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A furious row has erupted between technology giant Apple and its consumers as the latest iOS software update allegedly renders all devices from the iPhone 5S model onwards useless if it detects repairs not carried out by the maker.
The problem is known as ‘Error 53’, and it threatens to hamper customer relations and drive them to market competitors at a time when the company is strongly rumoured to be releasing its new four-inch iPhone, dubbed the ‘iPhone 5SE’, and a new iPad Air, on March 18.
As many families know, iPhone screens are easily breakable, but the days of taking a damaged device to the local electronics shop for repair on the cheap look to be over, or at least comes with heavy risk, for the foreseeable future.
The problem lies with the Touch ID home button, introduced on the iPhone 5S, which reads a user’s fingerprints to allow access to the phone without having to manually enter a passcode.
Every Touch ID sensor is paired with a specific iPhone and cannot be used elsewhere. This means that if your Touch ID sensor is replaced (as would happen if you smashed your screen and got it replaced), your iPhone won’t work as intended.
What makes the problem even worse is that the issue is not exclusive to those who have had their phones fixed since the introduction of the latest operating system in September, iOS 9. Even phones replaced long before then can suffer Error 53 once the device has been updated to iOS 9.
Imran Khan, a salesman in Gadget Zone, Gosi Mall, used to repair broken iPhone screens regularly, but now feels compelled to warn customers that they could potentially face disaster if they go through with it.
He said: “Error 53 has been a big problem for both customers and us. Now, when people come with a broken phone I feel obliged to tell them that they should take it to the Apple store across the road because if they’ve already updated to iOS 9, it’s very open to the possibility of malfunction.
“It’s less business and income for the store, but I have a moral obligation to inform people that there’s a chance they could get this error. Obviously, a non-Apple technician like myself repairing a phone screen voids the warranty, so if Error 53 strikes then a customer will have a completely useless phone and all of its photos and data will be irretrievable. Their only other option would be to replace the phone completely. I can’t have that on my shoulders.
“I understand that Apple have incorporated this to prevent stolen phones from being usable, as people would replace the Touch ID button with a different one to bypass the fingerprint security, but to just add it without warning is pretty poor.”
Currently, the only known fix is to replace the phone’s original home button (with the original Touch ID sensor), which is still not 100 per cent guaranteed, and is, of course, not as much a fix but rather keeping a broken screen and putting up with it.
