iPhone 6 error 53 fingerprint sensor incident
Contents6
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When switching from iOS major version 8 to 9, iPhone 6 users, who chose to replace their fingerprint sensor with another one before the update, had their phones bricked[1].
Background
Apple is known for its anti-consumer practices regarding repairability, including a more recent "Unknown Part"[2] notification in the "Settings" App, that is inserted on newer devices, when detecting a battery that was installed, not using means only available to their own official repair facilities. The incident discussed here ranks into just another incident, which was interpreted as deliberate practice when it originally happened
The fingerprint sensor incident
Upon updating from iOS 8 to 9, with a not-originally-built-in fingerprint sensor installed, the iPhone 6 would be "permanently disabled"[1], even if it worked perfectly fine before the update and with said fingerprint sensor. After a "fix" of the issue, offered by Apple, the phone's fingerprint sensor was disabled.
Apple's response
At 2:19 p.m. ET on 2/18/2016, Apple has responded to a request from TechCrunch with this statement: "This was designed to be a factory test and was not intended to affect customers,"[3]. The issue of the phone being unusable was fixed later[4], however the fingerprint sensor was disabled by said fix.
Lawsuit
None are known of to the original author of this article.
Consumer response
Consumers were very annoyed[5] and had to spend their costly time and money to have a phone repaired at an additional cost for the fingerprint sensor to function again, which they did not foresee to pay. Essentially, after being robbed of an advertised functionality, they had to pay the perpetrator to get that functionality back.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Miles, Brignall (2016-02-05). "'Error 53' fury mounts as Apple software update threatens to kill your iPhone 6". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
- ↑ @ambrose194 (2022-12-17). "I have a non-Apple approved battery installed in my iPhone". Apple Community.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: url-status (link)(Archived) - ↑ Panzarino, Matthew (2016-02-18). "Apple Apologizes And Updates iOS To Restore iPhones Disabled By Error 53". Tech Crunch.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)(Archived) - ↑ Wiens, Kyle (2016-02-18). "Confirmed: Apple's Error 53 Fix Works". iFixit. Archived from the original on 2020-04-20. Retrieved 2025-07-16.
- ↑ @Sathieskanth (2016-02-16). "iPhone 6 fingerprint error 53". Apple Community.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)(Archived)