak. So the short story is, with a minimal amount of soldering, the earpiece speaker can be replaced without losing Face ID. Here’s my guide. iPhone X Earpiece Speaker Replacement Without Losing Face ID - iFixit Repair Guide
