iPhone 18 Pro asks "enter passcode to enable Face ID" frequently

TidBITS Talk
1

Since I got it a couple of weeks ago, my iPhone 18 Pro has been asking me to re-enter my passcode much more frequently than my older iPhone 13 Pro (which was on iOS 18). It seems to be as often as once per day. I think I read about iOS 27.0.1 having a fix for something like that, but I see no difference after updating. Has anyone else seen this? Any suggestions to get it to act as it did in iOS 18?

2

Because the 18 pro changed the Face ID components, particularly putting the camera that reads the infrared dot pattern beneath the screen (if you look very closely, underneath the clock on the top-left there is a fuzziness, as some pixels are missing - that’s where that component now is), some people are reporting the same thing and speculating that this component is what is causing the issue. That infrared camera is literally looking through lit pixels to try to read the pattern.

For me, Face ID is often slower than it was with my 15 pro,13 pro, and iPhone X, and I also find myself having to re-enter my passcode more often than I did before. I’ve noticed nothing different with 27.0.1. That said, it does work most of the time, particularly during daylight and in a well-lit room.

Anecdotally, one person made a post that suggested that when he held the phone level with his face that it was far less reliable than when he held the phone lower - below his chin, so he was looking down at the phone.

I’ve also read that turning on the Face ID feature that supports Face ID while wearing a mask makes it work much more reliably on the 18 Pro models.

3

Just want to add that using Face ID’s “mask mode” can make Face ID less secure because the facial scan only looks at the area around your eyes rather than your entire face.

4

Thanks @ddmiller and @Halfsmoke. I knew about the change in Face ID, but never put 2+2 together. After a long time of “it just works,” I didn’t think it through. I don’t notice any slowness, but I did notice more difficulty in the dark. The past few days have been better, so maybe some changes are being made behind the scenes.